Heart Healthy Week #6

Week #6

Our Path to a Healthier Life

Hello!  Thanks for checking back with us as we travel down this path for a healthier life!

This week was our first week on official SUMMER break!  Kyle is doing great!  He has maintained his weight - and eating healthy with a plant-based diet (No meat, No dairy, No Oil and minimal amounts of salt and sugar!)  He was a bit disappointed that he only lost one pound - but I think he's doing fabulous! (This makes 24 pounds lost since April 12th)   We are trying yoga (our instructor via youtube is Adriene from Austin, Tx) and Kyle is still briskly walking 30 minutes (about 2 miles) a night.  We go, less than 2 weeks, to heart doctor and hopefully will be released to do more exercise!

Along with binge watching Netflix, making loooooong "To Do" list while it rains ...  We, in West Texas, have had rain for days now (5 days this week)...  but will NOT complain after being in a drought for 4 years...

 I've had the time to cook all 3 meals in a day and even found Plant-based Pizza, Tacos and Hamburger recipes - so all is well with us! LOL!  (Click on the word for a link to send you to the recipe that we used in creating these "comfort" foods!)  

So excited to find a pizza recipe - fixed each pizza to the eater's favorite toppings!  Then able to make "burgers" along with the boys' cheeseburgers on Memorial Day and then the TACOS - these were SO GOOD!  So we're not "left out" eating weird and different things from the other family members' meals!  This was a HUGE step forward!

This week's top pick  

HEART HEALTHY RECIPE 

for a plant-based diet  is for 

PIZZA DOUGH

Bread Machine "Healthy" Pizza Dough 

I adapted my old pizza dough recipe to a NEW healthier one.  It worked and tasted great!

1 Cup Whole-wheat flour

2 Cups Unbleached Bread flour
1 Cup Unsweetened Plant-based Milk
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1 tsp Maple Syrup or Agave
1 1/2 tsp Apple Sauce
1 1/2 tsp Yeast

 Setting the bread machine on DOUGH - run it per machine's directions and then divide the dough into 2 portions / or 4 smaller portions.  Form the pizza crust - cook on parchment-foil paper directly on the rack after piercing all over, for 6 minutes - then add toppings.  Cook again for 6-8 minutes (no pan) and serve!

Yield: dough enough for 2 large pizzas or 4 medium pizzas

Vegan "Parmesan" Sprinkle

3/4 cup Raw Cashews

3 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast

3/4 tsp Sea Salt

1/4 tsp Garlic Powder

Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse into a fine meal. Store in the refrigerator - lasts for several weeks.  


On my pizza, I cooked the onion, red & yellow bell peppers,  and mushrooms in vegetable broth, until soft before adding to the spiced tomato sauce - aka pizza sauce on the crust.  Kyle didn't want any veggies SO he had the vegan parmesan sprinkle and sauce on the pizza crust along with a large green salad on the side!

A question we receive from family & friends while following a plant-based diet is:  

"What do you DRINK ..."  

WATER...  Our bodies are around 60% water, give or take. It is commonly recommended to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day (the 8x8 rule).  I will be honest - I still drink my Pak 'n Sak Unsweet Coconut Tea - but Kyle is faithful in drinking lots and lots of water.  He has tried several diet or health drinks - always watching out for the sugar and sodium levels of the drink.  Primarily, it's spring water that Kyle drinks!  

The  more that I read and study the Plant-based eating - the more I'm convinced that NUTRITION is critical for good health.  The main reason we are choosing to eat and live this way is for Kyle to heal from his heart attack and start a prevention toward heart disease.  We want him OFF of his medication - if, at all possible.  

We are finding that FOOD can be so powerful without all the side effects that drugs induce!  If we cut ourselves or break a bone, we take it for granted that the body will heal.  But we are finding that the human body can also heal from heart disease, weight problems, and diabetes  - IF we get away from the food that are causing the problem and taking advantage of the food that heal.

Again, I challenge you to study this issue, research it - find YOUR answers - you CAN control your health.  OUR goal for Kyle is to lower his cholesterol count down to under 150...  we have opted to eat from a plant-based diet and abstain from meat or dairy of any kind.   It's NOT easy - but it is working and we are learning that it IS possible!

Here is a link to last week's progress - here!    

And if you have just started reading this - this link will take you to the beginning - here!

Thanks for stopping by and letting us share our story!  Remember to hug the ones you love the most... until next time!