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Over the weekend I tried a new dip to have on hand for my afternoon snacks. I oven roasted at 400 degrees 2 eggplants (pierced all over) (1.5 lbs) for about 1 hour+ and roasted 6 unpeeled garlic cloves drizzled with olive oil (I wanted the sweet, smooth flavor brought about by roasting). I scooped out the flesh of the cooled eggplant and squeezed out the roasted garlic cloves from their skins and put them into a food processor. I added 2 t tahini, 2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp salt, 3/4 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp cayenne, and juice of 1 lemon. I processed it all until smooth. This yielded 14 ounces and the total calories for the whole amount was about 280 calories, to be divided up as one likes. I have had it with celery sticks and with bell pepper strips. ( I prefer the pepper.)
WOW! Thanks for sharing, that sounds great. I love eggplant and garlic and will try it right away. Anna
You are welcome. Hope it is to your liking.
Janine, are you the same Janine from the Overweight and Obesity group?? If so, this is Melissa. I just got back from the grocery store! I just put the eggplant in the oven with the roasted garlic. I cannot wait to eat it!!
ONe and the same. I get around! Taste as you go along adding spices and lemon juice, etc, and make it your own. Hope you enjoy it. You know, roasted garlic is delicious on its own as a kind of veg. Yum. I sometimes treat myself to chicken on the bone (drumsticks) and throw in loads of unpeeled garlic cloves, red bell pepper, sliced onion, spices, even some jalapeno strips, and 1/4-1/3 cup water or broth. I cook all this in a large covered dish on medium until the chicken starts getting some color on one side, then I turn the temp down to low.(need to check often with so little cooking liquid) After about 1/2 hour or so, I turn the chicken and cook for another 20-30 minutes.(if the broth starts to completely cook away, add another 1/4 -1/3 cup you dont’ want too much or too little) The juices in the chicken, along with the broth, form a very dense, rich bit of sauce that you can’t help but lick off your plate. The pan juices beg for bread but they are yum served over the chicken. I learned to cook chicken this way from a friend years ago and it is kind of like the chicken my mother cooked in pressure cooker. Dense and rich in flavor. The garlic cloves are very soft and very, very delicious, and you just have to squeeze the centers out and enjoy. Might not be tidy eating, but it is good eating.
I just bought some eggplant, if it wasn’t so hot today I’d put them in the oven & make this
This sounds so good. Thanks for sharing.
Yum! I’m going to try this over the weekend.
I hope it works out for you. I tend to have a heavy hand with hot spices, so you be the best judge of how much you want. The next time I make this dip, I am going to try something new. Instead of making it rather ”tart” with the lemon juice, I am going to try and enhance the natural sweetness of eggplant by carmelizing a tiny bit of onion to go with the oven roasted garlic (yum!). I may try a new route with the spices, too. Stay tuned. You know, having to eat a new way is giving me the best opportunity to try new recipes. Fun so far! I am trying very, very hard not to let myself get bored with what I am eating, because I don’t want thoughts of old favorites to creep into my consciousness.
I hear you, Janine. I’m enjoying playing around with inventing delicious new recipes to keep my imagination moving forward… instead of going back to some old favorites for myself too. And it’s working great! Another lb. released today! One thing I like about this plan is Dr. Hyman experiments with gourmet style cooking himself and those of us who like to do that too seem to fit in well here–plus people who like to follow recipes and do simpler things, which I like sometimes too, have that here as well. Where are you in the program? I’m in week 3. Anna
Hi, Anna,
I am in week 5, day 4 (plus 3 whole weeks of prep-getting ready to give up coffee, don’t you know!) The time has gone by so much faster than I imagined it would. Coffee was the big topic in the beginning. I don’t really think about it much, now. Some days I like to eat simply prepared fish or chicken, or a huge vegan salad, and other times I am enjoying trying new recipes. It makes this plan so much easier being able to cook. For those people who are not experienced, a good skillet and a small blender are all they need, well, plus a great chef’s knife and cutting board. Oven-roasted vegetables and pan-seared chicken or fish are great. I adore oven-roasted brussel sprouts and even broccoli. Sliced rather thinly, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned, cooked at 425 for about 15 minutes or so, the leafy part of the broccoli becomes crisp and outrageously yummy. Yeah, you can tell I like food! I tend to use a lot of spicy seasonings. That way I don’t notice the absence of or reduction of salt. My BP was 140/90 on day 1, and today it was 111/67. I especially use a lot of Indiand spices. I could become a vegan easily if I could eat Indian-spiced veg all the time.
How great of you to give cooking encouragement to people who don’t have as much expertise as you do. It does seem pretty simple, and I agree with you completely, I LOVE roasted vegetables. Brussels sprouts and broccoli, and I’ve been doing organic cauliflower the same thinly sliced and roasted way. The nutritionists often remind us to add beneficial herbs, so now I’m beginning to remember to do that too, and some slivers of garlic sometimes. And I love your spice palate, cayenne as well as black pepper. Thinly sliced roasted organic carrots with finely chopped rosemary are a great snack with nuts. Unlike beets and sweet potatoes, carrots are sweet and on the beneficial list for the Advanced Plan. I’m with you on Indian spices. I’ve not cooked that way before, but now I’m making chicken curry with raw cashews and whatever vegetables I have and stirring in homemade almond milk to make it creamy. It’s hard to believe it doesn’t have some kind of sweetener, it’s so succulent and sweet. Yum. You can tell I’m a foodie too, and I love that that’s okay. I’m just eating much smaller portions and following the guidelines completely, and still enjoying great food! Thanks for sharing your vitals, my bp today is 118/69 and in the beginning it was 138/82. I’m fortunate to have been a big coffee drinker, but I had been on acid blockers for years and I had to come off those, and am still finding my way with that. Don’t know what I would have done w/o the nutritionists! Anna
I read what you said about the nutrition counseling. I waived off the idea of getting a free month, because I didn’t see the need. Weeks later, I have had some questions about supplements that I would love to have had answered. I will keep in mind your enthusiasm about that option and if I find more questions popping up, I just might have to bite the bullet and give it a try. Thanks. (I am on the advanced plan, but I can’t wait to have oven roasted beets. I love that veg! I have also put FROZEN sugar snap into the oven the same way and they are fantastic, too.)
I have to say I am a coffee snob (or was before the coffee ban), grinding my beans each day. I am the same way about pepper, but I don’t grind my black pepper each day. I put a bag of peppercorns into my magic bullet and grind away (the more recent models aren’t as good as the originals-not as much power). I like my pepper to be coarsely ground and I liberally douse just about everything savory I eat with the black stuff. It is a favorite. If you and others aren’t on the advanced plan, I have a tip about potatoes. I enjoyed a fabulous meal in a restaurant where the potatoes were not mashed up with butter, but MUSTARD. I think that they used mustard powder, but I have used spicy brown mustard successfully. For a baked potato, instead of butter of sour cream or cheese or any of those things, I use mustard and it is absolutely delicious. (of course, right now I can’t have potatoes). I have been wanting to share that because I found the mustard in the potatoe to be really yummy and zero added calories and perfect for our way of eating.
Those potatoes sound great, but I haven’t eaten potatoes in years and don’t expect to be able to do that again. I’m okay with it and I love sweet potatoes, and this sounds good for them too if and when I’m able to add them back in. I’ve enjoyed mashed cauliflower instead and this would be great for that! Are you familiar with Creole mustard? My years in New Orleans gave me an addiction, and it can be found online at the company Zatarain’s.
We should probably switch to the recipe group for all this, but I adapt a recipe I saw for fish by coating it with Creole mustard and roasting it on a sheet pan with broccoli and garlic tossed with olive oil. The broccoli cooks longer so it starts at one end of the pan, then add the fish on the other end and put it back in the oven till the whole thing is done. Plenty of black pepper over everything! I agree. Anna
Have your been in my kitchen?! I do the very same thing with the veg, then fish. I am going to look for the creole mustard and give it a try. I live in a region where cajun is big. Must be why we both like ”hot”.
You might be able to find Zatarain’s Creole Mustard in your grocery store, especially if you’re in that region. We buy up a bunch at Ralph’s supermarkets when we’re up in Southern California, or order them online if that’s not practical.
I won’t have a problem getting any of those spices. Need some TEXJOY?
Whaaa?
Texas-based spice company, TEXJOY, makes spices with a zing!
Texjoy are amazing spices. I lived in the toen with factory and got hooked. Now stock up when I go back to visit.
This sounds wonderful!!
Made Janine’s eggplant dip yesterday. YUM! I was eating it with raw carrots, because we get great ones from a nearby organic farm, and then I suddenly realized we have to have some protein with everything! I grabbed some nuts. What did you do for protein with it? I’m thinking it would be a great sauce with a little sauteed organic, free range chicken. Happy Sunday everyone! Anna
Hi, Anna,
Sounds like the dip worked out ok. Glad to hear that. I have hummus in the fridge, too, and I give myself some eggplant dip and hummus( protein) for the same snack, with red bell pepper strips or celery, as is the case for today’s afternoon snack. I think the eggplant dip might be good with some sesame seeds or pine nuts mixed in-adding more protein. I made a peanut soup this weekend. It is rather like the Thai Satay sauce, but without any of those high-sodium condiments. It was delicious, but can only be eaten in small servings because of the high calorie content of peanut butter. I am going to try and remake the soup by adding finely minced mushrooms and stretch out the calories. As it was, the 1/2 batch I made totalled 1000 calories, yielding 3 small 2/3 cup servings. I am planning on having a huge salad on the side whenever I have some. It was kind of tasty.
You know, Anna,
Sometimes I get confused by the conflicting information in the book. Advanced planners are supposed to abstain from beans and lentils, yet there are a number of recipes for both basic and advanced planners utilizing these ingredients. I think I read (or misread) where we need about 4-5 ounces of protein per day, but then we are supposed to have protein at every meal. The book has a lot of great information, but in all honesty, the information about acceptable foods for each plan could have been more clearly presented. I just do what I think is correct and don’t worry about it. I keep having to go back and refresh my memory, especially about supplements and why I am taking the ones I take. It’s a lot to remember. I wish this eating plan had been around about 10-20 years ago and I had had the sense to make good use of it. Oh, well.
So funny, Janine, I was just about to reply to your earlier note when I saw this one. What I was going to say is that I love the idea of the eggplant dip with hummus, but my understanding for advanced plan is to leave out beans, and that includes garbanzos. I did check with the nutrition coaches early on about hummus and they recommended no, but they say some tofu is okay (and I saw somewhere not to use over processed tofu products–whatever they are), and it’s soy beans, but apparently it doesn’t have as much of whatever other beans have that is problematic for us.
And speaking of things that are problematic… I hate to tell you because of your great sounding peanut soup, but peanuts are beans, not nuts. I was so disappointed when I read this because for months I’d been eating an apple and peanut butter for breakfast practically every morning and thinking I was doing a very healthy thing (like you say, wouldn’t it have been great to have known all this before, but I’m just so happy to know it now, even if it is complicated). And peanuts, I guess, in particular, have some sort of acid that can cause problems. I don’t remember where I read that, if was in the BSS book or if Dr. Hyman talks about it in one of the videos.
I do know what you mean, there is one ton of information in all these places and it is very challenging to keep it all straight! I have a feeling in future editions of the book that material may get organized differently. That’s another reason that sharing here is great, and where the nutritionists come in handy. Thank you for sharing so generously! Anna
LOL!!! How right you are, Anna. I am laughing because it is so easy to forget that peanuts aren’t nuts. Oh, well. The peanut soup is too high in calories, anyway! I am sharing with a coworker and we are having the tiny bowls, so once it’s gone, that will be that! Thanks for reminding me. As to hummus, I am going to keep having that, beans or no beans. I love chick peas and so far I haven’t had any problems having hummus sparingly. Gosh, it is hard to find something to eat that isn’t a lettuce leaf! I am off to the grocers this a.m. to stock up on more blackberries and salad greens and veggies. I will make sure my hummus is used over a long period. It’s bad enough giving up chocolate, but beans, too! What’s a girl to do?!
I’m sure what you’re doing is the best for yourself, Janine. You sound right on, to me. I know what you mean about wondering what can we eat?! When we had guests the other day and we were going out, our favorite chef was making suggestions about what he’d cook for me and I was saying, I can’t have that, I can’t have that, and then I realized I could share with him what I can have, and it turned the whole conversation around. We can have just about any kind of green vegetable, especially leafy green ones, spinach, cabbage, Swiss chard, kale, collard greens (we have a collard green ”tree” in our garden that’s more than 5 ft. tall!), broccoli, peas, green beans (I think), zucchini, including yellow, and carrots, yum, onions and garlic, tomatoes, avocado, eggplant, cauliflower, peppers, nopales (a popular item here), eggs, skinless chicken, small amounts of other poultry and meats, wild salmon and other small fishes, nuts, nut milks, coconut and soy milk, tofu, berries, and all kinds of herbs and herbal teas! Whew. See? Seems like a lot and I just realized I left out lettuces of all kinds.
I’m still recovering from years of taking acid blockers and from a candida/yeast cleanse so I’m off of anything fermented, like vinegar, which excludes some of my favorite things, like capers, olives, mustard, and because I’m easing my digestion back I have to stay low acid, which eliminates a bunch of stuff, like tomatoes, peppers, garlic, lemon etc. etc. BUT, I’M GETTING FREE OF DAMAGING ACID BLOCKING MEDICATION and getting healthy for the first time in years!! Yay!
BTW, in one of his videos I heard Dr. Hyman say a little chocolate is okay. Maybe he was talking about on the basic plan, but he didn’t say specifically. He did say it has to be more than 70% cocoa and only an ounce or two serving, but when I can get my digestion back up and running well, I’m going for it. Do you have Trader Joe’s where you are? They have wonderful organic dark chocolate bars, and I think they cost less than $2. And we can have raw cocoa nibs. I have some organic powdered ones and I add that to a little heated coconut milk sometimes. It’s an okay chocolate thing, but barely, and chocolate is acidic…
Enjoy your days everyone!. Anna
Wow,
I am still realing from the lengthy list of all that we CAN have. Well done. I like that. I loved what you said about changing the conversation around when you changed from the ”cannots” to the ”cans”. I had a funny discussion with a fishmonger a couple of weeks ago while we were discussing my new fav, scallops. He kept trying to make suggestions and I kept having to say, ”can’t”. We both had a good laugh over it. Ok, now to the big issue-CHOCOLATE. I used to get the 70% up to trying the 90% or so. Previously, the one in the 90’s wasn’t so good, but I just bet it would taste heavenly after 6 weeks on this eating plan. I always have a cup of tea after lunch and a square of dark chocolate would be nice to have. Those higher percentages never caused me cravings before, so I might give them a try once in awhile. I am hoping your feel better with regard to acidic foods. Good for you getting off those nasty drugs. In case you didn’t notice, I am not into drugs. It was hard for me to accept having to take supplements. (that being said, I was taking Aleve regularly for arthritis pain, but haven’t had a single one in the past 5 weeks!) No Trader Joe’s here, but my local grocer’s has some great choices in healthy chocolate bars. Godiva makes some pretty tasty high-cocoa bars, too. I always read the labels carefully to make sure that the carb count versus the fiber count minimizes the glycemic impact. It still astounds me that chocolate bars have fiber. Of course, back in the day, I wasn’t eating the chocolate for health benefits!
Now, right there is an example of how easy it is to relax one’s guard against forbidden foods. One mention of chocolate and I start thinking, ok, I can have chocolate. Shame on me. I am probably the world’s biggest sugar addict, and my poor dopamine -riddled brain can’t tolerate any more until I am super strong and super healthy. I hope.
I know what you mean about taking all the supplements! Except for my twice daily acid blocker I hadn’t taken any until I started with the supplements. I was telling my husband at breakfast this morning that my serving of supplements was bigger than my serving of food, and he agreed.
I think the main thing to be careful of w/chocolate is the sugar. And setting off cravings etc. I was noticing yesterday that I’m not having cravings, period. My eating compulsions seem to have gone/been healed by this food medicine and supplements. It’s like something inside is getting satisfied. My husband is still eating the way he always has and I’m preparing most of his meals. I make brownies w/hand whipped cream, used to be my fave, and berries and cream, and watch him eat great bread dripping with butter etc. We have wonderful fig trees here and yesterday he brought in the first fig of the season, big and juicy, warmed by the sun and perfectly ripe–something I used to love, and I just picked it up and looked at it and thought about how excited I used to get about these things, and I couldn’t care less about it. I CARE about my health, and finally I’ve found a way to access that! Woohoo! Anna
LOL-I love your entire post! How can you sit there are watch another person eat those desserts?! Torture. Figs. May I just say that I have carried with me all my life very, very fond memories of harvesting figs from our trees. Each year I look forward to fig season. Well, we know the trees aren’t going anywhere and there is always next year. Eating on plan makes it all so much easier that ever before.