Veggie Chicken Not All Its Clucked Up To Be!!

Warning to avoid Quorn!!! Attention all vegans, vegetarians and faux “chicken” lovers…Im here to update you on a warning put out by the CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest). Spearheaded by Michael Jacobson..this organization publishes one of the best newsletters in the industry Nutrition Action. Their recent issue warns against consuming Quorn products which is a line of veggie “chicken” and “burgers”. Its main ingredient is a mycoprotein (actually made from fungus!!) that can cause a tummy aches, severe vomiting, diarrhea and potentially life threatening shock..CSPI is urging Whole Foods to stop carrying this line and put pressure on the FDA to ban this mycoprotein all together..So many better options out there for veggie “chicken” nuggets, wings and tenders…If you so desire check out Dr Praegers Chickenless Nuggets and Veggie Patch Chic’n Nuggets..less sodium and higher in protein!!

New Year, New You Women’s Retreat

While winter hasn’t hit us quite yet we all know what’s coming. Snow, cold temps, dark days, and feeling ‘trapped’ inside. This winter we encourage you to not let winter weather get you down. Take a brisk walk outside on a sunny winter day, join a yoga studio for some warm rejuvenated exercising and make an effort to prepare clean comfort foods.

Jump start your winter routine this year and travel north with us to the beautiful House on The Hill Bed and Breakfast in Ellsworth, Michigan. On January 20-22 we will be ringing in the new year with a Full Body Wellness weekend. The weekend will include a group snoeshoe excursion, a relaxing foot treatment & full body massage from The Well Being Day Spa, and 2 nutrition and dietary wellness discussions led by What’s In Your Cart?

We’re also offering individual nutrition consultations and dietary analysis while at the Inn so please contact us stacy@whatsinyourcart.net prior to the trip if interested!!

It’s a weekend that can’t be beat – sign up today by making a reservation at 231.588.6304. For more information visit www.houseonthehill.com or www.thewellbeingdayspa.com

Challenge Results and Reflections

We completed the Whole Foods Market Engine 2 Diet 28-Day Challenge last week! It’s hard to believe that we are already through 28 days of decreased animal and dairy product consumption, and it was incredible to hear some of the success stories from our fellow classmates.

-One woman lost 15 pounds total since eliminating animal products from her diet in late July. She said she has more energy and doesn’t even crave cheese anymore.

-Another classmate shared that her energy levels have increased since going dairy-free.

-One of our classmates is a preschool teacher, and he has been sharing the benefits of a plant-based diet with his students and their families throughout the challenge. They are even now fundraising for a Vitamix machine!

We also shared our different reasons for adhering to a plant-based diet. People decided to reduce or eliminate animal products for the following reasons:

Health — Participants wanted to take a proactive approach to improving their health and meeting goals such as lowering cholesterol or losing weight.

Environmental – Participants wanted to reduce their carbon footprint by consuming locally grown and in-season produce.

Ethical – Participants chose to eliminate animal products from their diets for ethical reasons.

No matter what your reason is for reducing or eliminating animal products from your diet, Stacy Goldberg’s What’s In Your Cart? TM is here to help! A personalized grocery store tour can help you identify alternative plant-based products to the products you now consume, and a comprehensive dietary analysis will identify any vitamin or mineral excesses or deficiencies in your diet.

Lastly, we spoke about the importance of social support when starting a new lifestyle plan like the Engine 2 diet. It’s helpful to seek out like-minded people who will offer you support and guidance throughout your new lifestyle. To this end, Whole Foods Health Educator Jan Kemp announced that she will continue to hold regular Engine 2 Diet Challenge Meet-Ups for participants to regroup and support each other.

Thanks again to Whole Foods and Engine 2 Diet for a great challenge! We at Stacy Goldberg’s What’s In Your Cart?TM are so excited that we were able to participate!

Week 5 & Another Reason to Love Plant-Based Diets!

Today we hit the one-week mark for completing the Whole Foods Market 28- day challenge! During tonight’s meeting we shared stories of what we’ve encountered since beginning the challenge and celebrated all we’ve accomplished so far. We gave ourselves a pat on the back for making any change, little or big, that positively changed our nutritional well-being. And we reinforced our decision through tonight’s movie viewing of “Forks Over Knives” (while munching on some seriously delicious popcorn!)

“Fork’s Over Knives” is a recent nutritional documentary based on the findings Dr. Esselstyn & Dr. Campbell’s innovative research around the positive health effects of a plant-based diet – known as of The China Study.’ The film presents not only ‘wowing’ statistics about health effects of plant-based diets but also the government/corporate influences on our nutritional guidelines and the global consequences of our food choices. Another movie bonus was the interview with Dr.Esselstyn’s son, Rip – the author of our ‘Engine 2 Diet’ book! The information shared in the film supports the lifestyle we work to promote at What’s In Your Cart?

It was agreed by all that this movie came just in time for those of us who have taken on this challenge. It reinforced the habits we are developing, reminded us why we took on this lifestyle change, made us proud of all we’ve accomplished this far, and encouraged us to keep going, long, long after these 28-days are past. And whenever we’re feeling tempted by the old ways we know a quick viewing of this film will be a healthy reminder of how we can control of our health and longevity (not to mention help control our weight, give us increased energy, and let us just plain feel better!)

So go rent (or log into Netflix!) and watch Forks Over Knives. Let us know what you think!

And while you’re watching make yourself some delicious popcorn with some great products the WIYC? team love!

Air popped popcorn with Braggs Liquid Amino Spray & Nutritional Yeast

When buying popcorn look for products with no added salts or oils such as 365 organic microwave popcorn.

*Nutritional yeast -> this fine yellow-tinted powder smells faintly like cheese & adds a nutritional punch to your popcorn snack. It is a gluten free, dehydrated yeast and is rich in amino acids, B- vitamins, niacin, folic acid, zinc, selenium and thiamine and very tasty. Find it with you other favorite Bobs Red Mill Products, or in the bulk bins at Whole Foods Market!

*Braggs Liquid Amino Spray -> Get your nutritional yeast to stick by giving your popcorn a light spray of Braggs first. Reminiscent of soy sauce, this is a liquid protein derived from soybeans – it contains a whopping 16 (essential & non-essential) amino acids! We love not only the taste but also the fact that that there are no added colors, preservatives, chemicals or gluten! Check out Braggs site to see all the great topping suggestions for liquid amino spray!

Week 4 – Raw Apple Pie!

It’s hard to believe the Engine 2 Diet 28 Day Challenge at Whole Foods is over halfway over! We focused on label-reading during Thursday’s task and watched this short video revealing the truth about many of the claims listed on food labels.

We deliberately weave label-reading education into the personalized grocery store tours that we at What’s In Your Cart? TM offer at Whole Foods. Label-reading is an essential skill to learn so you can be empowered to make educated choices during every shopping trip you take! We review specific components of the label including:
-Calories
-Fat
-Protein
-Carbohydrates
-Fiber
Please visit our website and contact us to learn more about how you can become label-savvy!
In addition to reviewing label reading, we also brainstormed a few recipe ideas at the Challenge meeting on Thursday. Jan Kemp, Whole Foods Health Starts Here Educator, prepared several delicious dishes for us to try, including vegan macaroni and cheese and raw apple pie.

The pie was delicious! I couldn’t believe the crust was made from almonds and dates, without any oil or butter. Be sure to try this recipe as apple season picks up in the next few weeks.

A Fresh Take on Apple Pie

Ingredients:

Crust
8 oz. pitted dated
2 cups sliced almonds
1 cup chopped walnuts
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon sea salt

Filling

1 whole orange, peeled and sectioned
¼ cup raisins
2 teaspoons finely chopped peeled ginger root
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 large Fuji apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
¼ cup toasted unsweetened shredded coconut (optional)

Directions:
For the crust, bring 1 cup water to boil. Place boiling water and dates in a small bowl and let soak for 10 minutes. Drain and reserve soaking liquid. Place dates, almonds, walnuts, cinnamon and salt in the bowl of a food processor; blend to form a sticky paste. If needed, thin with a couple of tablespoons of reserved soaking liquid to help the blending process. Spoon the mixture into 9-inch pie plate; press over the bottom and up the sides to form the crust. Set aside.

For the filling, place orange, raisins, ginger, cinnamon, and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse for a few seconds to finely chop the fruit and make some juice. Place sliced apples in a medium bowl and add orange-raisin mixture. Toss to coat completely. Transfer apple mixture to prepared crust. Let pie rest for at least 2 hours to help soften the apples. Sprinkle with coconut before serving.

Meat- Free- Week- 3!

Here at What’s In Your Cart? our philosophy is based around “Lifestyle Changes for a Lifetime”TM and that’s just what those of us in the Whole Foods Market 28-day challenge are working on – Making changes in our diet that will last beyond the challenge and will stick with us for the rest of our lives. That said, we’ve all been there, trying to make better choices to fuel our body and know the temptations that exist. Isles of yummy yogurt flavors, the candy bowl at the office or the rib-eye your parents are pulling off the grill as you arrive for Sunday dinner. What we need to remember is that most dietary changes don’t happen over night, but rather the key to successfully following a plant-based diet in our junk-food-candy-crazed world is balance, moderation and small efforts that will lead you to your goal.

For many of us starting the challenge it was hard to imagine what meals looked like day in and day out that didn’t include meat, not to mention the fear that we would be depriving ourselves of essential proteins, vitamins & minerals! However, on Thursday, Jan talked about all the different ways we can still get the same nutrients from meat, without the artery clogging negative properties. While whipping up a delicious Engine 2 recipe – “tofu scramble” the group learned about great sources of Omega Fatty Acids, and specifically Omega-3 fatty acids from Flax Seeds! Toss in your smoothie or on your pasta, the subtle nutty flavor delivered from these seeds are a way to sneak in a nutritional boost to any meal. And lucky for us, we got to take a bag home with us!

We were also fortunate enough to take home a package of a What’s In Your Cart? favorite – Rosewood Tofu!

Check out this great recipe for Vegetable Stir-fry with flax dressing. Add some pressed Rosewood tofu to make it a hearty dinner.

Share with us your favorite meat-free recipes this week and be sure to check back next week as we learn how to cook, bake and live oil-free!

Week 2 of Engine 2: Dairy-Free!

This week’s Engine 2 28-Day Challenge Class at Whole Foods Market Ann Arbor focused on transitioning to a dairy-free lifestyle. One of the Engine 2 Food Rule says “Eat nothing with a face or a Mother. No animal flesh and no animal by-products. Think of dairy products as liquid meat.”

Liquid meat? Definitely a motivating factor to step away from the cow’s milk! So why avoid dairy? Whole Foods Health Starts Here Educator Jan Kemp shared that animal based products contain three big building blocks that promote disease: animal fat, animal cholesterol, and animal protein. We emphasized the idea of plant strong vs. animal products—load up on plants, whole grains, and healthy fats and dairy becomes an unnecessary afterthought!

In class, we brainstormed some of our favorite dairy products and identified their non-dairy replacements:

• Instead of yogurt, try soy, rice, coconut, or almond yogurt.
• Instead of parmesan cheese on your pasta, try nutritional yeast flakes.
• Instead of cow’s milk, try almond, soy, coconut, or rice milk.

Jan shared an amazing recipe for Kale Sweet Potato Butter to show us just how easy and delicious it is to skip cheese or sour cream based dips.

The butter was fantastic served on Flackers Crackers! Jan followed the standard Engine 2 Diet Recipe, and added a few dates for natural sweetness.

Kale Sweet Potato Butter
Adapted from Rip Esselstyn’s Engine 2 Diet
Makes approximates 2 cups

Ingredients:
1 bunch Dino kale, rinsed and chopped
½ cup raw walnuts
½ cup water (saved from steaming kale)
1 sweet potato, baked and peeled
3 dates, pits removed
1 tablespoon basil, paprika, cayenne, or cumin, optional

Directions:
1. Steam the kale for 5 minutes, until tender.
2. Blend the steamed kale with walnuts, water, and sweet potato.
3. Process in food processor until smooth.
4. Serve with chopped vegetables, whole grain bread, or crackers.

We also enjoyed double green smoothies loaded with kale and spinach—this is a great way to sneak a few extra greens into your diet at home. Just add a handful of your favorite greens to your next fruit smoothie. You can’t even taste the leafy greens, but your body will appreciate them.

Now that we have alternatives for popular dairy products down, stay tuned as we learn about ways to go meat-free next week!