So these Linda McCartney Red Onion & Rosemary sausages are same amount of protein but about 100kcal per 2 sausages versus maybe 370kcal for 2 regular sausages. It's far less fats & zero cholesterol basically. #Cooking#Food#NewYearResolutions#Veganuary#Vegan#Plantbased@vegan
IceShrimp have fixed their fork with a rewrite of the API to be more compatible. I think the Catodon boffins are considering the same/speaking the shrimp boffins.
@007@ArtBear yes, we intend to import improvements from IceShrimp before our first release, just hadn't time to do that yet. So can you follow a.gup.pe and lemmy groups in iceshrimp?
@panos I did speak to the dev guy at a.gup.e a few weeks ago. I was curious as to why it only really works with Mastodon. Having been told by FF dev that it was not their problem, but a gup.pe implementation issue. I also told him other fedi types can't follow either.
His response was basically "Join our group and we can add it to the list of things to look at". Join as in $s. LOL I didn't think his response was very supportive.
I would swear it did work with Iceshrimp. Maybe I am mistaken.
@007 Ahh, really? During the early days of #Guppe it was working fine for any #Fediverse platform. I'm not sure when it stopped.
It wouldn't be a stretched that it stopped working for the entire Fediverse, except Mastodon, after it went online for almost a month(?). So, that means they intentionally blocked everyone else?
I guess #Chirp, #Kbin, and #Lemmy are the best options now. What's the point of using Guppe groups if it cannot reach the entire Fediverse.
@007@ArtBear What's weird is that for me in some cases it keeps spinning and I never receive things from the group, but in other cases it spins but the content appears in my home timeline.
I haven't tried here in catodon, but in the firefish server I'm in is like that.
The problem seems to be Gup.pe because I haven't found as much as an issue with chirp, friendica forums, and lemmy communities (although it also sometimes fails with those). I do sometimes have issues following kbin magazines, but way less than with gup.pe groups and I also have issues with that from my lemmy account (while I never had any issue joining friendica forums or chirp groups from there. Gup.pe doesn't fully work with lemmy either)
Maybe the keys, the sea animals, and the cat need a feature more compatible with the group category and that can federate because forums/channels do not federate.
@retrobeetism I have a similar experience. #Guppe groups (at least after it went offline for almost a month(?)) rarely works all other #Fediverse platforms (those I've tried). But #Chirp groups, #Friendica forums, #Kbin magazine, and #Lemmy communities, there are rarely any problems.
My brain tells me that the issue is with Guppe platform, since all other similar software works fine. They did something to break interoperability with the rest of the Fediverse, and created its own bubble with Mastodon.
@youronlyone@007@ArtBear Same here. Although I do seldom have trouble joining chirp, lemmy, friendica and kbin "groups" (using group as a category regardless of how each software calls them), it's never as frequent as with gup.pe.
Gup.pe only works with Mastodon, and I do not like mastodon that much.
But, again, I think misskey, firefish/catodon, sharkey, icheshrimp, etc having a federated group feature wouldn't be a bad idea while keeping forums server exclusive. That's a great feature and I've seen people on the lemmy server I'm in talking about the possibility of incorporating it there. Or either by adding level of federation (server only, "bubble", public, etc) to forums/channels as they are now.
@retrobeetism@youronlyone@007@ArtBear Weirdly enough, Guppe groups seem to work, at least partially, from Lemmy. I don't seem to be able to subscribe to any, but the various Lemmy servers I've looked at are hosting Guppe groups, and have off-site posts listed. So, somebody must have been able to subscribe (though the subscriber numbers I'm seeing are all in the single digits).
@Kichae@youronlyone@007@ArtBear For me all the Gup.pe group I'm subscribed from my lemmy account appear as "subscribe pending". I still can see the posts and participate if I search the group in my subscribed community list, but they don't appear in my timeline.
@retrobeetism@youronlyone@007@ArtBear So, I subscribed to bookstodon@a.gup.pe via lemmy.ca, and while it still says "Subscription Pending", the group appears in my subscribed communities list, and I'm receiving content in my post stream from it. I don't know if I'm receiving everything from the group, though, since it doesn't seem that active from Lemmy. I also have no idea if it would receive or boost something from me if I posted to the group.
But I am actively getting some amount of content from the group.
@ArtBear@retrobeetism@youronlyone@007 Oh, absolutely. As it is, I see groups on Mastodon to be little more than noise machines. I don't, personally, see them as compatible with the 'stream of social consciousness' format of microblogs.
The forkeys, in particular, have taught me that microblogs are actually just a threaded, unorganized, open chatroom. They kind of really incredibly suck for slow, organized, or longer-lived discussions or information storage.
Mastodon groups end up being the worst of all worlds because of this.
@Kichae@retrobeetism@youronlyone@007
I have tried to organise a bunch of thoughts threads fun memes photos music cooking and help threads on my Mastodon profile (initially and then more recently as firefish.social cratered) : @ArtBear it is incredibly complex to organise and probably impenetrable to users other than me. I am very intrigued by multiple #Catodon things including:
Blogs.
Link collections.
Forums (which they have some exciting plans for I think, like federation audiences would be super interesting Fedi capability expansion).
Crispy Spiced potatoes.
0.85kg potato. Cube potatoes, splash of tamari or soy sauce, then microwaved 10mins, then coated / tossed with with spices (and optionally nutritional yeast, milled linseed & fenugreek), then air fried on 200 for 15mins, turn + add quartered red onion, then 10mins more airfry for the extra crispy yum.
20minute bean stew.
Reuse microwave pot with spice leftovers, stir spices through frozen peas beans carrots whatever you have really with a tin of chopped tomato, then 10mins microwave, stir + add a tin of mixed beans and tin black beans, then 10mins more microwave.
Sundried Tomato and Jalapeno Sourdough toast, with peanut butter & sprinkle of Togarishi spice.
@vegan@cooking@cooking
Needed a fast snack before making dinner. Super ravenous as fasted until evening, after 60 minutes back day weights plus about 70minutes bike cardio.
Sunflower seed rye bread. Peanut butter (Meridian good brand). Kimchee. Beetroot sauerkraut. Pinch sprinkle of chilli spices and salt. Simple spicy tasty. #snack#vegan#cooking#food#wfpb#plantBased
@vegan@cooking@cooking
✅Frozen berries.
✅Grains (whole grain Oat groats + lentils mix - neutral un-spiced so can be used for savoury or sweet).
🔪Microwave pot for 5 mins.
✅Cold plant milk.
✅Maple syrup.
✅Dash of lemon juice.
✅Sprinkle of crushed nuts (walnut).
Yum!😋#vegan#cooking#food#BearFodder#wfpb#plantBased
@vegan@cooking@cooking
Oats & lentils are really healthy. Oat groats the whole grains are a lot like rice and can easily go either sweet or savoury direction with the mix. It's very handy to sometimes make up a pot. It will fridge for days just fine. You can grab and dollop out a portion from it for a range of meals.
@vegan@cooking@cooking
Oats have some fairly unique positive health properties, plus they're a very flexible ingredient. Making my smoothies rich/creamy by adding, rolled, steelcut, porridge etc oats.
For me it's a quick route to get berries & fruits in, maybe some frozen spinach + hydrate. Plus it's way cheaper to use water + oats to be creamy rather than (plant) milk.
Put smoothie immediately in wide mouth containers, rinse the blender jug, then buzz the blender with water + washing up liquid.
self cleaning = big time saver & blades stay sharper than if they're washed in dishwasher.
If I take the jug + glasses the jug will dry out & be a lot more effort to clean thoroughly. Which reduces my inclination to make it next time. #cooking#food
@vegan@cooking@cooking
I should remember Fenugreek seeds/powder is a really healthy spice with various unique qualities that simply 'healthy eating' do not replace. Muscular health & training, #CardioVascularDisease, #diabetes, hearing, #endothelial function all sorts of benefits.
I can totally blend in the taste by mixing it up with a load of other spices, herbs, chili whatever and making a cooking mix (here is about 3 days worth) with around 5g fenugreek seeds per day. #healthy#cooking#health
@vegan@cooking@cooking@algorithm@nm
So, everyone knows blueberries are healthy right, lots of anti-carcinogens to help us with all the pollution in modern life & food.
Did you know black beans have more antioxidants than blueberries? Kidney beans have more too! garbanzo/chickpeas even higher levels! Lentils are above the lot!
Anyway this salad was yum😋
Lots mixed leaves including arugala/rocket, lambs ear, romaine
Beetroot, carrot, red onion
Lentils, garbanzo
Tofu, kidney beans (I prefer them rinsed if canned)
Fresh cilantro/ coriander
Powdered red chili
Lemon juice
Tamari
Pomegranate balsamic
Tasty dried herb mix I have #Food#cook#vegan#plantbased#wfpb#bearFodder#cooking#salad
@vegan@cooking@cooking
When I don't add the leaves, I can make a big lidded bowl of batch salad that will keep in the fridge for most of a week. Make it different each time with whatever is to hand. Some examples:
✅ soy sauce or tamari
✅ garlic (frozen or fresh pressed)
✅ some frozen chopped herbs (coriander here), or dried
✅ chilli flakes & spices
✅ Tumeric and fresh ground black pepper (in particular that 2combo is potent in med studies)
✅ Lemon juice or apple cider
✅ beans
✅ lentils
✅ Tofu
✅ Cucumber
✅ Peppers
✅ Onion (I like red)
@vegan@cooking@cooking
Those times when I'm prepared in advance with batch salad, grains in fridge are super easy.
9 mins to steam kale=9minute meal because of pre-prep for when hungry/tired/busy.
Kale bags already cut in strips is an easy cheap buy UK. Steam/ microwave with splash water. Dash lemon juice. Optionally Nutritional Yeast Flakes add a cheesy taste. Any greens / cruciferous veg. works fine.
I fairly often keep a pot of grains in the fridge. Make with rice steamer/ instant pot etc. I tend to vary 3 or 4 grain types (eg Black Rice, Quinoa, Oat Groats) keeps it interesting.
Adding to the Kale some reheated Black rice & pre-prepared batch salad.
@vegan@cooking@cooking
So I save a ton of money on making a big multi portion pasta dish by cooking with dried lentils which are cheap (and last pretty much forever in a cupboard) vs mince meat / ground beef or pork.
Meat shrinks, loses a lot of fluid, so you need a lot of it and it's much more expensive in comparison. Lentils actually absorb and expand so you need far less and they are massively cheaper.
I chop & cook some pepper garlic onions adding a little boiling water regularly as needed (kettle or pasta pan) and lots of herbs and spices, then add the lentils and tamari or soy sauce. The lentils hoover up the liquids (don't let them go dry), & also the herbs, spices and tastes making them really flavourful.
@vegan@cooking@cooking
So to finish this lentil base from post above to meal.
(This time it had tempeh in as well from the beginning).
I added more veg and herbs.
Courgettes
Aubergine/Eggplant which cooks down and makes the sauce thick
Broccoli
Another onion roughly cut
3 tins of chopped tomato which will get partially absorbed by the lentils too.
One surprising thing I learned about aubergine/eggplant: you store it just like its relative the tomato, room temperature on the counter, NOT in the refrigerator (where tomatoes go tasteless and eggplant spoils quickly).
When I learned that, I suddenly understood the source of my eggplant troubles.
I tried an interesting experiment for myself.
I had a little #fasting break of 36hrs. It was really surprising how soon hunger turned off once well past the next meal time. When I started eating again it felt more like I was doing it because I should than because I was very motivated to.
Hunger did come back only after eating first large meal, but I ate barely any more than on an average day perhaps.
Workout performance was typical during the fast (chest day + elliptical, cardio day etc) and I managed my normal amount of general activity just fine. I did feel light and quite good overall.
I haven't tried anything like that before, but I might again. I certainly didn't notice any ill effects, I felt good actually. At the minimum it shaves some calories per week and possibly resets your tastebuds.
Recently I've been having an eating quite 'clean' homecooked period which possibly made it easier than more processed etc foods which incline me to snacking or grazing more.
Homemade Hummus, garden chives spicy (fries digging goodness)
Quartered a Kalamata olive loaf for the bun (toasted lightly)
tomato red onion ketchup mustard lettuce
a Gro burger (UK co-op plantbased brand) done in the air fryer resting on top of a portion of thick cut potato fries (chips UK) - the plantburger releases some juices, that go sticky on the fries.... heaven
@vegan@cooking@cooking
Hibiscus tea, highest anti-oxidant content of all the teas, great for blood pressure and has some minor fat blocking benefits too. At least 1 a day is good habits. Can drink at least 1L a day like 6 cups just fine if you want that much.
@ArtBear@vegan@cooking@cooking I drink a lot of hibiscus tea every day, but eventually became allergic. My thought: don't overdo it. A cup or two a day is probably okay.
@Leisureguy@vegan@cooking@cooking
Interesting, sometimes I drink several cups a day everyday for periods, other times I forget about it entirely for weeks.
@vegan@cooking@cooking
Leftover potatoes and mixed bean & veg red curry (made with a little tahini rather than coconut milk).
I was hungry after workout and not wanting to do anything time consuming so I quickly bulked it up with a can of neutral 100% just pumpkin pie filling (i.e. pumpkin mash) that I stirred some apple cider vinegar, tamari and Togarishi spices through. I also added some of the beetroot sauerkraut I have open & then microwaved everything. #cooking#cook#food#vegan#plantbased#WFPB
Oh I spoke the other day about having tried a 36-40hr fast (I didn't time it that precisely).
I said I didn't notice any ill effects, but full disclosure, whilst I didn't feel hangry exactly, towards the end I did fail pretty hard at taking on board some valid criticism plus got really defensive & failed at, be kind.
So despite seeming surprisingly easy to do from a hunger perspective, the fast did seem to mess with logic & empathy somewhat as my observation.
@vegan@cooking@cooking
One of the really nice things that makes #plantBased home cooking is easy you get so much more volume for the calories. You're really full, and weight goes in a good direction.
I should remember to make these again. The home baked bases are these sorta sourdough wholemeal flatbreads / pizza base hyrbid thingies and then lots of different toppings from bean marinara or salsa salads bean pepper onion sweetcorn etc. #cooking#cook#food#vegan#plantbased#WFPB
Steaming mushrooms asparagus peppers & green beans. Making up a bowl of basil & chive dressing. Baking rolls to eat it on. #cooking#cook#food#vegan#plantbased#WFPB
@vegan@cooking@cooking
Leftover baked sweet potatoes. Sliced them up. Made dough bases. Blended chickpeas with spices & nutritional yeast in to a hummus (no need for oil), which I spread thickly across. Toppings were sweet potato cherry tomato red onion and peppers, grilled / baked. The result roasted veg hummus pizzas.
The nutriY hummus baked has a really quite cheesy spicy tasty effect, the veg caramelised for sticky yum and it's massively healthier than pizza while tasting superb as it's own thing. #cooking#cook#food#vegan#plantBased#bearFodder#WFPB
Along with soy / beans foods, fresh herbs & veg often from own gardens, surprisingly little seafoods & fish, and the occasional pork on a feast day celebration a few times a year.
@Leisureguy@vegan@cooking@cooking@vegancooking@wfpb
I got very heavy on a vegan junky diet (for various reasons over a long period). Vegan junk food is super available these days, a far cry from a decade and a half ago.
Recently I've dropped from 330lbs 150kg ish to 200lbs 100kg ish in 4 stages. I haven't calorie counted at all really. Essentially by swapping veganised supermarket foods (which are generally trash whatever fable on the label) for buying ingredients and cooking #WFPB.
6months cooking nearly all #WFPB dropped 30kg ish of it.
6months slightly relaxed food, working out 3 times a week dropped 20kg of it.
6months heavy workouts 7 out of 8 days. but relaxed food. Gained 9kg.
I went back to cooking #WFPB since Christmas already dropped 5.5kg or 12lbs. I certainly can't workout my way to offset the trash foods, no matter how nice a story their packaging spins.
#WFPB works precisely because I don't have to suppress hunger, I'm full and I don't have to weigh and count every single calorie which is unsustainable for me long-term.
I cook almost exclusively without oil. Water, tamari, etc + good pan, airfryer etc.
If I'm going to do something like vegan pizza etc I try to use very sparing amounts of veganized cheese, or skip it entirely and come up with alternatives like above.
It's tasty to have something like guacamole, but I make it with lots of crisp salad veg to bulk it out.
I eat beans & whole grains, veg, fruits and a little nuts & seeds.
Complex carbs, good protein sources from plants, loads of fibre. #cooking#cook#food#vegan#plantBased#bearFodder#WFPB
I find wraps can be a way of getting leaves out of the fridge and eaten, getting some greens / veg in along with some saucy stuff like hummus / salsa + then some falafel or beans or tofu etc.
I really like to vary my teas & rotate between lots of different spiced ones, green / macha tea, black teas, roiboos, ginger, fruit, hibiscus etc.
Keeps me from getting bored of water, and wanting junky stuff. This black tea is really good with all the mulling spices in it, it's a little bit like mincepies. I take it with a little oat milk.
Marinating some tofu, probably for a stir-fry later. I often don't bother marinating and just spice during cooking, but this tofu hit date & needs using up, and I had the rest on some wraps.
@ArtBear@vegan@cooking@wfpb@vegancooking@cooking If you keep on tooting like this, I will almost invite myself to your house. - But only almost, because you obviously show good manners and that is why I will do the same.
@nealcurtis
Sure, here's a closer look. Hibiscus tea is literally dried hibiscus flowers. It's actually a very common ingredient in almost every fruit tea you might buy. Partly because of the tart cherry berry taste, partly of the deep red colour.
It's an incredibly antioxidant rich tea, probably the highest. But variety in everything is best. Drink lots of different teas & mix them up. We haven't researched a fraction of what every different tea does.
#Tea as medicine in nearly every culture, that's probably for a reason.
@ArtBear@vegan@cooking@nealcurtis@wfpb@vegancooking@cooking Also, if you're using herbal supplements or "natural medicine," please inform your pharmacist and doctor of what you're taking. Comfrey tea has been linked to cancers of the liver and lung; St. John's Wort can cause complications if you're taking a prescription med; grapefruit juice can make your medications ineffective.
I started a mug of hibiscus tea steeping.
Rinsed a tin of butter beans under water in a sieve.
Put 2 heaped teaspoons of cacao powder, some vanilla stick, a generous shake of cinnamon (& also below real flavour impact, a quarter teaspoon tumeric, 6 grams fenugreek seeds & maybe 1/8th teaspoon pepper) in to a grinding pot.
2/2 #Recipe
✅Then I put 200g oats into a microwave pot.
✅Added the spices grind from post above & stirred.
✅Add the rinsed butter beans, mashed them with a fork a bit so they broke skins, to take on flavours.
✅Sliced 2 ripe bananas out of their skin.
✅Added 14g milled linseed.
200g dark sweet frozen pitted cherries.
✅Poured over the cup of still hot well steeped hibiscus tea.
✅Added a glug of maple syrup.
🔪Gave everything a good stir.
🔪10mins in a 1000W microwave.
🔪Stir.
🔪Another 10mins.
= a large pot of chocolate vanilla cherry pudding. Tastes much like a big warm filling bowl of chocolate vanilla cherry cake basically, will eat some now some later, great against a cold day when I'm up super early.
@vegan@cooking@cooking@vegancooking@wfpb
I know there was a time I'd have found it weird to put butter beans in that chocolate cherry vanilla dish. If that's you, you could always blend the beans to a smooth paste with the spices before putting them in rather than rough fork mash them.
Legumes are awesome cheap healthy protein antioxidants minerals and fibre.
"a single daily serving of beans is associated with a 38 percent lower risk of heart attack and bean eaters have an 8 percent lower all-cause mortality"
They're also protective against & increase survival rates for things like cancers heavily, some by 40% or more.
As far as fake meats go, the no meat company crispy spicy coated strips is pretty good from the #airfryer. One can certainly health it up a bit more with some bean chilli & wholemeal wraps.
@vegan@cooking@cooking@vegancooking
For me the solution to good intentions salad not lurking in the fridge until past date is often wraps. They are also great as really quick things to make in a rush if hungry / tired.
I did a big outdoor workout session from 7.45am this morning with locals. Cardio bodyweight. Ice on the ground. Frosty breath. Got warm enough to get down to t-shirt so must have been a decent set of exercises. Getting to bed earlier and up earlier for this, is a #goodHabit I want to adopt.
Purple salad!
Qinoa, kidney beans, beetroot, red cabbage, kale, black beans, pinto beans. Spices, herbs, apple cider vinegar.
The large storage bowl of spiced quinoa, kale, beans was cooked together in an instant pot. It will make several meals this week and goes in the fridge.
I find posting some home cooking really helps motivate me for NewYear goals, weight & exercise goals etc. Nudges me what to buy, what to make, what to eat, what I'm doing, what works. Especially on days I want to say F it.
Made a big wok noodle dish tonight with plenty of portions.
Chunky cut peppers and red onion in wok. Chow mein noodles prepared with 4mins of boling water and then rinsed and set aside to drain for later.
Coconut milk added & heated.
Lentils spices and frozen peas added. The dried lentils really hoover up the spices and coconut milk (and water as needed from a kettle) and get very tasty. Lentils will need some time to soften and take on the tastes.
Microwaving the potato & sweet potato with a glug of soy sauce and a splash of apple cider vinegar allows them to be cooked just right (10mins on 1000w and set aside until needed) but still slightly firm and distinct chunks.
Adding chopped courgette and cauliflower. They need less time so they don't fall apart. Nice chunky cut that will have structure still at end. Tasting and refining spices as we go.
Washed then wilted a bag of kale in. Lid is excellent for doing that quickly. In fact used wok lid for most of this to keep lots of moisture for the lentils to hoover up.
Stir the noodles through. Then add the potato and sweet potato last so they don't fall apart.
Served. The chunky effect is quite satisfying as each mouthful varies.
This probably doesn't look like, weight loss + muscle gain, food to most people, but home cooked, complex carbs, loads fibre, legumes, plantbased. Seems to work pretty well. I tend to stall, or backslide if I get away from this.
I'm fairly convinced that 99% of the stuff written about health & nutrition out there is about marketing, brands, subsidies, product & market share.
It's really easy to microwave oats and berries plus water, plantmilk or my fave, fruit tea as up thread, in a bowl and it have it get a cake like structure you can cut in to wedges.
Here it's plated up with blueberries orange kiwi. An oat berry cake portion with cinnamon and seeds plant based yoghurt drizzled across.
Super easy quick light meal. Tofu cut into slabs, marinated for 10mins in soy sauce and chilli spices. Waffle iron (Belgian setting on mine works nicely with this brand of tofu). Just do it until throughly crispy. Top with something like quick spicy salsa, or kimchee, or bean salad or guacamole or chunky hummus etc. I should have taken a better picture, maybe I will another time. It's really easy and tasty though.
@vegan@cooking@cooking@vegancooking@wfpb
I hope this thread is maybe iinteresting if anyone isdoing some #veganuary or is curious about eating a bit more healthy while tasty, or just generally making a few more plantbased meals.
@vegan@cooking@cooking@vegancooking@wfpb
I'm down 8kg or 18lbs since Xmas, about 8% body weight. Definitely setting strength and muscle gains at same time. High carb, high fibre, high volume, high nutrition & low fat is so much more effective than the tiny low carb portions that lead me to failure.
@vegan@cooking@cooking@vegancooking@wfpb
I don't really use sugar much. Sometimes I do add a teaspoon of crunchy Demerara sugar scattered across a pud before serving which is nice.
This is a the last of a batch of cherry, berry, apple ,banana, cacao, all spice, oat bake I made, which gave portions all week.
It's incredibly easy to do, same process as the recipe up thread.
Oats, stir in cacao, all spice, extra cinnamon, add frozen berries and cherries, roughly chop in fruits, liquid from hibiscus(fruit) tea. Microwave 8-10mins, stir, microwave 8-10mins again.
Bosh, done, cakey bakery fruity cacao yum. No actual bake required. #cooking#cook#food#vegan#bearFodder#plantBased#wfpb
I'm really glad to have lots leftovers still. Toasting some pita bread to go with seems about limits of culinary capabilities today. I had a skinful yesterday. It was nice to do a little pub crawl though!
So I don't know who this might help...
... but if you've ever wondered how much food you can eat on a high carb low fat style it's really really different from the much smaller low carb portions. (description in alt text: lentil bolognese, chunky 6bean salad, apple cacao berry oat bake)
Tons of veg & fruits, good complex carbs (whole grains, whole pasta, starchy foods etc), lots of legumes beans lentils peas, spices & herbs and some nuts and seeds. High fibre high nutrition. Zero cholesterol if you do it plantbased which it really lends itself to.
Best part, just eat to fullness, no need to count calories once you (even just mostly) cut out the oils / dairy / meats, then you won't over eat.
Packaged and processed foods aren't good, they're nearly always high fat low nutrition. Batch cooking from ingredients gives me best results.
The dishes here all came from batch cooks on different days with at least 6 portions which last over several days and the changing overlap days keeps things from feeling too similar.
Here's my experience, for what it's worth.
Contrast this much smaller meal with the meal above. A low carb #diet type of meal.
This is the advice I see on the bulk of 'health' focused media. This style is supposed to be the big healthy alternative to all the processed junky foods. An animal protein source that is naturally high in fat and probably cooked with oil (even air fried you can look close to see all the fat leaking out). Green leaves that are dressed again typically with oil, (the whole Mediterranean diet = buy more olive oil marketing thing). A real deficiency of carbs with a very tiny portion of often white flour bread, or depleted white grains, and dairy spreads & cheese etc upping the fat a lot more too.
I've tried both styles over longer periods and for me this low carb is an eating style that leads eventually to failure, to plateau then weight gain as hunger will eventually win. Low carb at a calorie deficit just doesn't keep properly full and hunger will eventually win out. I suppose some people have iron will, or have a personal chef and trainer and assistants watching them or their livelihood depends on theirr physique or whatever, but it's just really stressful over time and requires calorie counting because the kcals to volume ratio is so very low you HAVE to.
#LowCarb needs high will power. Counting faff too. #HighCarb low fat #WFPB needs low/no will power, no counting.
Lentils & Quinoa have similar pressure cook times, super handy!
1cup lentils
1cup Quinoa
Lots spices and herbs
Chopped veg like red onion, red cabbage, bell peppers, dinosaur kale / cavolo Nero, olives
2.75 cups fluids (0.25cup was tamari)
6mins on high pressure with slow release in an instant pot.
It's really good to have leftovers from dropping a big batch cook with the above, it'll last all week in the fridge.
For increasing you need less fluids (water stock whatever) for additional cups.
1st cup lentils = 1.5 cup fluids
1st cup Quinoa = 1.25 cup fluids
Additional cup lentils = 1.25 cup fluids
Additional cup Quinoa = 1.0 cup fluids
Batch cooking enough to have extra meals to heat up is a great time (& healthy motivation) saver. Easy ways to vary things a bit is really helpful to prevent food boredom.
Chopped red onions, red peppers and tomatoes. Give them 15mins in airfryer. Heat up leftovers from psot above, add new stuff on top with some spring onion.
I had less than 10 minutes before a neighbour was coming over to do weights together. I want some food ready for after when I'd be really hungry.
I threw 2 cups of oat groats (pretty much intact whole oats, can be used a lot like rice) and 2 cups of dried beans (black turtle in this case) into a jug and covered with water to quick soak for a couple of minutes and also swirl rinse them. They both have similar pressure cook times of 22 and 25 minutes.
Grabbed a load of frozen veg from the freezer and spices.
Sieved the grains and beans into the instant pot pressure cooker.
Added generous shakes of chipotle spices, smoked paprika, cumin, black cumin, turmeric, black pepper, ginger and garlic.
8cups water
lots of frozen veg, sweetcorn, green beans, spinach, baby corn, carrots, garden peas, okra.
Gave everything a really good stir and set for
25minutes on high pressure.
Hour & a half later after working out it's all done & hot, tasty and filling! Served with a splash of tamari, dried chives & nutritional yeast.
I particularly liked how the oat groats and black turtle beans make this really filling, so quick to make but also really budget friendly. Dry beans are much cheaper than canned and actually easier to use than tinned this way. #vegan#veganRecipes#plantBased#bearFodder#wfpb
2cups freekeh grains, 2 cups lentils.
Mix in load of spices.
2 tins chopped tomatoes.
5 cups water.
Rough cut veg and greens -kale, spinach.
7mins, instant pot on high.
I threw 500g of mixed beans (10 types) in a container and added water to them sunday night. By morning, monday they had doubled in size pretty much, but the important part is the cooking time drops and is much closer together for the different bean varieties and closer to the black rice cooking time I wanted to pair with.
I stirred a lot of spices and chili into the rice, then added 750 ml of water. Stir in all of the beans and water. Add lots of fresh and frozen veg, give it another good stir.
The pot would be maybe too full if the beans hadn't already been soaked, but they've already increased in size and properly stirred the rice will fill the gaps in between things.
Then about 8-10 minutes in the instant pot on high should be enough with natural pressure release.
Today (Tuesday) I made a lentil wok dish. Lots french & red lentils in with boiling water and lot of spices, garlic, ginger, chillies.
Red lentils 29%Protein 3%Fat
French lentils 27%Protein 4%Fat
After 10mins added veg. All protein comes from plants. The ratios might surprise you if you check:
Mangetout 57%Protein 3%Fat
Garden peas 29%Protein 3%Fat
Carrots 11%Protein 2%Fat
Cauliflower 26%Protein 3%Fat
Broccoli 27%Protein 6%Fat
Green Beans 20%Protein 4%Fat
I also added some tricolore quinoa and a bit more water.
tricolore quinoa 15%Protein 14%Fat
Quinoa is like 15% protein, oats 14% and black rice like 11% - it's much closer together than the 'buzz' about quinoa would suggest and lower than most legumes and veg. Grains do pack more calories per gram.
Overall it's a really high protein % dish. Lots of fibre, lots of nutrients. And really low fat, which is great.
I can buy organic dry beans often for almost the same price as conventionally grown dry beans.
About £3 of organic black beans could cost about £16 as cans.
Even if you don't have a pressure cooker they're easy to cook, especially if you stick them underwater to soak a while before. Some types require no planning at all like lentils.
Lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, red beans, black beans and similar all contain way more antioxidents than blueberries! No cholesterol. No saturated fats. Loads fibre. Loads protein. Loads nutrients.
I think both beans and blueberries are great foods and I eat both. Fresh blueberries are of course not very shelf stable, but that's why I buy dried ones too. I typically find much better options (both price and qualitywise) online when it comes to pantry foods--I feel like physical stores often supply intentionally inferior options to encourage more frequent trips.
Beans and berries are both very nutritious and delicious in different ways.
@unspeakablehorror@vegan
Oh agree entirely and eat both. Lentils are vastly cheaper than blueberries though. I bought 5kg of lentils for £8 which makes about 10-15kg to eat. Cheaper blueberries are £10 /kg so £100-150 vs £8.
That said, I think we understand little of the complex natures of complete foods yet. Time after time we find that the attempts to extract the "active" ingredients to make supplement/pill forms, in fact do not deliver the benefits of the original whole foods. Thus demonstrating there are complex relationships we don't understand yet.
For that reason variety is always sensible, and superior than selecting a 'best' ingredient and over using that one too much.
My best habits, when I achieve them are to eat lots of types of vegetables and greens and whole grains (including whole grain pastas and breads etc) and fruits & berries and legumes, with some nuts & seeds (linseeds, walnuts, brazil nuts, fenugreek seeds, black cumin seeds, tahini cacao etc keep it varied like everything).
@ArtBear@vegan
Yeah, lentils are definitely cheaper than berries for sure. I live in the US but of course the price difference is still similar here. Makes me sad that berries are such an expense. They're definitely more of a luxury, though a functional one that is both delicious and nutritious.
Variety is definitely helpful for making delicious and healthy foods. I'm primarily vegan from an animal rights perspective, so nutrition isn't my highest priority, but it still matters to me.
@ArtBear@vegan@plantbased Oh, certainly, that's a big problem with modern health initiatives. They don't just emphasize things based on health benefits alone--there's an enormous bias towards profit.
@unspeakablehorror@ArtBear@vegan I find that frozen berries (along with other frozen fruits and vegetables) are more inexpensive than fresh on a pretty consistent basis. So I buy them pretty frequently.
My favourite way to cook mushrooms, sliced in a pan with tamari or soy sauce, maybe some chili. Simple delicious. Great for adding to all sorts that way, including salads.
Mushrooms appear to have unique nutritional benefits not replaced by eating other food. I'm preserving here some self motivation for simple mushroom dishes.
Put wholewheat pasta or noodles on.
Sliced mushrooms into a large pan or wok.
big glug of tamari or soy sauce. (the savoury umami taste makes the mushrooms excellent)
can add sliced chilies, ginger garlic spices etc.
cover with lid, want it to stay liquid.
Add stirfy veg towards the end it will contribute more tasty liquids too as it cooks if covered.
@Thebratdragon
If you're allergic to mushrooms, you can do the similar by replacing the mushrooms with lentils. Especially green, black, brown types that will keep more structure. Give them some cooking time and have a kettle of boiled water handy (or steal from your pasta pan etc) as the lentils will need a bit of time to swell up with enough available liquids, tamari spices etc before you add the veggies at end.
@Thebratdragon
Try cooking lentils, (no oil) in plenty of tamari and spices, veggy stock works great too, they absorb all the flavours and taste pretty damn yum that way :D
@ArtBear Jumping in because I might have the same.
It also happened to me. Mushrooms started triggering my gag reflex so I physically can't swallow them. I also loved them before.
It depends on the texture I think, and how "mushroomy" they are. Intense ones like oyster mushrooms or shiitake are worse. Plain white or brown ones, especially thinly sliced, might be OK, the thinner the better.
Now I am at a stage where I might taste them and say "mmm, delicious, thanks", but my body will warn me to not take a second bite.
Fresh mushrooms release a lot of liquid, but they also absorb some liquid back in over cooking duration too. Meaning spices, herbs, tamari, veggy flavours etc all combine to give them a rich layered taste when the mushrooms have plenty of liquids available.
Lift the mushroom + veggies with a slotted spoon / spatula etc so they dress the pasta and salad but don't make it totally swim with too much juices.
Here's the meal assembled. Pretty quick to make, very tasty, and really healthy.
Here are some informative brief videos on hibiscus tea. Each video provides information from nutritional studies. In the tabs below the studies you can view a partial transcript (no charts) and see a list of sources:
I've experienced something similar, albeit different. Less about weight control for me (not something I have a great need for), but found a noticeable improvement in energy levels and reduction in long-covid fatigue.
A few months ago I started watching the Zoe health podcasts. The main dietary things they bang on about are: eat more plants (and mushrooms), eat more variety, eat less ultra-processed foods (things which contain ingredients you wouldn't recognise in your kitchen, but also basically refined carbohydrates like white bread or white rice), eat more live fermented foods (live kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir - there's a water-based kefir for vegans). Basically all stuff to increase fibre intake, and fibre variety, and to reduce weird chemicals and simple sugars.
Their explanation of the science is that your microbiome thrives on fibre - the more you have, and the more variety, the healthier your microbiome will be. And, thus, the healthier you will be - your microbiome affects your immune system, and communicates with your brain to send signals affecting hunger and mood. And a healthy microbiome can help reduce the risk of digestive illnesses too, as the bacteria can struggle to find a niche if your microbiome is well-populated. The factors they talk about to improve diet are basically all the things which our modern diets have lost - they don't say to cut out random things like not eating fruits or easy fixes like no tomatoes or aubergines or whatever. Just go back to eating stuff that you could pick from the ground or trees, ferment stuff for longevity.
And so I decided to try out their advice. I was eating fairly well before, but due to lack of energy I was also eating takeaways 1-2 times per week. So I sacrificed limited free energy to cook on those days, and found a small - but noticeable - benefit the following week. Which then made cooking instead of takeaway slightly easier. And so on.
Now I'm able to do 30 minutes of cardio twice per week, and 15 minutes of weights twice per week. Literally not been able to do anything like this for four years.
Not saying correlation equals causation. There could be other factors affecting me, I don't know. And it's definitely not a cure. But it feels like my life is better since I began following that advice. More plants, more variety, less ultra-processed, more fermented.
And it is interesting to see you have observed some similar kind of benefits by taking a similar approach.
And as an aside - though I'm not vegan myself, I did notice how ultra-processed so much of the 'meat alternative' vegan stuff is. My friend commented that all the vegans he knew a couple of decades ago ate really well, lots of homemade stuff - but nowadays vegan is sold as a packaged, processed option in the supermarket which is totally different to how vegans ate before. Which matches your experience too!
Heartening to read. I agree: the diet that vegans follow, which allows refined and highly processed food, was seen by food producers as a marketing opportunity, so they jumped in with manufactured foods.
I like Simnett Nutrition's channel, but his recipes often use highly processed foods. Look at https://youtu.be/XXkx3FwS_Pw Most of the foods are good, but the vegan "sausage"? Full of refined ingredients.
Simnett not only uses highly processed foods (made from refined ingredients), he also cooks just one meal at a time.
When I make a dish, it's always enough for a few meals. Today I'm starting with a big bunch of collards, which I'll cook with allium (scallions, garlic), homemade tempeh (legumes and grain), broccolini (second cruciferous veg), bell peppers, a lemon, ginger, turmeric, etc. Several good meals.
One key requirement in a whole-food non-animal diet is getting enough variety to cover all the nutritional bases (and of course a B12 supplement is essential — I also take a D3 supplement).
Iodine is a little tricky, but I eat 2 sheets of nori a day for that (and 1 Brazil nut for selenium).
I use Greger's Daily Dozen (13 now with mushrooms) as a guide — see my recipe checklist:
@ArtBear Interesting experiment. Thanks for mentioning how you felt about your workouts. That would be my first concern. I'm trying to eat better lately. I noticed that when I am hungry, I am less hungry than before.
@thelazywriter
Yes, the workouts. the fasting of 36hrs (maybe 40 hrs not too exact) covered 2 days workouts and both seemed totally fine while doing them.
After eating late yesterday the workout today (leg day so needing a lot of energy) was harder, and I was slower than usual, but I did get PBs on a couple of sets, yet ranked my pyramid down a little in weight on 2 other sets, most of the sets were the same as usual though.
So i felt a bit more tired but could still lift to the same maxes overall it seemed.
Crappy food, alcohol or low sleep, has a far more noticeable effect on workout performance than 1-2days zero food is my tiny observation so far.
@ArtBear I believe it. I quit drinking almost 6 years ago, and my fitness, energy level and sleep quality improved significantly after that. Now, I'm shifting focus on nutrition, so your post is timely! I'm aiming for no-dairy and no-meat, but we'll see. I still want to eat eggs and fish, at least for now.
@thelazywriter
If you want any ideas for converting or replacing some meals/recipes, and ingredients to go for, etc I find all 3 of these are really useful and inspiring. Especially Nutrition Facts summaries by topic of all the peer reviewed nutritional studies & data.