It's that time of the year when we plan for big holiday meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Ok, so we don't eat the turkey or ham but many of the other dishes can certainly be plant based and good.  For example, mashed potatoes, cranberry, pumpkin, stuffing, fruit salad, green beans and the list goes on.  Just in time, Dr. McDougall has published a list of recipes for the holidays.  Check them out and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Recently, in another blog post, I made the statement about lettuce, "Iceberg is worthless, it is mostly water and has very little nutritional value." But a kind reader (Robert) sent me a nice email response that he too thought iceberg lettuce was low nutritional value until he read this article.  The article is written by Jeff Novick, a dietitian, and offers some wonderful insight to the benefits of iceberg lettuce......believe it or not, it competes with romaine!!  So, I now consider iceberg lettuce one of my plant based friends.

Finally, a few months after starting a plant based diet I ran into a friend of mine who had recently experienced a heart attack.  After some discussion, I shared my recent diet success and the affect on my cholesterol numbers.  He listened to my story and decided to do some research into the diet by reading Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease book and also the China Study.  Dennis is now a strong plant based advocate and has seen some amazing success in his own life.  Read his success story on his blog.

Today we drove to Lancaster so Cari could participate in a dog fair thingy.  On our way home, the standard question came up, "What's for dinner?"  Neither Cari or I had a clue so I told her I would "wing it" and make some kind of black bean soup.  So I looked through the fridge and cupboards and came up with the recipe below.  Because of the diced tomato with fire roasted peppers it has somewhat of a southwest flair.  For the corn, I used Trader Joe's Roasted Corn (frozen) but you can use any corn.  One kid said they didn't like the red bell pepper in is, so you may want to leave it out if red bell pepper is not your thing.  It turned out very yummy and I plan on making it again soon!!  I call it Southwest Black Bean Soup.


Southwest Black Bean Soup

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup vegetable broth, divided
1 cup water
1 can fire roasted dice tomatoes
1 cup frozen corn (roasted corn is even better!)
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, saute the onion, red bell pepper and garlic in 1/4 cup of vegetable broth for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.  You may want to use a potato masher to mash some of the black beans (optional).