You will not miss the protein in this meatless lasagna; it has plenty of protein from ricotta cheese, spinach, and the whole-wheat pasta, about 15 grams per portion in fact. Just about any lasagna follows the same procedures; you have multiple layers of sauce, lasagna noodles, cheese, meat, or vegetables and so on with the top cheese melted for a luscious delight.

This recipe modified a bit in that we added a few ingredients such as celery, garlic, and parsley, along with extra zucchini, and doubled the mozzarella quantity, and we use whole-wheat pasta in place of regular as originally called for from the meatless main dish recipe found on page 72 in the Weight Watchers Simple and Classic Home Cooking cookbook.

Six weeks to health and wellness

Starting on Sunday, March 28, 2010 and for the next six weeks Monique and I are starting our new “Greens and Beans” dietary lifestyle. So far, with sticking to just eating from our Weight Watchers menu items for the past three weeks we have both lost about 7 pounds each.

Coincidently, Wednesday (March 24, 2010) on the radio PRI’s The World did a piece on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, Marco Werman talked with British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver about the healthy food “revolution” he’s trying to start in the US. Download MP3. The interview excerpted below:

“One-third of American children are overweight or obese, putting them at increased risk for diabetes, heart disease, and other illnesses. The problem is so acute in this country that British Chef Jamie Oliver came all the way over here to do something about it. Oliver’s TV series follows him to the town that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention labeled “Americas Unhealthiest Community, Huntington, West Virginia.” Listen to the entire interview, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

Having just finished reading the book “Eat to Live” by Joel Fuhrman, M.D., on the same day, and he has some startling medical breakthrough findings that are quite eye opening.

2% milk is not 2% fat
One of Dr. Fuhrman’s findings, for example is the truth about 2% milk.  Did you know that this milk touted by the industry is actually not just 2% fat. The dairy industry fooled us into thinking that it is only 2% fat because they compare the entire % of fat to the volume of totaling all the liquid in the amount given. However, there are 43 calories from fat in a 1 cup (8 ounce) portion of milk, since 1 cup of milk has 122 calories, it is actually 35% fat from calories. When you compare 100 calories of one food to another, then you get a better picture of true nutritional value.

And with our focus of going back to simpler, whole, and unprocessed foods, it makes sense to make from scratch whole grains, sauces, unadulterated foods from just about everything we are eating these days.

Critics abound
Now some folks have said many negative things about Dr. Fuhrman and his ETL diet plan, attacking his comparison of broccoli versus steak and which one has more protein, is just one of them I found recently.

Fuhrman advocates that on a per calorie basis that broccoli contain more protein than your average steak. After crunching the numbers in a comparison on both from various nutritional data sources, the average seems to be about equal amounts of protein in 100 calories for both, actually broccoli computed to 10 grams protein, and 100 calories of a rib eye steak was 9 grams of protein. The point is, you can fill up on 400 calories of broccoli or vegetables for that matter, before you fill up on 400 calories of steak. By the way, 400 calories of broccoli is about 13 cups, and 400 calories of rib eye steak is 5 ounces. The other point here about the ETL diet is that you will fill up on 100 or 200 calories of vegetables before you would fill up on meat.

We are going to try the ETL 6-week diet plan, and draw our conclusions during and after the timeframe.

The Six-Week Plan
The ETL plan has folks averaging about 20 pounds of weight loss in the first six weeks, then 10 pounds in the next month, and then about 1 ½ pounds per week thereafter.

Fuhrman summarizes his diet by providing “Ten Easy Tips for Living with the Six-Week Plan”

1. Remember, the salad is the main dish; eat it first at lunch and dinner.
2. Eat as much fruit as you want, but at least four fresh fruits daily.
3. Variety is the spice of life, particularly when it comes to greens.
4. Beware of the starchy vegetable.
5. Eat beans or legumes every day.
6. Eliminate animal and dairy products, fish, or fat free dairy twice per week.
7. Have a tablespoon of ground flaxseed every day.
8. Consume nuts and seeds in limited amounts, not more than one ounce per day.
9. Eat many mushrooms all the time.
10. Keep it simple.

For the next six weeks, I will be posting updates on our progress, in addition to some new recipes that are mostly vegetarian, with an emphasis on whole foods cuisine. If anyone would like to join us on this plan, please do, but I suggest that you get a copy of the book and read it from cover to cover, then join us in this life changing experience.

One of our favorite side dishes also makes for a main event meal when sausage and shrimp are added to the base ingredients. In this version, I have added turkey sausage and it still incorporates a fabulous flavor to the amazing vegetable. If you wanted to add shrimp use the 110 count small shrimp, and about a pound of it would do for this quantity.

Some weeks we would rotate this item as a side dish on our daily menu and it would sell out every time, some would order double or triple portions and make it their main dish. Typically, in the restaurant kitchen the recipe called for a 30 pound case of frozen yellow squash, or 12 2.5 pound packs. This was prepared in a large tilt skillet and also with about 5 pounds of diced onions, 5 pounds of diced ham or smoked sausage, and 5 pounds of 110 count shrimp. Not to mention at least one 5-pound container of Italian breadcrumbs.

Sorry, no photographs were taken of this one, just forgot to get the camera into the kitchen that day, or I was taking a break from the photography that day. However, here is a link to many images of Yellow Squash dishes Yellow Squash Casserole Images.

Yield: approximately 16 1-cup servings

Lately I have been on a trend of making my own breads, snacks, and now with this recipe I made my own tortillas for this enchilada recipe. Eventually when the jar of store bought mayonnaise runs out I will start making my own mayo in small 2-cup batches, besides saving a lot on the grocery bill, I also know what ingredients are in my preparations. No more partially hydrogenated fat for us! The pan of baked enchiladas shown on the left are some of the extra that did not fit in our other baking dish, these looked great on their own!

Currently about half-way through reading the book “Eat to Live” by Joel Fuhrman, M.D., and he has some startling medical breakthrough findings that are quite eye opening. And with our focus of going back to simpler, whole, and unprocessed foods, it makes sense to make from scratch whole grains and unadulterated foods from just about everything we are eating these days. More on ETL and Dr. Joel in another post!

Corn Tortillas

I followed this recipe closely, and could not have written it better myself. At the time, I did not have a tortilla press and used the backside of a large sauté pan to press the masa dough balls into rough tortillas using plastic wrap. We bought a new tortilla press this past weekend at the Smithfield Outlets from Kitchen Connection, and I hope to get some use out of it soon. The corn tortilla recipe and the steps to making them is taken verbatim from the back of the MASECA corn masa mix bag. I doubled the recipe and had a few extra tortillas left over, in addition I wanted more than need for error or mistakes.

Corn Tortilla Recipe

This recipe is another from the Weight Watchers “Simple & Classic Home Cooking” and found on page 76 in the meatless main dishes. It has a nutritional value listed as 413 calories, 67.3 carbohydrates, 9.7g fat, 6.6g fiber, 18.5g protein, 19mg cholesterol, 721mg sodium, 416mg calcium.