WFPB eaters. Weekly. Newbies health goals?

Here you go.

Spicy Almond Dressing
This is my go to. I make it every week.

In Nutribullet
1/4 cup almond butter
1 clove garlic (I use 3!)
2 T lemon juice
2 T maple syrup (or date syrup)
2 T Tamari or Braggs Aminos
2 T water
2 tsp minced ginger (I use the kind in a squeeze bottle)
2 T sambal ooliek chili paste - or to taste
Stir it up a bit in the Nutribullet container and then whiz away.  May need to add a bit of water.  It tends to thicken in the fridge so I sometimes add a bit of water to it.  Play with the measurements and adjust to your taste.  Store in a small jar with a lid in the fridge.

Walnut Dressing
In Nutribullet

3/4 cup walnuts
1 cup water
2 T reduced balsamic vinegar 
2 tsp dried dill1/2 tsp UME Plum vinegar - can be hard to find but sooo worth it.  I think I got mine on Amazon
2 T chopped green onion
Whiz in Nutribullet until smooth.  May need to add a it of water.

Miso Dressing
Toast 1/2 cup walnuts in a dry pan and let them cool.

In Nutribullet
walnuts
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 T white miso
1 T maple syrup or date syrup
2-4 T water for thinning.
Whiz

Basil Sesame Dressing - my second favorite

In blender
1 cup fresh basil - packed
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 c reduced balsamic vinegar
2 tsp minced ginger
Whiz.

There's a gal on Youtube who I learned a lot from when I started this eating style.  Her name is Jill McKeever.  She has TONS of recipes.  I have made a lot of then.  She's a bit quirky but I like her.  These dressing recipes are hers.

Thanks so much slicksister ! The dressings sound delicious and I'm happy to have another blogger to check out!

I'm allergic to oranges. Do you think lemon juice would work in the basil dressing?

What do you grab when you're HUNGRY and don't have much time or energy? I'm there...

Did you get fortified or unfortified nutritional yeast? I've learned that most people prefer the non-fortified version. I've only ever used it in one recipe (chili), so hard to say if I like it or not!

I try to always have raw veggies cut up to pair with hummus (no oil) when this happens. Right now I've got red bell pepper strips, baby carrots, cucumber slices, celery sticks and broccoli florets. Sometimes I'll quickly wash a handful of cherry tomatoes to add to the mix!

circusjohnson - thanks! I think you may have been the pea who recommended the C Balsamic vinegars in a different thread a while ago. DH and I really enjoy the lemon and pear ones on salad the the lemon one on roasted veggies. today I made a salad of red cabbage, chickpeas and another veg i can't remember right now, and used their teriyaki balsamic.

Make these - so quick and easy to put together and no weird ingredients or even a blender needed (unless you make your own oat flour from oats in a food processor, nutribullet, or blender - otherwise you can just buy oat flour). Lots of protein and perfect for when you just need a little treat. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites for the Freezer

Stir together:

1 1/2 cups oat flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup cashew butter (can sub almond butter, but I never have)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup 
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (I use the fair trade mini chips from Whole Foods)

Roll into 1 inch balls and put on parchment lined baking pan in the freezer. If the mixture is dry add a tablespoon of almond milk. Store in ziplock bag in freezer. Makes about 35 balls. Enjoy!

Those cookie bites sound delicious; I definitely need to find a food processor so I can make cashew butter and try making some vegan Parmesan cheese, too. (the nutritional yeast I bought is the fortified kind- that's all I saw at the local store. It does definitely have a savory edge to it, so I can see why people use it- just not by itself, lol)

Earlier today I had my first appt at the weight loss clinic in two weeks: I am down 4 lbs from my last appt, and 3.5 lbs of that were fat! (I love those scales that measure fat mass, lol!) So Yay!! I'm down 27.5 lbs total so far from where I started, which was waaaay higher than I've ever been before in my LIFE; I started at 232 lbs, which was just on the hairy edge of morbidly obese, as far as a BMI measurement. About 25 lbs of that weight was put on since early 2020 and the pandemic, what with stress from that and family issues.

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It's taken me 52 years to finally figure it out:  I've eaten processed foods and had a huge sugar addiction pretty much my whole life... I grew up in the 1970s-80s, and I never really learned to cook with actual "real food" ingredients (except baking cookies; I'm great at baking, lol).  Oh, I collect cookbooks, but mostly I just look at them; even the recipes I actually use from them are the kind that start with canned creamed soups, and most of my 'cooking' nowadays starts with boxes (Hamburger Helper, pkgd rice or pasta dishes where you just add milk and butter, etc.  

I had fibroids, menstrual pain, and horrible PMS pretty much from the time I had my first period; I had gallstones & gallbladder removal in my early 30s; was diagnosed with chronic depression in my mid-30s; had a stroke at 39 (I was stupid and VERY lucky to have no lasting damage); and had a hysterectomy in my mid-40s which (VERY thankfully) led to finding a malignant tumor on my ovary, which meant a second surgery to remove both of them, too (NO chemo or radiation treatment, though- whew).

Anyway, after actually thinking in TOTAL about all the health issues I've had pretty much my entire adult life, I realize that I've just about run out of second, third, and fourth chances, as far as my health is concerned-- sooner or later, something is going to happen that I can't skate by or get out of. 

So THIS time when I finish losing the weight and get back to a healthy weight, I want to eat mainly WFPB for the long term to STAY HEALTHY and stay at a healthy weight.  I don't want to fall back into the trap of using sugar, fat, and salt as a crutch for my moods and my energy levels; I'm afraid I could VERY easily do that if I went back to eating the 'standard' diet I used to eat but trying to keep it lower-calorie or 'healthier' than before. (except for my beloved Diet Dr. Pepper and Coke Zero... I'm not sure I can give them up-  sigh.)  I think the best / only way for me to keep the weight off long-term (because my weight has yo-yo'ed up and down ever since I was out of college) is to totally change how I approach food and nutrition.  That's my overall goal.  (and if it gets my DH to eat at least a bit less cheese and meat while I'm at it, that would be GREAT, too.) 

     I loved reading this Crimsoncat05.  As Hippocrates said so very long ago, "Let food be thy medicine". Sadly for us in the past 50 years in the USA the opposite has been true-depending on what food we choose. Overwhelmingly the SAD diet (standard American diet) that most Americans follow include foods that have commercials to sell them. Canned soups, boxed foods, foods that are made in plants-factories. If we instead choose whole plant foods-foods in their natural state and cook or prepare them in our kitchens like our grandmothers and great grandmothers did, and avoid animal based foods, our health can not only benefit from these foods but can actually reverse some health conditions like high cholesterol, asthma and diabetes 2. 

It's such a simple logic and fact that once you realize it you want to tell everyone you meet-"Hey, guess what?  You can heal yourself, be healthier and live longer just be changing how you eat. It doesn't even cost you anything. Your grocery bill will even get lower. Isn't that amazing?" And once you lose the weight and continue eating this way you won't gain it back that's the beauty of the program! 

I am so happy for you Crimsoncat05! And for everyone on this thread. 

    Thank you so much Lesserknownpea for once again starting the thread this week. I had another batch of migraines this weekend starting on Friday and lasting until Sunday and then another one on Tuesday, but that doesn't even compare to your poor face-OMG that must have really hurt!  I'm so sorry for you fall and the resulting injuries. Not to mention that you can't even eat!  I wish for you a speedy path to healing with as little pain as possible. 

If something like this happens just pmail me and I'll see about starting the thread that week-although you came through like a trooper this time. If the almost daily storms we have been having for the past month or two would just stop I'm sure I'd be having fewer migraines. I told DH I might have to move to a place where there are no storms but I can't think of a place like that-maybe Arizona? but I hate the desert. I need to have color around me like the greens of the East Coast or the blue turquoise waters of the Caribbean. Beige, beige, beige just doesn't do it for me. My apologies to those Peas who live in Arizona.