Walnut salad dressing

This will be short. As my search for alternatives to processed oils continues, i came up with this great walnut dressing for our daily green salad.

1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp soy sauce or Braggs amino acid if you are in the US (less sodium)
1 tbsp mustard
1 small garlic clove

Mix everything in a blender for a minute or two.

Pour over your salad or steamed vegetables.

Getting plant-strong

I know this blog was supposed to be about food, but a lot has happened since the last time i posted some recipes, so i had to gather my thoughts on the subject. It all began when i watched the movie Forks vs. knives on netflix (there ARE a few advantages to living in America, you know). It is basically the journey of two doctors, Dr. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn to the realisation that we should avoid eating animal-based and processed foods. What can i tell you, this movie opened my eyes! not because i was not aware of the benefits of a vegan diet, but because it made me realise that i can be vegan and not think all the time about the suffering of animals, but of my improving health! it freed me of the chains to which i was tied the last time i tried to go vegan (~12 years ago), and eventually stopped because i couldn;t stand to think about the animals anymore. I was literally sleepless for a long time because of that. Do you get my drift?

That movie led me to watch the next one, which you can learn about here  http://engine2diet.com/forksoverknives, by the son of Dr. Esselestyn, Rip Esselstyn, who started a small revolution by himself, and he calls his method the Engine2 diet, which is what i am doing now. He says he prefers to call it plant strong and not vegan because of the ideology that is associated with the latter definition.

This diet is so easy, you just take out of your cupboard anything process or animal based, create sauces not based on oils and there you go!

I admit that i am doing a little more meal-planing than i did before, because i now integrate into my menu more beans and homemade plant based burgers, but i don't care. Something changed in me, from "i live to eat" to "i eat to live".

Two easy recipes that i did remember to document are here below. I will try to add more as i go along.

This is a simple and basic red bean salad

The recipe:

Red beans, cooked

cup of corn

1 tomato

1/4 white onion, minced

a few slices of avocado

Cilantro, as much as you like, minced

sauce:

1 lemon/lime

2 2 tbsp red wine vinegar

salt and pepper

MIX and EAT.

The second recipe is not mine, took it from Allrecipes.com, but these corn muffins are great! no oil, eggs or refined sugar...

And for those of you who wondered what the whiskey bottle is doing there in the back, wonder no more! i will never give up alcohol!

CHEERS!!!