My latest endeavor, or wakeup call came from watching YouTube videos by Dr. Michael Greger. Greger not only has recommendations on the better choice of what to eat, he knows the science that backs it up.
I was so impressed with his knowledge, that I bought his latest book, The How Not to Age Cookbook.
It was in this cookbook that I saw a recipe for Roasted Asparagus with Tahini Lemon Sauce. Below is my photo of my results.
I usually sauté asparagus, steam it once in a while, or cook it in soup. My husband and I were both pleasantly surprised with the flavor of it being roasted. I also liked the sauce, my husband wasn't so impressed with the sauce, he didn't even taste it. The sauce by itself was a bit strong to me, but paired with the asparagus and also on the pasta, I thought it was pretty good. Overall I was pleased with this recipe and liked the lightness of their not being any oil in it.
In the Introduction part of the book, I learned that berries appear to reduce mortality risk as much as green leafy veggies. Did you know that? I have heard a lot about getting your greens, but I hadn't heard about the praise of berries. Berries may benefit the eyes in a variety of ways and can also suppress inflammation in the gut. Pulling out information from three studies on eating berries, overall, those with a higher berry consumption tended to live significantly longer than those with a low berry intake.
I'm not even half way through the Introduction part, and there are a lot of terms that I am not familiar with; I won't even try to explain those. But for those that want the scientific background on the best foods to eat, and then have recipes that incorporate those findings, this book is for you. Or if you just want to eat more plant based, this cookbook is a great option.
I do like carrot cake, but am not a fan of cream cheese frosting, and I don't care for most things that are overly sweet. So I was also pleasantly surprised when I tried the Baked Carrot Cake Oatmeal. There is no frosting, a plus right from the start. However, it didn't have any raisins. I reduced the shredded carrots by around 1/4th of what was called for and replaced that with two small boxes of organic raisins. That added just a bit of sweetness to the recipe, and made it a hit with me. This recipe called for date syrup. (Dr. Greger has a recipe in the front of the book if you want to make your own.) The date syrup that I had on hand seemed to thick to me, so I reduced that by half and replaced the other half with water. That may have watered the recipe down more than it should have been, but the cake did come out very moist, so I added some extra baking time to it. That worked pretty good.
There are more recipes that I'm looking forward to trying. Most of the ingredients, from what I looked at so far, are every day ingredients. Two things that I noticed that weren't part of my normal ingredient selection, were white miso paste and tahini. Besides that, you might want to have ground flaxseeds, chia seeds, nutritional yeast, and soymilk on hand for your repertoire of plant based ingredients.
Another great thing that I like about this cookbook, is that it has a chart of Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen. It is a list of the various types of food one should eat in a day for maximum health. This has really helped me to see where I might have been lacking and what I should make more of an effort to incorporate into my day. I don't always get all 12 categories checked in one day, but I can see where I'm short and what I can add in the next day or so. If you are interested in checking out Dr. Greger's chart, you can check out the sample pages for the book, on Amazon. Greger also has a free app for those that are interested in keeping track on their cell phone.
Cheryl Paton
Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”
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