Low Fat Lentil Meatballs

1/4 tsp basil
2 tbsp breadcrumbs (I use 2 dried out or baked pieces of whole wheat bread, then blend in Vitamix with onion/garlic powder)
2 tsp prepared mustard
2 tsp ketchup
1/4 tsp thyme
1 can brown lentils, drained, rinsed and mashed with handmasher or fork. You can try other types of lentils, or use your own cooked lentils (about 1.5 cups)
1/4 tsp oregano
1 tbsp milled flaxseed and 2 tbsp water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Mix milled flaxseed with water in a glass so it can thicken
3. In a bowl, mix lentils, breadcrumbs, mustard, basil, thyme, oregano and salt then add the milled flaxseed mixture until ingredients are well mixed. If you don’t have fresh basic/thyme/oregano try the dried versions, or an Italian spice mix.
4. Place 2 tbsp of mixture into palm of hand and roll to form round ball. Place ball on a Silpat non-stick baking sheet. Continue rolling until mixture is used up.
5. Bake for 30 minutes on metal tray lines with parchment paper (for easier cleaning) or right on the tray. Broil on high for 5 minutes to make crispy but watch closely during broil phase to avoid burning.

Eat this with my marinara sauce and whole wheat pasta.

Starch-Based Diet Tips for Beginners

Video with some of my best tips for success on a starch-based low fat vegan lifestyle.

Nacho Chips and Bean Dip with Salsa

Similar to the baked taco shells recipe, we can bake the no fat yellow corn tortillas (that I now make myself ) into nacho chips. Take a pile of of about 6 tortillas and cut them into 6 or 8 pieces. I use a long knife that spans across the tortillas and press down vertically on the tortillas with the knife like you would cut a pizza with a pizza knife. I cut around 20 tortillas so this gives you 120 chips for two people. This is a fairly high calorie meal so don’t make this a daily habit!

I put the chips on 3 metal trays that are covered with parchment paper. Try to keep the chips in one layer and not overlapped as much as possible. Pre-heat the oven to 400 and then bake until crispy. Make sure they get to the true crispy stage, if you take them out too soon they will have a partially crispy, chewy texture which isn’t as good.

Okay new rule: bake the yellow corn tortillas right on the oven racks and break them up into rough sized chips instead of cutting and baking on a tray with parchment paper. #crispier #easier #fun

Dip

1 package of guacamole (Wholly Guacamole) or make your own guacamole (see below). Leave out if wanting lower fat meal.
1 can of pinto beans or no oil refried pinto beans
Burrito/chili mix package (optional)
1 small onion (chopped, enough to cover layer or less if that’s too much onion for you. Optionally use green onion instead).
1/2 green pepper (chopped, enough to cover layer or less if that’s too much for your taste)
1/2 jar of hot extra chunky salsa (enough to cover layer, use your favourite salsa – I use President’s choice Extra Chunky Hot Salsa)

For the dip,
If using guacamole lay down a layer of it using a spoon. If using canned pinto beans, drain the can and rinse the beans. Mash them first using a hand masher. Mix in a little salsa which softens it up and add the burrito mix or some chili powder and cumin. Or use a good quality canned refried beans that is soft (I use President’s Choice medium refried beans). Add that layer on topic of the guacamole (if using).
Add a layer of chopped green peppers and onions. Then layer on the salsa. We like this dip to be cold so put it in the fridge if you make it before the chips.

To take this up a notch in taste but with added fat you can put a layer of homemade guacamole on the bottom as I mentioned. This would be one ripe avocado mashed, one diced clove of garlic and a little lime/lemon juice. I generally avoid fats but once in a while I like to indulge. It can be a slippery slope so be careful! If you’re at a healthy body fat percentage and are monitoring it you can introduce a little fat from whole foods but make sure it doesn’t become a daily habit!

People have their own preferences and I love to improvise, so you could add chopped jalapenos for example, but my salsa is really hot enough.

Baked No Fat Taco Shells

Are you tired of those cardboard-tasting taco shells you buy in the store, not to mention fattening and full of chemicals? Well now you can make your own tasty corn taco shells!

I buy yellow corn no fat tortillas from La Tortilleria in Toronto, Ontario. They ship worldwide if you can’t find these where you live. They’re made fresh and usually shipped on mondays in the hopes that you get it by friday so that they’re not sitting in the post office over the weekend. But even when this happens they still taste amazing. I order 8 batches of 30 and put some in the freezer and they still taste great, but will last 2 weeks in the fridge.

Put these tortillas over 2 oven rack bars or use a taco rack. Bake at 400F and watch carefully so they don’t burn. The upper rack works faster for me. If you don’t bake them enough they will have a partially crispy/chewy texture which i don’t like. Maybe take a test bite as they start to brown a little, somewhere around 10 minutes but it’s not advised to leave unattended.

No need to spray or coat in oil. Sweet! Great with my taco recipe.

Taco photos used with permission by www.plantplate.com

Crispy Potato White Bean Cakes

Crispy Brown and really to eat…soooo good! Low fat White Bean Potato cakes recipe below.

• One yellow onion (finely chopped)
• 1 tsp. of garlic powder
• 10 medium potatoes cubed and boiled
• 1 cup of whole wheat bread crumbs (we make our own by baking or drying out some whole wheat bread, and blending in the Vitamix with garlic/onion powder)
• 1 540 ml of white kidney beans, drained and rinsed.

Mash together everything except the bread crumbs in large bowl but do not mash until smooth you want some lumpiness for texture.

Take a palm full of the mixture and form a patty about 3 inches in diameter. Take the patty and cover it in the bread crumbs.

Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You should get about 12-14 patties. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes then flip them over and baked for another 20 minutes.

We eat these with ketchup. Add a little salt to taste if desired. Enjoy!

The bean cakes are started at about 4:30 in this video.

Strawberry Ice Cream

If you’re transitioning from meat and dairy, it can be hard not to give up ice cream. You might try some soy ice creams for a while but at some point you will want to cut back on the fat and eat more healthy versions. Well you’re in luck!

A frozen banana blends into a magical cream fatty tasting treat! There are so many variations.

2 Frozen Bananas (overnight)
1/2 cup of frozen or fresh strawberries (or more if you want more strawberry taste).

Let the fruit defrost a bit so they’re a little softer than frozen. If you can’t wait, you can add a little non-dairy milk but this tends to make a softer ice cream. Use more

Blend in Vitamix and enjoy!

Feel free to adjust the amounts for more people, larger quantity, more strawberry flavour, etc.

Willy’s Big Bowl

Ingredients:
1 cup of rolled oats (not instant oats)
2 cups water
1/8-1/4 cup of Grape Nuts for crunch (if I have them)
1 tbsp milled flaxseed
banana milk (or you can use unsweetened almond milk or some other non-dairy milk)
1/2-1 cup of defrosted sliced strawberries in a big bowl. Feel free to use other fruit like blueberries and bananas.

Cook oatmeal as per instructions (I use microwave for 6 minutes). I let mine cool in the fridge for at least an hour before adding the other ingredients.

Cereals are whole wheat based without many ingredients, in Canada and hopefully you can find them as well. Strawberries are fresh in season and frozen the rest of the year. I buy frozen sliced strawberries and put them in a container in the fridge the night before to thaw.

I eat this everyday. An occasional variation is buckwheat pancakes or tofu scramble.

Bonnie has a cup of whole grain rice krispies, 1/2 cup rolled oats, no fat soy milk and a banana. We also have organic flakes by Nature’s Path.

No Fat Hash Browns

Ingredients:
-5 (or more) of your favourite potatoes eg. Russet potatoes, medium size. The number and type of potato is up to you, enogh to fill 1/2 – 2/3 of the blender (I use Vitamix).
–Ketchup or your favourite condiment

Chop up some potatoes (no peeling) into quarters or less, then add to your blender and fill with water past the level of the potatoes. I use my Vitamix. Blend until they are chopped up like hash browns.

Strain the potatoes in a strainer and press out as much water as you can with your hands. Then add potatoes to non stick baking pan lined with Silpat baking sheet or parchment paper, and bake at 450F until crispy, about 30-40 minutes depending on how much water was squeezed out. I scrape the pan once or twice as they cook to flip them over. Sometimes I turn on broil towards the end if you want them extra crispy – be sure to monitor during the broil phase so they don’t burn. Add seasoning salt (just an example, find the healthiest option) to taste if desired.

Vegan No Fat Brown Gravy

I discuss the brown gravy recipe here in the video as well.

Made my own single portion quick gravy mix, like the store bought packets, since I eat a lot of potatoes. I wanted to reduce the corn starch as it can affect the flavour.

1 tbsp whole wheat flour
2 tbsp vegetable stock mix (for less sodium use 2 tbsp nutritional yeast instead and optionally salt to taste, under your control)
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp Kitchen Bouquet browning sauce (add after thickened) – if you don’t have this use soy sauce and optionally caramelized sugar.
1 cup water (add more water if it’s too thick)

I blend it in my Magic Bullet or (alternatively NutriBullet), bring to boil then simmer. Add 1/2 tsp browning sauce. Gravy will thicken as it simmers. I like this one! Adjust to taste. I recently bumped up the vegetable stock amount from 1 to 2 tbsp.

Make a big batch of this mix without the browning sauce or water then just grab it whenever you need gravy instead of the store bought gravy packs which are usually $1-2 a pack! And if you have more time fry up some onions/mushrooms in a little water to enhance the flavour!

Lentil Shepherd’s Pie

Bonnie’s recipe.

Vegan Shepherd’s Pie

Base Mixture
Up to 2 cups homemade bread crumbs (we make homemade by baking whole wheat bread, blending in Vitamix with onion/garlic powder. For store bought you might want to use less at first)
One finely chopped onion
1 tsp. of seasoning salt (optional)
One 19 oz can of Lentils (rinsed)
1 package Shepherd’s Pie Mix (eg. Club House check ingredients) – just use onion/garlic powder if you want
½ cup frozen peas
½ cup corn

Mix all ingredients. Place in a ceramic dish casserole that has a glass cover. If mixture is dry and falls apart add some water to moisten. We use our own breadcrumbs which tend to be more moist than store bought breadcrumbs. If it sticks a lot to the bottom of the dish and is hard to clean afterwards, try lining dish with parchment paper beforehand.

Topping
8 whipped red, Yukon gold or yellow potatoes with some onion/garlic powder (1 tsp each) (I don’t use vegan butter because I like mine fat free)

Add mashed potatoes on top of the base and bake covered for 15 minutes and uncovered for another 15 minutes or until potatoes start to brown at 375 degrees

Make vegan no fat gravy (see my brown gravy recipe) or Hain’s vegetarian brown gravy package. Feel free to improvise with other veggies in the bottom layer!