Lentil “Meat” Sauce for Pasta

You can adjust your favourite meat sauce to remove the ground beef/oil and add a can of rinsed lentils, but here’s what I do (leave out anything you don’t like and adjust ingredients to taste):

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, diced
1/2 large green pepper, chopped
1/2 large red pepper, chopped
1 can of red lentils, drained and rinsed
1 packed cup of spinach (or just a big handful or two I don’t measure)
1 can of no/low fat zesty tomato sauce (with no or minimal oil/sugar added) – Note: I now use a can of crushed tomatoes to avoid oil.
1 sprinkle red pepper flakes (as much as you like to make it hot or not)
1 package of whole wheat linguine noodles

Instruction:
Boil the noodles as per instructions
While the water is boiling, saute the chopped red/green pepper in water in a frying pan to soften under medium heat. As it softens add the onion. As the onion softens add the garlic and spinach. The spinach will shrivel up a lot so don’t be shy.

When the ingredients are pretty soft add a can of zesty tomato sauce. Rinse lentils in strainer until the starchy foam is gone. Add the can of rinsed lentils and heat. Turn down heat if it starts to bubble, stirring regularly.

Drain noodles when done. Put noodles on a plate and pour sauce on top. If you like more sauce add a can of tomato paste and water to dilute the lentils/veggies.

Cabbage Soup

Bonnie’s recipe.

We make a huge pot of soup. Put all this in a pot and cook on high until it boils and let simmer for at least half an hour until potatoes/turnip are soft.

(Calories) Ingredients:
(156) 1/2 green cabbage
(100) 4 carrots
(410) 1 can 540 ml black beans
(600) 6 red potatoes
(108) 1 can 540 ml diced tomatoes
(40) 1 onion
(40) seasonings (1 tsp each garlic/onion powder, 1 tbsp vegetable stock powder)
(100) 1 turnip
(0) 4+ cups of water (fill up large pot to almost the top after adding other ingredients)
(54) 1 leek (great flavour and a recent addition)

Total 1608 calories

Per serving 130 calories it make about 12 one cup servings.

What I Didn’t Eat Today on Starch-Based Diet

I usually post What I Ate Today but how about What I Didn’t Eat Today? This is also very important! Hope it helps. Plus a new video.

Potato chips
Oil including sprays
Eggs
PC Blue Menu Vegetarian Chicken Strips
Cheese
Sour Cream
Mayonnaise
Crackers
Eating fast food
Movie-style popcorn
Cookies
Cake
Handfuls of nuts
Eating out at restaurants
Soy ice cream
Tofurky brand Sausages (Sun dried tomato and German)
Meat/Fish

Vegan Desserts – Handle With Care!

Grocery List

Here are most of the things we buy when we go grocery shopping. Not every time of course 🙂 If you have an issue with any of the products, you can find alternatives that works for you on Amazon or elsewhere. If ordering from Amazon you might consider getting a 6-pack or 12-pack for the staples. I couldn’t find all organic or low sodium, etc so if you don’t like one of the links below, Amazon shows similar products or you can search their site for something else.

Black beans (Eden Organic Black Beans)
Lentils (Eden Organic Lentils)
Rolled Oats (Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats or Gluten-free)
Ketchup (Heinz No salt added)
Unsweetened almond milk (Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk)
Soy milk (or no fat version)
Diced Tomatoes (Eden Organic Diced Tomatoes)
Chick peas (Eden Organic Garbanzo Beans)
White Kidney beans (Eden Organic Cannellini)
Red Kidney Beans (Eden Organic Kidney Beans)
Brown rice (Bob’s Red Mill Organic Brown Rice)
No fat tomato sauce (Muir Glen Tomato Sauce)
Tomato paste (Muir Glen Organic Tomato Paste)
Whole wheat pasta (fettuccine, linguine, penne, etc)
Vermicelli Bean Noodles
Thai Sweet Chili Sauce
Extra-firm Tofu
Sriracha hot sauce
Tomatoes
Green Pepper
Red Pepper
Yellow onions
Garlic
Spinach
Arugula
Bananas
Oranges
Grapefruit
Blueberries
Turnip
Carrots
Baby Bok Choy
Bean sprouts
Potatoes (Red, Yellow)
Sweet Potatoes
English Cucumber
Whole grain rye bread
Vegetable bouillon stock powder (Watch the sodium)
Chicken-style vegan stock (Watch the sodium)
Pickles (I buy Vlasic like the crunch)
Organic yellow mustard
Shredded Wheat (Post Shredded Wheat)
Grape Nuts (Post Grape Nuts)
Gluten-Free Whole Grain Rice Krispies (for Bonnie)
Fruit spread
Natural organic peanut butter
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Curry Powder
Chili Powder
Paprika
Cayenne Pepper
Whole Wheat Flour
Whole wheat pastry flour (for pancakes if eaten)
Baking Soda/Powder/Yeast
Nutritional Yeast
Kitchen Gourmet browning sauce
Nutmeg/Cinnamon
Salt/Black Pepper
Brown sugar (for spicy cajun fries)
Vegetable stock (liquid)
Hot Extra Chunky Salsa (I use President’s Choice in Canada)
Yellow corn tortillas (no fat). I order online from http://www.latortilleria.ca
Organic Basmati rice (for curry)
Balsamic vinegar (delicate version)
Frozen organic strawberries
Frozen dark cherries (Bonnie snack)
Frozen corn
Frozen peas
Frozen broccoli
Frozen cauliflower
Frozen brussel sprouts
Milled Flaxseed (Bob’s Red Mill Ground Organic Flaxseed)

Optional:
Low sodium soy sauce
Raw walnuts (nuts not recommended for weight loss, heart disease patients)
Real organic maple syrup (for baking, pancakes)

*if you have issues with any of the above ingredients, don’t buy them 🙂
** I have provided Amazon links for some of the products. If you order any I receive a small commission which will hopefully allow to me help more people rather than work at other jobs 🙂

What I Ate For Breakfast

I eat this 7 days a week.

Reverse Heart Disease and Enhance Male Sexual Function With Food

The Power of Simplicity And Other Weight Loss Tips

Banana Muffins

Bonnie eats these banana muffins for breakfast instead of the usual cereal when I make them on occasion. But these are very low fat banana muffins (no oil, margarine, etc). The bananas, maple syrup and non-dairy milk give it the moistness. I used whole wheat flour and whole wheat pastry flour, instead of oat flour.

I use the recipe from Dreena Burton, but I used whole wheat flour instead of oat flour (along with the whole wheat pastry flour) and added a bit more milk to make it a bit thinner for the muffins. The muffins stick to the paper quite a bit but it avoids having to use any oil spray.

What I Eat Each Day

People regularly ask me how many calories and exactly what I eat. I don’t count calories. I focus on lower calorie dense foods like fruit, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and eat until I am satiated (for 3+ hours). Read The Starch Solution by Dr. McDougall.

I put all the recipes on this site, categorized by breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The meals are pretty simple and I actually eat these every day. So many recipe books have complicated recipes and are very interesting and great looking (for selling new books of course) but for me, easy and simple is best. I eat the same basic 5 or so dinner meals every week.

Breakfast
Every morning I have the “Willy’s Big Bowl” of cereal without fail – very filling with rolled oats, banana milk, strawberries. I’ve estimated my breakfast cereal to be around 800 calories (see video link shows 574 calories, depending on how much cereal).

Lunch
Mashed/quartered potatoes for lunch with gravy and a side vegetable OR veggie bean burger with side of baked fries. Sooo filling (potatoes).

Dinner
Dinner is 5 tacos for about 638 calories (see taco video with calorie estimate) OR spinach/arugula salad and balsamic vinegar with whole wheat lentil ‘meat’ sauce pasta or salad with whole wheat veggie pizza, or lentil shepherd’s pie and gravy. Usually one plate of food is enough. I sometimes have a Coke Zero if the meal is hot and spicy. Again another habit I had when I needed to help myself feel full, but you can just drink water if you want. I’m trying to be honest about everything I eat and I don’t freak out about small amount of certain things.

Snack
I sometimes eat a grapefruit, orange or apple around 8pm – more for the taste then because I’m hungry, if I ate a good sized dinner that is filling. Sometimes I don’t eat enough for dinner (not enough starch) and I start to feel hungry within a couple hours so I remember to eat more next time!

I often post pictures of what I eat on Facebook. I know people will want detailed calorie counts and as much as I want people to focus on calorie density I know I may give in over time 🙂

If you are really serious or anxious to lose fat fast, watch the higher dense foods like flour and refined grains (bread, pasta). These carbs won’t necessarily turn to fat but they can provide a lot of energy lessening the need to burn fat. I still eat them a few times a week though. 🙂

I don’t eat many desserts (and suggest you don’t either) but on occasion I have made low fat pumpkin muffins, black bean brownies, etc- these things I am minimizing as the fat loss slowing down as I get a lower body fat percentage.

A discussion of calorie density you should check out.