Full Transcript Introduction to Gut Health Cooking 0:00 Welcome back, everyone to the Gut Health and Longevity Summit. 0:03 I am so glad you're here and today is a little different from our other sessions. 0:08 So get comfortable because today we are heading into the kitchen 0:13 every session you have seen this week about the science of 0:16 the gut has been amazing, but today we're literally going to give you the spoon. 0:20 Our guest has spent nearly five decades proving that food is built 0:25 for a healthy microbiome full of fiber, prebiotics, and color, 0:30 and can be some of the most craven foods on your plate. 0:35 She is going to cook for us, and she's 0:38 also going to answer some of the questions that we had submitted. 0:42 My next guest has spent 49 years proving something 0:45 most people don't believe as possible, that food with no added sugar 0:51 or or salt can still be at its best and taste amazing. 0:56 Chef AJ has followed a plant exclusive diet for 49 years. 1:00 She trained as a chef and culinary instructor, 1:04 and served as executive pastry chef at Santee Restaurant in Los Angeles. 1:09 She is known for vegan sugar, 1:12 all salt, gluten free desserts. 1:15 Those are my kind of desserts, right? 1:17 From whole fruit to nothing but the fruit. 1:20 She's hosted Healthy Living with chef AJ on foodie TV and so many other things. 1:25 She's also the bestseller of a four books A Secret to Ultimate Weight Loss. 1:30 Own Your Own Health, and many more. 1:33 And oh my gosh chef AJ, what an honor it is to have you here today. 1:38 Welcome and thank you for having us in your kitchen. 1:42 The first question I want to start with because I know you're a chef. 1:45 So you're like, let's get cooking. 1:46 But before we even get there 1:49 and chef AJ 1:51 is so cool, she's like, can we start with the desserts first guy. 1:54 So we will start with the dessert. 1:55 She's going to start with her cinnamon vanilla bliss balls. 1:59 But before we get there I want to ask her a question. 2:02 You've been teaching whole food plant based nutrition for over two decades. 2:07 How has your philosophy involved evolved and what have you learned about 2:12 making healthy eating sustainable for real people in real kitchens? 2:18 Yeah, I great question. 2:20 And I think the main thing is it has to be pretty easy 2:23 because most people aren't going to sit there with a complicated recipe. 2:28 Maybe they will on Thanksgiving or for a special 2:31 first day or a holiday, but it has to be easily repeatable. 2:35 It's got to be sustainable. 2:36 And so I use tools such as an electric pressure cooker, 2:40 an Instant Pot and air fryer, things that cut down the time, 2:43 things that make it so much easier, even cutting tools, things like that. 2:47 Not that it's not great to have nice skills, but I learned a lot. 2:50 Many years ago, I was a volunteer culinary instructor at the Royal Institute, 2:54 and I taught the blind, whole food, plant based cooking. 2:57 And I realized if there was a hack, 2:59 a trick on a piece of equipment that made it easier for a blind person. 3:04 It would also make it easier for a sighted person. 3:07 So I'm all about shortcuts. 3:08 I'm not about perfection. 3:10 So, for example, I don't mind it for myself. 3:14 I do it all the time. 3:15 I buy onions already cut up to save time. 3:18 I buy shredded purple organic cabbage or carrots already shredded 3:22 because I know that if I have to spend the time doing certain things 3:27 that are kind of like menial, maybe I'll spend a few more pennies. 3:30 I'm not going to do them, and I want people to have permission to do that. 3:33 Do your best. 3:34 I mean, of course, organic is important, but you could get so lost in the weeds 3:38 trying to do everything perfect that you actually end up doing nothing. 3:42 Now, I absolutely agree. 3:43 Actually, I had an appointment this morning 3:45 with one of my patients, and we were looking at her test results. 3:49 And I'm like, you know what's really missing from here? 3:52 And mind you, she's already vegan. Okay. 3:54 But and I'm like, 3:55 you know, what's really missing is the abundance of dark, leafy greens. 3:59 And she, like, kind of just rolled her eyes at me. 4:01 She's like, you know, it just takes so much to prep. 4:05 And I'm like, what are you talking about? Right? 4:08 So I agree, prep is like the easiest thing. 4:11 And one of my favorite tools, I'll give you my favorite because I know 4:14 you're going to tell us all about yours today is the Mezza Luna chopper. 4:18 Okay. 4:18 So like the little handheld thing, I use that for everything. 4:23 Meal prep, like all my veggies, everything. 4:26 And I think as we age, just like the ease of that, like, 4:30 you don't feel the pressure of having to cut with the knife and stuff. 4:33 It's super, super easy. But let's. 4:36 I like that. 4:37 Why not using it today? 4:39 But I have one in the drawer and it's great for chop salad. 4:42 And when you talk about prep, that's really another secret. 4:44 You know, whatever diet a person eats, this idea of batch cooking, 4:48 cooking once and eating multiple times, having some and then freezing some, 4:53 that's just a great system regardless of the diet. 4:55 And that's what saves so much time and actually so much money. 4:58 Because if you have healthy food ready,
Cinnamon Vanilla Bliss Balls 5:00 you're less inclined to eat unhealthy food or go out. 5:03 Absolutely. I did my meal prep on Sunday. 5:06 I did an hour of grocery shopping. 5:08 Mind you, 5:09 I went to two grocery stores, came back, did meal prep for the whole week. 5:14 I've got lunch and dinner because I don't do breakfast, 5:17 so I have lunch and dinner prep for the whole week in an hour and a half. 5:20 So that's 2.5 hours on a Sunday. 5:22 And that keeps me from, you know, eating the wrong stuff. 5:26 So let's get started. 5:27 Tell us about your first recipe, the Cinnamon Vanilla Bliss Ball. 5:32 Well, even though I was a pastry chef and I could do really fancy desserts 5:35 and cakes, I wanted something really simple. 5:38 And where I live is 117 today, and the last thing I want to do 5:42 is turn on my oven and bake a cake or a cookie or a cupcake. 5:46 But you don't have to, because you can have a really tasty, 5:49 healthy dessert without refined sugar ready instantly. 5:52 And I'm using almonds today. 5:54 But honestly, if you were allergic to 5:56 or didn't like almonds, any nut or seed would do. 5:59 Actually, even if you couldn't have any nuts 6:01 or seeds, you could substitute rolled oats for this recipe. 6:05 And so I'm going to start with my elements. 6:07 These are raw and unsalted. 6:08 And I'm going to place them in my dry food processor fitted with the S blade. 6:13 The S blade looks like the letter S. 6:15 You want to make sure your food processor is dry, 6:17 because if you're processing things like nuts or seeds or oats in it's 6:20 wet, it will turn into a paste instead of I'm looking for like an almond flour. 6:24 You could probably use almond flour, 6:26 but it's more expensive than just grinding the nuts yourself. 6:29 And so when I turn the processor on, like I'm going to do right now, 6:33 I'm going to mute myself. 6:37 All right. 6:38 So while chef AJ is muted because she's doing the food processor 6:42 so she did her almonds. 6:43 Now almonds provide fiber. 6:46 They provide plant protein. 6:48 And they are a healthy source of healthy 6:51 gut lining because they've got healthy fats in them. 6:54 So that's why we love the almonds I know she's got some dates over there. 6:57 So let's see what she's going to do with the dates next. 7:00 So my food processor it's called a sous chef I love it. 7:04 It's 16 cups I always recommend when it comes to equipment 7:08 get the biggest and best that you can afford. 7:10 So basically I've just 7:11 kind of processed this for 20s into a flower like consistency. 7:15 It doesn't have to be super fine. 7:18 As a matter of fact, I like a little bit of toothsome this with texture. 7:21 And I'm going to next add my two ingredients. 7:24 This is a four ingredient recipe, by the way. 7:26 You don't want 7:26 to overrun your food processor ever because it would turn into a nut butter. 7:30 So I have cinnamon, one of my favorite spices, 7:33 and probably my favorite one, which is pure vanilla bean powder. 7:37 This is different than the vanilla being the powder that you see. 7:41 Maybe the grocery store that white and has sugar or dextrose. 7:45 This is just the vanilla bean that's been ground up. 7:48 I like to use that rather than extracts because extracts 7:51 add liquid to the recipe, which I don't want. 7:53 Plus extracts either have alcohol or glycerin, which is sugar. 7:57 Now I'm just going to pulse this just so quickly rate it 8:02 like that. 8:03 And then I'm going to add my dates. 8:05 These are pitted organic law dates. 8:08 Dates are probably a better tasting date if you're just going to eat it 8:11 or a bar date, but I use so many dates in my recipes, 8:15 it's just much more cost effective to use the date. 8:17 Glenora. 8:18 There are about three times cheaper, so are about three times as expensive. 8:22 And the piece I have found that has the best prices 8:26 and I live in the date capital of the world. 8:27 Actually the desert and California is Costco. 8:31 I've never found better prices. 8:33 229 a pound pitted dates even though they're pitted every now 8:37 and then, there's a rogue pit, so I tend to cut them in half 8:40 just to make sure so that I don't damage my blade. 8:43 So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to add these dates to 8:46 the ground up almonds, cinnamon and vanilla. 8:49 And I'm going to process it until it starts to slow down in a ball form. 8:53 So once again I am going to meet my son. 8:56 Okay. 8:57 So she mentioned the cinnamon we love about 9:01 cinnamon is that cinnamon is anti-inflammatory. 9:04 It's also great for metabolic health. 9:06 So for those of you guys dealing with obesity or diabetes, 9:10 cinnamon is a great kind of powder to put onto your different foods. 9:14 Now. Dates. My favorite. 9:16 She's lucky she lives in the date capital of the world here. 9:19 But date is a soluble fiber and it's got polyphenols. 9:24 So if you do need that sweetness, date is going to be the greatest thing. 9:29 This has got to be one of the easiest recipes that I think there should be. 9:34 No reason you do not try this at home this week. 9:38 So let's see what she's going to do and how this is going to turn out. 9:50 It looks like it is still mixing. 9:53 We're probably looking for a specific texture, 9:57 so it can be rolled into the little balls. 10:01 So that was a minute on my food processor. 10:03 If your food processor is less strong it might take a little longer. 10:07 So what I'm doing is I'm reaching my hand in here to see if I can smush 10:11 the batter together and create a little ball. 10:14 If it's not smushed, for lack of a better word, 10:17 then what I would do is run it a little longer. 10:19 Or maybe just add a few more dates for stickiness. 10:23 But this is smush, and I don't really measure anymore. 10:27 I mean, I sometimes have jobs where I have to make 400 of these, 10:30 but I just roll it into a little ball and you can roll it in more cinnamon 10:34 if you want. 10:35 I feel like that might be sometimes like it's overkill, 10:38 but since these aren't sticky, I'm not going to do that. 10:42 They're they're very similar to something that's commercially available 10:45 that you might have heard of called a Lara Bar, 10:47 which is just a little treat that you can get at places like 10:50 Whole Foods, actually regular grocery stores now. 10:53 And what I love about these is they stay in the freezer for a really long time. 10:57 You can just pop them in your mouth. 10:59 You don't need to eat many of them because they're so satisfying. 11:02 And when you have food, especially dessert that's made out of whole food 11:07 with fiber and vitamins and minerals and phytochemicals 11:10 and antioxidants and micronutrients, you don't need a very large serving. 11:13 I would say I probably wouldn't eat more than three of these. 11:16 So I am not going to roll all of them now, but I'll probably get, gosh, I'm 11:21 guessing at least 24 easily out of these, maybe more. 11:25 I have two questions on this recipe. 11:27 First one is can we use a Vitamix instead of this food processor? 11:32 Will it still work? 11:34 Yeah. 11:34 You know, the thing is Vitamix is are wonderful. 11:37 And I'm going to be using one today actually. 11:39 But they're really more for making things that are going to be a liquid texture. 11:43 You know, like they were great for hummus for example, in smoothies and sorbets. 11:48 I feel that it's it doesn't. 11:51 They're so powerful. 11:52 What I worry about is it's going to turn the nut into a nut butter quickly. 11:56 Okay. These are going to get very I mean, you could try it. 11:58 It would not be my preferred machine for something like this. 12:03 So okay. 12:04 And then my other question for this recipe would be if somebody does 12:08 not like almonds, what is another nut that they might be able to use instead? 12:13 Walnuts are fabulous in here. 12:15 Walnuts have so many other wonderful benefits. 12:17 High in omega three fatty acids you could pick. 12:20 Hands are amazing in here. 12:22 Let's see what other pistachios. 12:25 Oh, I think I'm leaning towards the pistachio one. 12:28 You know, the thing is, the thing that's fun about 12:30 this is like it's very rare. 12:32 Every now and then I've run it. 12:33 I don't know how you can not like dates. They're nature's candy. 12:36 But every now and then you run into a person that doesn't. 12:39 Or maybe very rare. 12:40 It's a very rare allergy. I've met one person. 12:43 You could even use a different dried fruit. 12:45 Now, realize that dates are very sweet and they're like a caramel neutral 12:49 kind of flavor. 12:50 If you use another dry fruit, it's going to taste like that dried fruit. 12:53 So if you're using apricots 12:55 or raisins or figs or prunes or cherries, you can do it. 12:59 Because what it is, is the dried fruit is providing the stickiness, 13:02 the glue and the flour or the nut, meaning not the flour, but the like. 13:07 If you're using oats or if you're using a seed, you could use pumpkin seeds. 13:11 By the way, you could. Here's the thing. 13:13 You have the template in your recipes. 13:15 It's basically two cups of almonds. 13:17 You can mix it up. 13:18 You can use a lot of that. 13:20 So you can use hemp seeds and you know it will. 13:22 This is the beauty of it. 13:23 You can really make a recipe like this your own. 13:25 You don't like cinnamon. 13:27 Maybe you like another spice. 13:28 Maybe you want to put in a little bit of lemon zest or lemon juice. 13:31 And that's what's the cool thing about this. 13:33 But this is a really simple recipe. 13:35 And it actually came out of the fact that I teach at a spot in Mexico called 13:38 Rancho La Puerta, where nothing can come from a can of box, a bottle or a bed. 13:42 So we make our own almond milk, which is really easy, which is just 13:46 basically almonds and water in a blender and string through a bag. 13:49 And then we have that pulp leftover, and I didn't want to throw it away 13:53 and they didn't have a dehydrated. 13:55 So we used the Allman Pulp instead of the elements. 13:58 And they were fabulous. 13:59 So of course up here because I'll finish these later. 14:01 But you can see I've already got one, two, three, 14:03 four, five, six, seven and there's quite a bit less. 14:06 And so I'm going to just save this and do this a little bit later 14:09 so I can move on to the next recipe as soon as I wash my hands. 14:13 Wonderful. Okay. 14:14 So while you're washing your hands, next question is many people know you 14:18 for recipes with no added sugar or salt. 14:23 And when most people hear that combination, 14:26 they assume the food is pretty bland. 14:29 What are your favorite techniques for making whole plant foods flavorful? 14:36 Self? 14:39 There's lots of answers to that question, so 14:43 let's we'll split it up into savory and sweet. 14:46 With sweet, it's not that hard because basically people 14:50 just want sweets to be sweet and tastes good and maybe, maybe taste luscious. 14:54 So instead of all and this works for savory recipes, 14:57 to boil is fat, but it's fat without fiber. 15:01 And really, if you think about it, it's also fat without flavor. 15:04 How many people just eat all by itself without salt or bread 15:07 that has solved or vinegar which has flavor. 15:11 So for the fat, which people like that mouthfeel nuts, seeds, avocado, 15:16 and maybe even a little coconut, sometimes unsweetened flake coconut. 15:20 So that's how we get the fat is from its whole food source with the vitamins 15:23 and minerals, phytochemicals, antioxidants and micronutrients. 15:27 So that I think that's the easiest part, is to be free. 15:30 The salt is the hardest part. 15:31 The sugar is actually pretty easy, 15:33 to believe it or not, because there's really very little. 15:37 And I almost want to say there's nothing that I can't do 15:40 with dates or fruit that anybody else can do with sugar. 15:44 I mean, okay, you could argue, maybe, you know, 15:46 that thing they do over the creme brulée and they have the 15:49 maybe you probably could do it with sugar, but you really don't need sugar. 15:54 You can use dates. 15:55 And that's why we're a whole cookbook called Sweet Indulgence, 15:58 with over 150 recipes of just date sweetened desserts. 16:02 And I just prefer the taste of dates to sugar. 16:05 I have a little bit of sugar now and then in my diet if I go out, 16:09 you know, to a restaurant and vegan ice cream. 16:11 But I always come back to dates I have just left, 16:14 and I'll be able to easily roll those when I'm done. 16:17 I need my food processor for another recipe. 16:19 That's why I wanted to do dessert verse. 16:21 Also, there's an old saying life is uncertain. 16:25 Eat dessert first, but I would agree. 16:27 So what? 16:28 What is the next recipe we're going to be working on? 16:31 We're going to do is I'm going to actually show you how to make 16:34 my very favorite vegetable in an electric pressure cooker. 16:38 And my favorite vegetable is the artichoke artichokes. 16:42 They're so healthy and they're just so delicious. 16:44 But they can take an hour to cook on a stove at least 15 minutes. 16:49 I remember 16:49 my mom used to make them when I was little, and it was such a production 16:52 because just to get a plant that big, boiling took forever. 16:57 So I love the pressure cooker. 17:00 And for your patient that said, it was so hard cooking greens, well, 17:03 you could probably cook greens in about a minute. 17:05 And oppressor cooker bring over electric pressure cooker right here. 17:10 This is the April court I am, I always believe, 17:13 and the biggest and the best that you can afford. 17:16 And yes, I've got that insta pot. 17:19 I've got the eight court and I've got the four court, 17:21 and I do both at the same time. 17:22 Okay. And I have an eight and two threes. 17:25 I used to have a six. 17:26 This is optional. 17:27 You can do this without the basket quite honestly. 17:29 Normally I throw the artichokes in. 17:31 The nice thing about the basket is you could just pull it out. 17:34 You don't have to wait. 17:35 You don't have to burn your hand or anything like that. So. 17:41 I've got my artichokes here. 17:44 Usually I cook for but I'm going to cook two. 17:46 And again I got to tell you, Costco boy, when it comes to organics and prices 17:51 at their unbeatable because I paid $3 for each of these. 17:55 They're organic from Trader Joe's. 17:57 And then when I went to Costco yesterday and like, 17:59 oh my God, four of them were like less than that, you know? 18:02 So I'd love to get them there. 18:03 So how do you how do you prep artichokes? 18:06 Because I have only eaten them when somebody else has prepared them. 18:09 That's well, here's how I am going to be surprised. 18:12 I literally not going to do very much. 18:17 I am going to just type 18:19 this stamp because it doesn't need to be this long, 18:22 because I'm not going to eat this anyway, 18:24 and I'm just going to cut a fear to the base. 18:28 She's not the buffer knife of this 18:29 didn't work. 18:35 Real nice. 18:35 There we go. 18:36 I'm just going to cut this off just to make it fit better. 18:38 I know a lot of people cut the leaves and it's like, why spend time doing that? 18:43 Unless you're doing it 18:44 for some kind of presentation, like maybe you're doing the stock. 18:47 Hope this came up much easier. 18:49 That's it. Rolling in the basket. 18:52 If I don't use the basket, I can actually fit for jumbo artichokes in there. 18:58 And what I'm doing is you this little things 18:59 a lot of people have those little tea 19:01 kettles where you can boil water very quickly. 19:03 Turn my nine and you can start with cold water room temperature water. 19:08 But the nice thing is with the pressure cooker 19:10 if you start with hot water it just goes faster. 19:17 I don't even measure. 19:19 You just want some water on the bottom you can put up to a cup. 19:27 Basically 19:27 we're just steaming and then we're going to place the top on. 19:30 Sometimes people have trouble putting the top on if they realize that 19:35 if they look 19:35 at the front of their pressure cooker as if it were a clock and this were 12:00 19:39 and they took this and put it at 11:00, 19:43 it easily closes. 19:45 There's a little valve sealing or venting. 19:47 We want it sealing. 19:49 And then of buttons here. 19:51 I only have ever used one button called pressure cooker. 19:55 Right now it's three minutes but I need ten.
Pressure-Cooked Artichokes 20:00 Do you have it at the high for pressure cooker? 20:03 High pressure cooker? 20:04 I can do this in seven minutes, but I can. 20:07 And then it's going to make this little deep that says hey, is this. 20:13 Means I got you? 20:15 And I'm just going to decide out of frame to go on. 20:17 All right. 20:18 So the artichokes are cooking. 20:20 We like the artichokes because now we're getting our prebiotic fiber for the day. 20:24 I mean, this is just getting easier and easier really. 20:28 We like the prebiotics because prebiotics are going to feed your gut microbiome. 20:33 That's what you're feeding your gut bacteria with. 20:35 So I love that. 20:37 All right. 20:38 So once again that is a great starting recipe. 20:41 Well take a look at what's going to happen as that comes out in ten minutes. 20:46 Where are we headed next chef. 20:47 Yes yes we're going to do my favorite. 20:50 This could be an entree if you eat enough of them. 20:52 But it's my favorite appetizer. 20:54 Everyone loves these whether they're healthy eaters or not. 20:56 These are mini polenta pizzas. 20:58 But I just want to make a point. 20:59 It's not going to be ready in ten minutes. 21:02 From this moment in time. 21:04 The way a pressure cooker works, it's ten minutes. 21:06 Once the internal pressure comes up to pressure, which I believe is 21:10 boiling, is 212. 21:11 I think pressure cooking is something like 247, 21:14 so it's still going to be very quick, but it's not ten minutes 21:17 from this, ten minutes from when it beats, just so people know. 21:21 But when you think about compared to the amount of time 21:24 you spend boiling a huge pot on the stove, cooking it for 15 minutes or something 21:28 like steel cut out, 21:30 which takes about 15 minutes on the oven, take five minutes in a pressure cooker. 21:34 Corn on the cob takes zero minutes. 21:36 You're still saving a lot of time. 21:38 Plus, we don't have water splitting ring in our face. 21:40 We're not heating up our house, which is the biggest benefit, 21:43 especially if you live somewhere very hot like I do. 21:46 And it's just you don't have to babysit it because it turns itself off. 21:49 That's what I think I love the most. 21:51 What I do with my Insta pot is I will do a lot of curries and dishes in there. 21:55 I'll throw it in, walk the dog and then come back and the dinner is ready. 21:59 That's all the spices. 22:00 Everything goes in there all at once, I love it. 22:03 Take a bath, walk the dog, whatever you. 22:05 It's so cool. 22:06 All right, so now we're going to make the pesto part of the mini polenta pizzas. 22:11 And I can make pesto. 22:13 Okay, I was saying, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. 22:17 I know how to make polenta when I teach at Rancho. 22:20 Nothing from a bag, a box, a bottle. 22:22 We have to make it. 22:23 But it's just so much easier to buy it. 22:25 And they do sell organic to it. 22:29 Really? 22:29 Every grocery store, including the healthier ones, 22:32 the Whole Foods sprouts and treatment in this little tube. 22:35 And it's basically just polenta water and a little salt. 22:38 Would that be in the fridge freezer section or where would that be? 22:41 Just on the shelf is shelf stable. 22:44 It's that easy. And I cut it into 12 pieces. 22:47 You really don't have to cook it if you don't want to. 22:49 You can just use it right like that. 22:51 But I do like to cook it for a little bit, just so it's just a little bit firmer 22:55 and easier to pick up. 22:56 So I've got 12 pieces here. 22:58 And now I'm going to when you said cook it, did you boil it toast it. 23:02 How did you cook it? 23:03 I basically took this silicone tray because I liked using this. 23:08 So I don't have to use parchment paper every time it's oven safe to 450 degrees. 23:13 And I cut it into 12 slices, and I baked it for 20 minutes at 350. 23:19 And then I turned it over and baked it for 20 minutes more. 23:22 Okay, that's how I do it. 23:23 On the tube it says only 20 minutes. 23:25 I like to double side and bake it, but I know people that don't take it at all 23:30 and it's fine. 23:30 You know, it's just it's preference. 23:32 I like things a little bit drier 23:33 and easier to pick up because this is going to be an appetizer. 23:36 So and I'm going to get my I just want to show you 23:41 I'll serve it out of subliminal giving. 23:44 I'll serve it on a college you know. 23:48 All right I'm taking the plane and coming over for dinner after that. 23:52 So I'm going to make way more pesto than I need 23:56 for this recipe because I practice what I preach about batch cooking. 24:00 Because most can be frozen, it can be used in other recipes, 24:04 whatever you use pesto for. 24:05 So for example, pasta, it even people that are like raw food 24:09 people, you will use pasta. 24:11 This is the first. 24:11 That recipe that I first made was a raw food recipe. 24:14 And so is this one 24:15 because there's no cooked ingredients and I like to keep it in the freezer. 24:19 I always have the polenta on the shelf 24:21 and for last minute company I can always pull it out. 24:25 So again, very few. 24:26 There's a theme to my recipes. 24:28 I try to do very few ingredients and simply you can find. 24:32 So these are pine nuts and you could use other nuts. 24:35 We've used pistachios. 24:37 We've used cashews for people with nut allergies. 24:39 We've even used garbanzo beans. 24:41 But this is the best and creamy. 24:43 Not for this if you can do it. 24:45 I know it's a more expensive nut, but it really is unparalleled for pesto. 24:49 And again, these are not toasted. 24:50 These are raw unsalted pine nuts. 24:52 And I'm just placing them in my food processor 24:56 with a little bit of miso paste. 24:58 This is low sodium miso. 25:01 This is my salt component. 25:03 What color miso was that. 25:05 Because we can get white brown and red miso. 25:08 I think I indicated in the recipe white I couldn't find white this I love it 25:13 and unless you want it to look red so I would use the yellow or the white. 25:17 And so if somebody can't have soy they have chickpea. 25:21 Me so now they have brown rice me so there's different kinds of measles 25:25 and then lots and lots of fresh measles 25:27 or basil, however you pronounce it. 25:31 And then my lemon juice, 25:33 one other ingredient 25:36 got to take it out. 25:39 In and barley. 25:43 And I ever since the pandemic 25:45 I don't always have fresh garlic on hand, but I always have the 25:49 same thing with 25:50 the ginger and these cuts that I do with garlic. 25:54 You know, there's an old saying 25:55 you measure with the heart, so I'm putting in a heaping tablespoon. 25:59 It's your preference how much you put in. 26:01 But I find that this is just a such a great thing to have 26:04 because it's it stays in the fridge for a really long time 26:08 and then you don't have to worry about it. 26:11 I'm going to meet my volume now 26:14 so I can process this in the food processor. 26:17 All right. 26:17 So you can see when she was making this pesto there was no all involved. 26:22 What I love is okay, we've got the garlic. 26:24 Once again another source of prebiotics for our gut microbiome. 26:29 Especially because guess what? 26:31 The bacteria Bifidobacterium loves garlic. 26:35 So that's really good to have. 26:37 Then we've got the basil. 26:38 And basil is going to contribute more to those greens the polyphenols 26:42 protective metabolites. 26:44 And then pine nuts is what's going to add that plant fat 26:48 without any of that added all. 26:50 So that's kind of kind of helped make that creaminess of what 26:53 we see, usually with a pesto. 26:56 So this recipe right here of the pesto that's going to go on there 27:01 gives you a range of both the prebiotics and the polyphenol rich plants. 27:08 A so I 27:12 at one point I stopped the food processor just to scrape down the sides 27:16 where I had a few rogue pine nuts, and now I have my beautiful basil pesto. 27:22 And so what I'm going to do is with a little spreader spoon, I'm 27:26 going to, you know, fairly generously 27:30 spread each piece of to 27:33 with this pesto. 27:35 Now, this pesto is very versatile because let's say you don't want to 27:39 or don't like corn. There's other things you can do with it. 27:41 So one of the things I like to do with this pesto is make stuff mushrooms. 27:46 And you make them, you hollow out a little bit, you take off the stem 27:50 and then you bake them for about 20 minutes. 27:53 Or if you want to put them in the food to hydrate. 27:54 Or you can do it that way too. 27:56 If you don't like mushrooms, you can do the same thing with zucchini. 27:59 Stuff it with this pesto. 28:01 But this is so yummy and it's so pretty because when you see what we top it 28:06 with, with the red and all the other four, 28:09 there's four toppings that I'm putting on because these are the toppings I like. 28:13 It's going to look super pretty once I make these. 28:16 These are good to go to eat, but what I like to do 28:19 for an extra step is right before the company comes. 28:23 I just stick them in my air fryer for five minutes. 28:26 It just kind of makes them nice and toasty on top, 28:29 and then I drizzle it with a little bit of reduced balsamic vinegar, 28:33 and I might shift in on a little bit of fresh basil on top. 28:36 Just just to be pretty. 28:38 Now you said that the extra pesto you freeze. 28:42 How do you prep that. 28:44 Like what are you putting it in and how long can we freeze it for. 28:47 Several months I'd say for at least three months. 28:50 I will put it in a piece of Tupperware that is freezer safe. 28:53 Or honestly, a freezer Ziploc bag also works in that takes up less room 28:58 in your freezer, and it's fun to have it already ready when you want to make these. 29:03 I've made. 29:03 I almost always served these for Thanksgiving, 29:07 and so I will make all my pesto in advance. 29:09 Also, people that grow their own herbs. 29:11 You know when the basil is fresh, this is when you want to make the pesto. 29:15 Because you know, basil, in my opinion, fresh basil does not freeze 29:18 well by itself. 29:19 But when it's in something like this, it's absolutely fine. 29:24 And so that's a great use of when you have like, I'm going to actually 29:26 have some leftover basil from this recipe, but unfortunately I don't have 29:30 any more pine nuts. 29:31 Otherwise I would make a lot more and maybe I will go to the store. 29:35 Actually, that might not be a bad I just to make sure that I use up 29:39 all my basil Haskell is another great place for pine nuts. 29:42 It's. 29:42 I don't know why pine nuts, I guess because they have to take it out of the 29:46 the thing. 29:47 But you can see I have enough here to make 24 more pizzas. 29:52 Yeah. To have in the freezer. 29:54 Just kind of if you want to take this you could move this to the side.
Mini Polenta Pizzas with Basil Pesto 30:00 And now let's see what are 30:03 the toppings that you were talking about that you like to put on yours. 30:06 I like to put on pizzas is what I like to eat on pizza. 30:09 So I'm going to show you my four favorite toppings for pizza. 30:13 Now, if somebody didn't want to make pesto 30:17 pizzas for whatever reason, they could use marinara sauce. 30:21 Make sure it's a very thick one, though, because you don't want it running off 30:24 when you know, but there's no reason you couldn't do that. 30:27 So my favorite toppings are olives, but only kalamata olives, 30:32 artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, and roasted red bell peppers. 30:38 And so now how are you finding olives 30:41 that have not been soaked in? All? 30:44 Because I just got back from Greece, and all the olives that we could buy at 30:49 the store were sitting in. All right. 30:51 So I'm very lucky. Now they will have salt. 30:54 Now you can get salt free olives on the internet. 30:58 I've seen them. 30:59 I don't know, it's like but Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, at least where I live, 31:03 have kalamata pitted olives with no just salt if you want. 31:09 If you want to grab it from the fridge, I will double check that. 31:11 That's correct. 31:12 But I certainly don't feel any oil on these. 31:16 But we're going to look we're double check these ingredients. 31:21 Here we go. 31:22 It says Greek pitted kalamata olives, 31:26 Kalamata olives water salt red wine vinegar okay. 31:31 So no all in those windows right. 31:34 I often like if you go to Whole Foods that they're Olivar. 31:37 You will see lots of boil in me. 31:40 I'm doing one and a half olives on these. 31:42 You can do one, you can do two. I've cut them in half. 31:44 The fact that they're pitted makes them go even faster. 31:48 And this is just a very pretty festive dish. 31:51 Yeah, it looks like a good holiday or a good dish for like 31:54 when you have company over. 31:56 Absolutely. 31:56 I think it would go very far in the taste profile. 32:00 I have six artichokes here. 32:02 Artichoke hearts. 32:03 I get them frozen at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. 32:06 There's no and I'm just going to put a half an hour to choke on each one. 32:10 You could make, you know, a whole one I think 32:13 would make it a little bit harder to get everything on. 32:16 But I want to I want to put as many toppings on this pizza as I can now. 32:20 Artichoke hearts. 32:21 They happen to be one of the richest sources of inulin, 32:24 a fiber that really fuels a diverse microbiome. 32:28 I will admit I didn't start eating artichokes until I was an adult. 32:31 It was not something that, like as a kid, that that I really grew up eating. 32:36 So definitely now adding in the artichokes. 32:40 And then, we've got the olives. 32:44 We all know olives are a great source of nutrients. 32:48 They actually contain something called oil opinion, 32:52 which is really good for your skin health too. 32:55 So olives is great. 32:58 What else do you have on the on that pizza of yours? 33:01 We're going to put on some sun dried tomatoes and these 33:05 boil at all. 33:07 These are just sun dried tomatoes I mean yes often they do come in. 33:10 But I get the bags that Trader Joe's actually. 33:13 But even at the local, you know, regular market called WinCo, 33:16 they come with no real if you were and then just a little piece of sun 33:20 dried tomato over the top. 33:22 And then the last thing is roasted red bell pepper, 33:25 which you can now buy in jars. 33:27 They will contain some salt, but you can easily roast one yourself, 33:31 especially if you have a gas stove. 33:33 Just by taking it like and putting it right over the flame. 33:37 Or you can roast them in the oven. 33:38 But again, these are things, 33:40 these extra steps that the people that want to be absolutely perfect do. 33:44 That's fine. 33:45 But that would enable me 33:46 not to want to do it because it's just too much work for me. 33:49 Well, I think you made a good point here is because 33:52 we're not always looking for these things that don't contain all. 33:56 Like most of the time we just when we look at olives, 33:58 we're like, oh, we just grabbed them and not even look 34:01 that is there one sitting right next to it that's all free 34:04 or is there something that's not drenched in like excess ingredients? 34:09 So I think this is a very good point to just start 34:12 kind of looking at the labels a little bit, but then at the same time 34:15 don't make it too complicated. 34:18 So again, 34:18 this is, this brings this what I like about the red bell pepper 34:22 is it just brings a lot of beautiful color to this. 34:26 And really it's like when you eat these, it's kind of an explosion of flavor, 34:30 like a party in your mouth of all these deliverance, different flavors. 34:33 And if you don't like one of these ingredients, use what you like 34:36 on your pizza. 34:38 But I'll tell you these I've never had a complaint. 34:41 The biggest problem with these is people want to eat more than like, 34:44 I figure like three per person, boy. 34:47 People want more. 34:49 And it's like, it's just the way it is because they're really that good. 34:53 And, you know, 34:53 I would say you could probably do 34:54 like a large pizza, but this is a pretty rich filling, the pesto. 34:58 So I really don't know how many you could eat. 35:00 So that's what we're going to do. 35:02 Just make them look pretty. 35:03 And then like I said, we can eat them now. 35:05 But if you can spare that extra five minutes under the air fryer, 35:09 it just makes it really, really beautiful. 35:12 And these are ready to go in. 35:14 Yep. Those look delicious. 35:18 Now that to me looks like a great source of dietary fiber for gut health. 35:23 When you have when you're looking at your meals 35:27 and you're creating recipes and stuff, are you, 35:30 you know going, oh do I have enough fiber in this recipe? 35:33 Don't I really? Don't worry. I'll tell you why. 35:36 Because almost every plant food, every plant food has some fiber 35:40 and even plant foods we think about like, well, 35:42 they don't have enough fiber, like white rice, for example. 35:45 Still has more fiber than any animal product, 35:48 which has fiber or any processed food that has zero fiber. 35:52 So I look through taste and color more than worrying about that, 35:56 because as long as you're eating enough in a wide variety, 35:59 you're going to get enough fiber. 36:01 That's it's I never met a whole. 36:03 Vegans sometimes don't get enough fibers, junk food eaters. 36:06 But if you're eating a whole plant diet, you're going to get enough fiber. 36:11 Actually, sometimes people feel at the beginning they're getting too much fiber. 36:15 Imagine that. 36:16 I don't know if there's such a thing 36:18 as too much fiber, but I do love all the colors I'm seeing on there, 36:22 because for me, it's always about eating diversity, eating the rainbow. 36:25 So you've definitely got the colors going in there. 36:28 So that looks like another easy dish 36:31 that really did not require, you know, turning on that oven behind you. 36:35 So where are we headed next on this plant journey? 36:38 Well, while we were talking, the pressure cooker beat ten times, which means it's. 36:43 But in the end, we're just going to leave it alone. 36:46 We don't need to eat these right now. 36:47 So what I'm just going to do is unplug it. 36:49 No, husband's going to unplug it for me, and it'll come down to pressure naturally. 36:53 And then I'll show you what we're going to do with them. 36:56 So our pizzas away, and I'm going to make 37:01 the entry of the meal. 37:05 And this again, I really try I try to make things 37:09 that everyone will like, not just people that are healthy eaters that. 37:12 So I teach in schools and they're not vegan, and I'm 37:15 really blessed that they'll take me because it's it was a hard sell. 37:18 It took years to get in there 37:20 with all the stakes, with all the chefs that are grilling their state 37:23 and doing all that stuff. 37:24 So very few of the people coming here, 37:27 so it has to taste good or I'm not going to be invited back month after month. 37:30 Right? It's really, really important. 37:32 So I just did a class last week called Eating Without Heating. 37:35 And this is what we made as the entree. 37:37 And they loved it. So first thing we're going to do 37:41 is I'm all about 37:44 quick and easy. 37:45 And any if there's an easier way to do it or cheap 37:48 a way to do it, I'm hoping that I would be able to pass that on to you. 37:52 As we mentioned with the artichoke, sure, you can boil them on the stove. 37:56 I don't have 50 minutes, I don't I have a lot to do. 37:59 I can't be thinking about what's on the stove. 38:01 Is it going to boil over the amount of time it takes to boil water? 38:05 So I figured out hacks like how to cook all my Costas in the Instant Pot. 38:09 But I found this product that it rose my mind. 38:12 And it's available for sure on the internet. 38:14 I mean, always on the internet, 38:16 but I can get into stores like Cost Plus and Whole Foods. 38:19 Basically it's rice noodles, instant rice noodles. 38:23 I use those actually a lot. 38:25 I use those a lot. 38:26 I found them also sometimes in World Market and found. 38:31 Yeah World Market, 38:32 I found them, I even found them sometimes in like TJ Maxx and HomeGoods. 38:36 You just gotta look. So yeah. 38:39 So all we're going to do and basically the ingredient is rice. 38:43 And all we're going to do 38:44 is for boiling water over this for literally three minutes. 38:48 And it it's just so mind blowing. 38:50 And so what we're going to just put this in a bowl. 38:53 My little kettle is what is doing this this for these. 38:57 Once it starts to soften I like to cut them up a little bit. 39:01 Just because everybody that's going to eat this tonight is American. 39:03 I'm the only one that knows how to use chopsticks. 39:06 They struggle. 39:07 So I cut the noodle a little bit smaller just to make it easier for them in. 39:12 My water is boiled and all I'm going to do is pour over the top. 39:20 I'm going to look at my clock, 39:23 and in three minutes 39:26 it's going to be ready. 39:27 I could have used a little bit more water. 39:29 I'll get these. You know what? 39:32 It's so hot here. 39:33 We're ready to do that sink is just about boiling. 39:36 But I do want to come. 39:40 Yeah, 39:40 I make pad Thai all the time, but I was not making it with these noodles. 39:44 Those noodles I usually use to put into my veggie spring rolls, 39:48 like my rice paper rolls. 39:49 But I think I'll try the pad Thai after watching you. 39:53 Well, I, I find that these noodles are game changing, 39:56 and so we'll just set these aside for now, and then we'll move on to the sauce. 40:02 So read the sauce I'm going to be using butter. 40:06 You want to use peanut butter. 40:07 You can. It's fantastic. 40:09 With peanut butter it would probably be great with tahini 40:12 I haven't tried it but I don't see why it wouldn't. And 40:16 you could use roasted almond butter. 40:18 I probably I, 40:19 I don't know if I would use a pistachio butter 40:21 for this necessarily because I think if it's more like for sweet. 40:24 So we're using the element butter 40:26 because we already have almonds in some of the other recipes. 40:29 And I've already measured it out. That's another trick. 40:31 Tip or trick is even though I'm cooking for you right now 40:36 is a presentation, I measure everything out, even when I'm just doing it myself. 40:41 It just means. 40:42 And plus we love our mes implores set up. 40:44 That's that's how it makes everything so easy. 40:47 Let me ask you the almond butter. 40:50 This is one thing I've noticed is sometimes you might buy some almond butter 40:53 and then it's really thick. 40:55 I just saw that come out really easy. 40:57 Is there a way to soften the almond butter a little bit? 41:01 Oh, yeah. Right. 41:02 Now, it's so funny that you mentioned this 41:04 because I know it's because it's a hundred something degrees where you are, 41:07 but when it's winter time, how do we stop there? 41:10 Almond butter. 41:12 This really helped. 41:13 So then I'm all this tool at the kitchen store where I teach. 41:17 And when you first open your jar, 41:20 get it 41:21 really, really well stirred, the other thing you can do, 41:25 it wouldn't be raw, but many of the stores have these machines 41:29 where it grinds the nut butter for you right there, but it's going to sit. 41:33 Or roasted peanuts that will stay soft. 41:36 That doesn't get hard. 41:38 But yeah, well, if you don't have a tool like this, just take a big, 41:41 thick spoon and really, really get it from the bottom. 41:45 And that's that's kind of my favorite. 41:48 So I'm going to add my liquids to this. 41:49 And by the way, we could go right into the cooking of this. 41:52 I just find it's just a little easier and quicker if I do it in the blender. 41:55 First you can just call these ingredients and just cook it in the pot, 41:58 which we're going to do. 41:59 I've got all my liquid ingredients pre. 42:02 There was water in here. 42:04 There's tiny bit of maple sirup. 42:05 You can use date sirup if you don't want to use maple sirup. 42:08 There is a very low sodium coconut amino which is only 90mg of sodium per 42:15 2300 for salt. 42:17 If you didn't want to use this, there are sums for this, 42:19 like there's a vinegar called California balsamic 42:21 that you can use, and we have some rice vinegar in here. 42:25 And then I have my garlic and my ginger. 42:28 And again you saw me use the garlic from the jar. 42:30 That's what I'm using. 42:31 And I buy the ginger in those little frozen cubes because I, 42:35 but I don't love it enough to always have it fresh. 42:38 And so this works really well. 42:40 One thing that I forgot to get is the red pepper flakes 42:44 the recipe calls for, I believe. 42:47 Let me look at it as a half. 42:49 Yeah, a half. It's half a teaspoon. 42:51 I'm going to put in a quarter because my husband doesn't like things spicy. 42:55 And so this gives it a little bit of a kick without being overly spicy. 42:58 But remember you can always add to a recipe you can't take away. 43:04 So we're just going to use a quarter of a teaspoon. 43:07 And I probably shouldn't say this publicly, but I'm terrible. 43:10 I other than the first jar, I've never bought crushed red pepper 43:14 the rest of my life, you know? 43:15 How come I just get it for free of every Italian restaurant I ever go to, 43:19 and I just. 43:23 We're going to be checking chef AJ's purse from now on. 43:26 She's got some crushed pepper in there. 43:30 I just take it from there. 43:33 And then we're going to blend. 43:37 I'm just checking on my oh, my rules are ready. 43:39 You got to excuse me for one minute. 43:40 I've got to drain these because. Hey. 43:44 All right. 43:44 So while she's working on that. Right. 43:47 So we've got the almond butter in there. 43:49 Once again that was the plant fat that can help slow digestion. 43:53 Feed that gut bacteria. 43:55 Further down the path, we had the garlic and ginger, both 43:59 which have been associated with a healthier gut microbiome composition. 44:03 We are going to get to the vegetable shortly after this source gets blended up. 44:08 So this looks like, once again, a much easier way of doing a Pad 44:15 Thai than, and much healthier than ordering it from a restaurant 44:19 when you do not know 44:20 how much all and fat and all other ingredients are going into it. 44:25 In fact, 44:25 I've had a number of vegan patients who are like, oh yeah, I'm eating vegan. 44:29 And I'm like, well, you know, your test results are showing 44:33 a lot of fish items in your food allergy testing. 44:37 And they're like, but I don't eat fish, I don't eat any of this. 44:40 And I'm like, well, are you eating at Asian restaurants? 44:43 Because usually even if you say vegan, they might put 44:46 fish sauce in it, unless you're very specific. 44:49 So keep that in mind. 44:51 You don't really know what's going in your food 44:53 when you're outside, unless you're being super specific. 44:56 And you can see how easy it is to cook one of these recipes at home.
Easy Pad Thai Salad 45:01 So yeah. 45:03 So we're I definitely was not cutting up these noodles. 45:05 I think I will do that next time to I'm the one who takes my fork 45:09 and spins them around and makes fun with them. 45:13 You're having company. 45:14 Sometimes they feel self-conscious. 45:16 And so what I'm doing is, as well as it's sitting in the water, 45:18 which is unfortunately never gets cold here, but it's less hot. 45:22 I'm just cutting them up. 45:23 It just makes it a little bit easier, you know, I think for people to eat them. 45:27 But again, you don't have to do this. 45:29 And you know, it's so true what you say about when you order tired or restaurant, 45:33 it is literally swimming in its glistening. 45:36 And that's because they just they don't understand 45:38 and they don't know how to cook without a well. 45:41 And the fish thing was 45:42 I ordered recently at a restaurant, I said, hey, I'm vegan. 45:45 And again, they still are so hard. 45:48 They gave me, you know, something and it wasn't. 45:50 So you just you got a really? Yeah. 45:52 I think it's really hard for them to flavor it properly because it's 45:57 I've used sometimes tamarind to get the flavor in the tamarind pod 46:02 to get that kind of tangy flavor, because they're so used to using the fish 46:06 sauce to get that pet Thai flavor. 46:07 So this looks like a good combination here that you're showing us 46:11 how to save vegan fish sauce. 46:13 Have managed to get it on on Amazon, but there was a vegan restaurant 46:18 where I used to live in Roseville, and they did sell 46:21 and use something called vegan fish sauce. 46:23 So I'm just trying to get this a little 46:25 bit drained so that it's not going to make the sauce diluted. 46:29 So we'll just put this to the side for now. 46:31 And then we're just going to quickly blend the sauce. 46:35 Well, whoever the guests are 46:36 that are coming over tonight are in for a treat. 46:39 I must say I do a cooking demo for a doctor or a summit 46:43 I always invite. 46:47 Myself just one. 46:48 Okay. 46:49 All right. 46:50 So, so far, just to recap 46:52 what's been going on if you are just following up with us. 46:56 We started with dessert. 46:58 Chef AJ made some cinnamon vanilla bliss balls. 47:01 Then we moved into cooking some artichokes 47:04 in the Insta pot, which we are going to get back to in a second. 47:08 Her appetizers were the mini polenta pizzas with free basil pesto, 47:14 and now we are in the process of making the source 47:18 for the main dish, which is the easy pad 47:22 Thai noodles, where she used the quick rice noodles that cook quite instantly. 47:28 And now we're moving on to looks like adding the sauce with the noodles. 47:34 And let's see what chef AJ is going to do, because I see the rainbow 47:37 of veggies behind her so I know what's coming. 47:40 So the sauce is pretty. 47:42 You don't have to cook this sauce, but it's pretty liquidy. 47:45 And when I have my friend who's raw over I just chill it. 47:48 And she she doesn't want anything cooked. 47:50 But if you can take the time 47:53 and you didn't have to use a blender for this, 47:55 it just I find it's just a little easier than stirring it from the pot. 47:58 I'm just going to put this in my pot and stir. 48:02 Now, this is just like a little camp stove, 48:04 so it's going to take maybe a little bit longer than if we did it on 48:08 the on the real stove behind me, then you wouldn't be able to see me. 48:12 So we're just going to take my little I don't know what this is 48:16 called, but it's great. 48:17 Potato potato masher. 48:19 It's really cool. It's like all squiggly. Oh. 48:22 Oh no, that's something different. 48:24 That's a neat tool. 48:25 So it's kind of something between a potato masher slash 48:29 like baking like whisker something that's a new one. 48:34 I have not seen that one. 48:36 You know, if you have, coated pasta, whatever, it just doesn't. 48:40 It's just it's for me. 48:41 It's just starts to heat up. 48:43 I'm just going to start and I'll be ready very quickly 48:45 and let's get the rest of our. 48:47 So that does not mess up your pasta is what you're saying exactly. 48:51 It's it's a couple word thing. 48:53 I have a lot of Tupperware, as you can see, 48:55 and I really want to get and most of it has a lifetime guarantee. 48:59 I've gone back to them 20 years later 49:01 and gotten my moles replaced, and it's pretty cool. 49:04 So I'm going to put them when I serve it. 49:06 I'm going to serve it in a very pretty bowl. 49:07 But for mixing it's just going to be in a regular bowl. 49:11 So what we did is 49:13 we took our noodles and our source, which is cooking, 49:18 and I'm literally add 2 pounds of vegetables to this dish. 49:23 And what's cool about it is not only just adds a lot of fiber, 49:26 but it also has a lot of flavor and a lot of color. 49:30 So my purple cabbage 49:33 and my shredded carrots both are organic. 49:36 They both came in eight ounce bags. 49:37 I steamed them in a little tool that's a microwave steamer each for six minutes. 49:42 And I'm going to pour it just so pretty. 49:44 I don't even want to put it in the bowl. 49:46 Well, okay, so it looks like she's got the purple cabbage. 49:50 Plus I see there the broccoli. 49:52 So that is both going to be sources of cruciferous fiber 49:55 because it's going to have the casino lights in it that's going to support 49:59 that resilient microbiome. 50:01 And then she added those carrots. 50:02 And I also see bell peppers. 50:04 So that's going to add your carotenoids right. 50:06 So now we're back to eating the rainbow. 50:08 You know they say that you want to eat 30 different 50:13 whole plant foods in a week for the best diversity in your microbiome. 50:19 If you're looking at this, we pretty much hit, 50:23 if not half more than a half of it in one meal with chef AJ 50:27 I you know you know, it's funny because when you first invited me 50:30 to be a guest and I'm so honored to do that, I was like 50:34 well what am I going to make that's going to, you know, be 50:37 favorable to the microbiome? 50:38 And then I realized, hey, it's not that hard. 50:41 I just pick my the recipes I like and we're going to get there. 50:44 So there's 2 pounds of steamed vegetables. 50:47 And now take my little tool with the name that I don't know, 50:51 but it's starting to bubble up and we're just going to stir it around. 50:54 This is going to get thick very very quickly. 50:57 All right. 50:57 So while you're working on that, let me ask you another question. 51:00 Because you did mention this earlier. 51:02 You spoken about letting go of perfection around food. 51:06 How can people build a way of eating that's both healthy 51:11 and enjoyable enough to last a lifetime, not just a 30 day reset? 51:17 Maybe don't think about it as a lifetime right away. 51:19 That's the thing. 51:20 I mean, that's, 51:21 I think, the benefit of 30 days because I think, you know, think about 51:24 like if you think about like an absence program for drinking, 51:27 if they take one day at a time and that's, you know, can you imagine, 51:31 like if they went in there saying, okay, you're never going? 51:33 It's psychologically very hard to tell somebody that they have. 51:37 By the way, this is ready. 51:38 Look how quickly it fixed up to tell somebody to do something that's difficult 51:42 or that they may not want to do that, they have to do it the rest of the light. 51:45 So I think of it as a meal at a time. 51:48 Each meal is a chance to make a choice. 51:51 You know, the thing is, is one of the other things I say is 51:55 think about having more healthy meals than unhealthy meals. 52:00 And I think when you tell people 52:01 they can never have something unhealthy again, they shut down. 52:05 But the idea is, and I still do this myself, I have become much 52:08 more flexible with my diet, but I it's like ingrained in me 52:13 that if I'm going to eat something, that's a treat. 52:14 I always eat something healthy first. 52:17 Or like I never start with the most hyper 52:20 palatable, you know, the thing that I'm going to be doing. 52:23 So this is completely ready. 52:25 And so now what we want to do is get our noodles. 52:29 You know what? 52:29 I sometimes like to do it a little bit this way is to put the noodles in the pan 52:35 to make sure that all the noodles get covered, you know, 52:38 get covered with the sauce. 52:40 Get the sauce. Yeah, yeah. 52:41 So I'm going to put the noodles. 52:43 Usually I'm using a bigger pan but that would not sit on this little stove. 52:47 So I'm going to put the noodles in the pan. 52:51 And then I'm going to get a stir. 52:53 Stir. It's a spatula. 52:55 Try to get these covered up. 52:56 Oh and this sauce by the way let's say you don't want to do noodles. 53:01 This is just a wonderful sauce. 53:02 You could just put it over steamed broccoli you know. 53:06 Or you could even do like the chini noodles if you don't want to do rice 53:10 noodles. 53:11 What I said in the recipe that if somebody did 53:13 you could take the zucchini noodles or might even be better. 53:17 What's called cuddles where you take peeled cucumbers and make noodles. 53:23 Oh that could be really cool. 53:25 So let's get this going. 53:29 All right. 53:30 So now 53:32 let's pour it over this 53:35 I still want to get it all mixed in. 53:37 The thing is is we want to chill this for a few hours before serving. 53:41 So do you serve it cold. 53:43 I do I think that this, I think that this particular dish 53:47 tastes better is a cold chilled noodle salad. 53:50 That's why I called it pad Thai salad instead of traditional pad Thai. 53:54 So. And would you garnish it. 53:58 Are you going to add something to it later. 54:00 What I'll do is right before survey 54:02 and I could do it now I suppose I'm going to add lots and lots of green onions. 54:05 The the green part of the scallion. 54:08 And on the table I will have some sesame seeds and some chopped elements. 54:14 So if it's peanut butter I use chopped peanuts elements, chopped onions. 54:17 And I'll have for people to 54:21 if they like. 54:25 Want to mix this all together. 54:26 And then I'll put it, you know, 54:28 this would this would be a great time to use food service gloves. 54:31 And if it's not too hot, I think I'm going to do it because then 54:34 I can really get. 54:35 Yeah, you can get get it all covered up. 54:38 Okay. 54:40 So let me see for the people who are watching right now 54:44 which and they're maybe not so comfortable in the kitchen. 54:48 Which of these recipes would you say to start with first. 54:52 Like if that's all they were going to do, which one 54:55 recipe that we do next which is the fennel. 54:59 All right. 55:00 Ingredients in lemon juice. 55:02 That's what I would say. 55:03 Start with that one okay. 55:05 The date shape which is going to be what we end with okay. 55:09 So we're starting with dessert and we're going to end with dessert. 55:12 So this is this is the best way to learn to eat your plants. 55:18 So we're just okay. 55:19 So having some gloves in the house is also helpful really because you don't 55:24 want to be that one person with a noodle that's not coated. 55:28 Especially since that sauce looked so good. 55:31 It's me. 55:32 And you know, 55:32 you know, when I do taught this at this school, people wanted extra sauce. 55:35 And I'm like, really like this. 55:37 I mean, but everybody's a little different. 55:39 So I had to make a little extra source for them, but that's fine. 55:42 But I think if I had used the food service gloves, they wouldn't have noticed that 55:46 because everything would be equally distributed. 55:49 And I want to grab a pretty dish. 55:51 I have some clear, some clear Tupperware, which and by the way, I use 55:55 the ingredients I like maybe 55:58 something in here don't use it. 56:00 You could use a yellow bell pepper. 56:02 You know it does. Or an orange bell pepper. 56:04 You know, there have been times where I've made this like for example, for 56:07 like a plant based potluck and to stretch it out. 56:10 I've added even more vegetables. 56:11 I've added chopped cucumber, you know. 56:14 So I would add personally I would add sprouts on it. 56:18 Yeah. 56:19 Because I just like for garnish I always like adding that extra round of green. 56:24 So I would add sprouts on it. 56:26 I have people had tell me that they add edamame to this. 56:30 More okay. 56:31 So protein you could add tofu edamame. 56:35 So people have told me they have done that. 56:36 So these are just you know templates make it your own. 56:39 But yeah I, I can see a big difference using gloves that everything is covered 56:44 evenly which is so nice. 56:46 Oh this I, this is such a I mean people 56:49 this can tell you I'm not saying it because it's my recipe. 56:52 I'm saying it because it's true. This is just yummy. 56:55 I could have used the. 56:56 It seems like I have less bell pepper and the red is so pretty. 56:59 I wish I had gotten a second one or a bigger one, but this will be fine. 57:04 So this is pretty good. 57:05 And with the gloves you know I didn't lose very much chef product, but 57:10 I want to see where are my pretty glass that things I have. 57:15 Luckily this is not a kitchen that's sanctioned by the what's a much of a call. 57:20 Because there are some 57:22 bushes that are walking around looking for things that are on the floor. 57:28 Where we have it. 57:28 So I'll take a prettier roll like this. 57:31 You know, that's the other trick is if you're trying to enroll somebody 57:35 in healthy eating, get the prettiest one you can make it pretty. 57:40 Oh, I've got so many pretty dishes. 57:42 I just love, like, having dishes of food. 57:45 So here we go. 57:46 Okay, I'm just going to transfer it. 57:49 And then we've got really. 57:50 The next two recipes are so quick and easy. 57:52 Very very easy recipes. 57:55 The reason I did two desserts is because my husband is helping with the filming, 57:59 and I feel like he should be paid in a date shape because he 58:04 find them commercially. 58:05 They're like $12. 58:07 Thank you, thank you. 58:08 Charles, you're getting bribed with a date shake. 58:10 I love that that you didn't do stuff. 58:13 So I'm going to do a real quick salad, which is just so yummy, but 58:18 okay, so now we're going to do the good and plenty fennel salad. 58:21 Oh, look at that. That looks beautiful. 58:23 I see broccoli, the peppers, all of that serve a lot of people. 58:28 And we're going to place it in the refrigerator now 58:31 for about least 3 or 4 hours to get it nice and chill for our dinner. 58:38 So good. 58:38 And plenty fennel salad. 58:40 Tell us about this recipe that you created. 58:43 You know, I think that is a really underused vegetable. 58:46 It's a, you know, it's like celery, I don't care. 58:49 I'm not a pretty. 58:50 But I'll be honest, I don't care for Salvi, I just don't. 58:53 Oh, that's like it. 58:55 But Sam has such a wonderful taste. 58:58 It tastes like. 58:59 And said tastes like licorice. 59:01 May not like that. 59:03 You won't like that taste. 59:04 But I always knew I wasn't a kid that liked to read who I liked. 59:08 The black. 59:10 I'll take your wonderful piece. 59:12 And by confining it with some days it actually tastes like a childhood favorite. 59:17 Sandy, which is. 59:18 I guess they still make it a good one. 59:21 And so three ingredients fennel digs and lemon juice. 59:25 Or you could use lime juice. 59:27 And this is one of those salads that I have added things to on 59:30 what's in the house, and especially if I'm trying to extend it. 59:34 Or maybe I have trouble getting settled. 59:36 I can usually find in most first restores, 59:39 especially ones like even Trader Joe's, 59:43 I added things like shredded or cut off apple 59:47 Harris. 59:49 Really? Anything you like? 59:50 I'm basically just moving out my blender now, 59:53 but when I'm going to make the date shake, which is going to be very, very soon. 59:58 So now.
Fennel Salad and Date Shake 1:00:00 Though, 1:00:02 so there's three. 1:00:03 I'm excited about this one because I love licorice and I will eat fennel salad 1:00:08 when I go out, but I don't really know how to prep it properly. 1:00:12 So I'm excited about this one because you also said it's one of the easiest 1:00:16 one way sandalwood is really delicious is roasted or air fright. 1:00:21 It's just phenomenal 1:00:22 that wait, if you can do it, you can eat it or put it in soups. 1:00:25 There's three parts to the fennel. 1:00:28 There's the fonds, the kind that kind of looks like, 1:00:31 do you know the the fuzzy part, which is completely edible work. 1:00:35 If you're not going to eat it, at least maybe consider using it as a garnish. 1:00:39 And then there's the harder big green fronds, which I've already cut up. 1:00:43 I will eat these. Some people don't. 1:00:44 But there's nutrition in here and they're super crunchy. 1:00:47 But this is the part most people are familiar with. 1:00:49 And that's what's going to be the heart of ourselves. 1:00:51 Cold and the live. 1:00:53 What I love about this one is I can't cut myself even without a glove 1:00:56 because, well, actually, I spoke to him. 1:01:00 This is too small for this. 1:01:02 So where is my older man? 1:01:04 So I was just doing some math here and looking at your recipes 1:01:09 in today's meal, what you're going to be serving these guests, you're 1:01:13 at about 23 plant ingredients. 1:01:17 That's like more than somebody eats in a week, 1:01:21 and you're doing it in one lovely meal. 1:01:24 One meal. 1:01:24 Isn't that amazing? 1:01:25 I know it's cool, That's cool. Right? 1:01:28 The mandolin got to be really careful. 1:01:31 And the best way to be careful is to always wear a glove. 1:01:35 I know so many chefs that just don't. 1:01:37 But once you've got the tip of your thumb off, you'll promise. 1:01:40 I promise you'll learn. 1:01:42 So I'm using the mandolin because it's easy. 1:01:45 It's easier than a knife. 1:01:46 And so then I get really cool, fine little pieces like this. 1:01:51 You want it, you can. 1:01:53 It's just smells like candy. 1:01:56 Get out all the pillars and gluten and sugar and overall kids. 1:02:00 And I liked them. 1:02:01 I figured out how to make licorice just out of dates and fennel. 1:02:04 It's amazing. 1:02:05 But you do need a hydrate for that. 1:02:07 So we're just going to. 1:02:09 Well, that sounds like a good recipe. 1:02:11 Can you tell us how you would do that? 1:02:12 I have a dehydrator summarized, but it's a raw recipe you do. 1:02:17 You can only make it in a dehydrator, but it's basically fennel. 1:02:20 Round up dates and a little bit of carol powder. 1:02:24 Not for taste, but just to make look black, that's all. 1:02:27 Okay. 1:02:27 And that's it happening to give you that. 1:02:30 So you wouldn't do lemon in that one. 1:02:33 Not in not in my true licorice. 1:02:34 Okay. So 1:02:37 there's this little 1:02:38 thing, the little piece in the middle that sometimes is a little hard to eat. 1:02:42 So I take that out, kind of like, I guess you would call it the core. 1:02:46 You've seen those probably stuff. 1:02:48 So when they come out, 1:02:49 I just take those out because those are, those are hard to eat. 1:02:53 And then I'll do the other one. 1:02:55 A Trader Joe's is nice. 1:02:56 They sell it in a two pack and it's all cleaned and everything. 1:02:59 You don't have all the all the frogs, 1:03:02 but I, I think it's fun having this what I think. 1:03:05 And then I'll do the other one. 1:03:07 And then all I'm going to do is cut up my dates 1:03:10 and I'm going to add to taste. 1:03:12 And I like to use Deadwood in order for these, 1:03:15 because the jewels are wonderful, but they're so sticky they're hard to come, 1:03:20 whereas the Norse are not so sticky and they're pretty easy to cut up. 1:03:24 And I'm going to be using a dedicated as well as time. 1:03:29 So just wanted to be careful when you get down there, even if you have a one on. 1:03:35 That's good. 1:03:36 Okay. 1:03:37 This these mandolins are great for cutting things. 1:03:39 You know, like onions and, you know, things that you want 1:03:43 sliced really thinly taking that, you know, that little circle 1:03:46 that's in the middle, just taking it out because it's it is very tough. 1:03:50 The core. 1:03:53 Should 1:03:54 probably get a bigger bowl for mixing. 1:03:57 Yeah. 1:03:57 That this will be a great bowl for serving but I'll need a bigger one in. 1:04:04 Okay. 1:04:04 I'm just going to pour it in my bowl. 1:04:10 It says 20 days. 1:04:11 Just do as many as you want. 1:04:13 I like to cut them into small little rings. 1:04:17 Them throughout this is almost I don't want to say it is a dessert 1:04:19 but it's almost dessert like just 1:04:23 or even in there though once again if somebody does not like the dates 1:04:27 can they use dried apricots or dried figs or something like that? 1:04:32 I absolutely 1:04:34 I think what goes good with liquids, 1:04:36 what would be what would be the most date like thing. 1:04:41 Oh, but you know, I give unless it's 1:04:43 an allergy, give dates a trial because they really are nature's candy. 1:04:46 And you know, that's that's what allowed me to stay away for sugar 1:04:49 from so many years was just discovering dates. 1:04:53 And I just think there are just a wonderful, wonderful food. 1:04:57 And there are so many kinds most people are familiar 1:05:00 with just in a jewel in the North. 1:05:02 But there's there's so many times that I can't even name them all. 1:05:05 But for eating, my favorite is called the Bari. 1:05:07 It's still be a I and it tastes just like eating a caramel. 1:05:11 And when you freeze them, there are amazing. 1:05:14 A lot of people like to stuffed dates with nut butter like pistachio butter or 1:05:18 almond butter. 1:05:19 Yeah. 1:05:20 In Morocco and like Middle East you'll find like desserts 1:05:24 with a date just filled with a walnut like nothing else. 1:05:27 It's just like real whole food. 1:05:29 And I've tried some dates from Saudi Arabia and I 1:05:33 don't remember what the name of them is, but they're more like a yellow color. 1:05:36 They literally melt in your mouth like you put them in and it just like, dissolves. 1:05:40 So it's not like the dried measure that we find here. 1:05:44 So there is definitely a good variety to try. 1:05:47 So there are so many. 1:05:49 So I'm not I'm just looking visually at how much fennel I have. 1:05:53 And then you can always add. 1:05:55 So that looks pretty good. 1:05:58 And I'm 1:05:58 just going to use my clean hand and mix it around. 1:06:01 Make sure I got enough deep to fennel ratio. 1:06:04 Well I think we need more. 1:06:06 You know it depends. 1:06:08 I have a feeling dates are your favorite. 1:06:13 Magical. 1:06:14 And they are this wonderful I mean. 1:06:17 And think about it. 1:06:17 Compared to sugar all the all the I mean what does sugar have? 1:06:21 Nothing. It has no fiber. 1:06:22 It has no nutrients and sugar. 1:06:25 I mean, dates are much lower in what we call caloric density 1:06:28 because they're a whole natural food with fiber. 1:06:30 They have so many minerals and they're just wonderful. 1:06:35 I can't say enough about them. 1:06:37 Okay, we'll stop here. 1:06:38 And then I don't just mail lemons because I found 1:06:42 that it's just cheaper to go to Costco and get the organic lemon juice. You. 1:06:46 I have found lately that lemons and lions are so stingy. 1:06:49 And to get the amount of juice you need, you're spending more money. 1:06:53 So I just get get it lemon juice and lime juice in a bottle 1:06:57 and I'm just not put it in. 1:07:00 You can always add more, but it's nice to have a little bit of time to, 1:07:04 you know, for the flavors to melt. 1:07:07 Get a little. 1:07:09 Why didn't I think of what this is called right now? 1:07:12 Those are your tongs. 1:07:13 Hello. 1:07:14 Often a bitch is not going to get super soft and it's just smell. 1:07:18 It's just smells like freshness in a bowl. 1:07:20 That's a that's a great summer salad. 1:07:22 Three ingredients fennel, lemon juice and dates. 1:07:27 And this one you're going to serve at room temperature as well right. 1:07:30 I it's funny I guess I guess maybe because it's so hot where I live 1:07:33 you could serve it at one temperature, but I am going to chill it. 1:07:37 I'm okay. 1:07:38 Maybe you're right now and I'm going to go. 1:07:40 This is proof that a three ingredient 1:07:44 recipe can still be a serious gut health recipe. 1:07:49 Yeah, three ingredients in the fennel salad, four ingredients in the truffle. 1:07:53 And so I'm going to take my little fronds here. 1:07:56 That over look let's decorate it in the middle. 1:07:58 Look how pretty that is. Look at that. 1:08:01 That is lovely. Another good one. All right. 1:08:04 So we've got one left. 1:08:06 And and this one is really for your husband 1:08:08 because he's been helping out. 1:08:11 This is how we pay the cameraman. 1:08:13 We're going to need the blender back. 1:08:14 I'm just going to show you my pressure cooker has come up. 1:08:17 Pressure I release. I didn't release the pressure. 1:08:20 I just on plugged it. 1:08:21 It came down for naturally I'm just going to open it. 1:08:26 And now I 1:08:27 have two perfectly cooked artichokes, which hot. 1:08:32 But I do prefer them till for me, artichokes. 1:08:35 And then this is so soft. The heart is soft. 1:08:38 I just, I like him playing a lot of people, you know, do 1:08:41 some kind of tofu mayonnaise or cat cashew mayonnaise or even a cauliflower mayo. 1:08:46 I love these so much. I can eat these plain. 1:08:48 Once they're chilled, they're too hard to deal with. 1:08:51 Hot because the heart, you know that you need, right? 1:08:54 But I will eat artichokes every day. 1:08:56 I never, and sometimes I'll even eat two of them so you can. 1:08:59 So when you're eating them, you're basically peeling back each of those peels 1:09:03 and then just do it's, you know, it should make a video. 1:09:06 Really. I'm serious on how to eat it. Yeah. 1:09:09 Take one. 1:09:10 I know it's hot for you right now, so I'll do it. 1:09:13 You take one leaf at a time. 1:09:15 Go past the white part. 1:09:17 You don't want to eat this. There's nothing good. 1:09:19 And you use your teeth 1:09:21 and you just scraped, okay, it's so good. 1:09:25 And then when you get to the heart, then you got to kind of 1:09:27 get all the get around it. 1:09:29 Yeah. 1:09:30 And that's usually what we get in the jar is, is the artichoke hearts. 1:09:32 So now we, we it's a little bit of work. 1:09:35 But what I like about this is this is more for mindful eating. 1:09:39 Right. 1:09:39 So now you're paying attention to how like you're eating 1:09:44 instead of just shoveling food in your mouth so that that's a good test. 1:09:48 Eating artichokes eaten artichoke quickly. 1:09:52 No you cannot. 1:09:54 You don't let me see if I can. 1:09:56 You don't go past the part. 1:09:58 That's that's white. 1:10:00 Okay, you got it. And they have to be soft. 1:10:03 I don't think you can eat an artichoke raw, I really don't. 1:10:07 Okay, so let's make our date shake. 1:10:10 Well, got the blender plugged in. 1:10:14 So one of the things I do is 1:10:16 we talked about how to make it sustainable, to make it repeatable. 1:10:19 And so everybody has their favorite recipes I would imagine whatever they are. 1:10:24 And you know that you're going to eat a certain thing maybe a few times a month 1:10:27 or a few times a week since I know I'm going to make this a lot, 1:10:30 I just measure out all my ingredients in a jar, 1:10:33 and then I'm just pulling it out and it's so much easier, you know? 1:10:38 Okay, so those ingredients that you're talking about 1:10:40 is your vanilla bean, your cinnamon, your nutmeg. 1:10:45 Cheers. 1:10:45 All of that is in one jar. Yes. 1:10:47 And then I also have oats. Okay. 1:10:50 So it's kind of like having a spice blend for your smoothie is what you need. 1:10:55 And I do that for soup so I may not right now it's this five. 1:10:59 But I make the same soup over and over my cauliflower this on my black 1:11:03 bean mushroom chili. 1:11:04 And I do the same thing. 1:11:05 And I usually put tape on it and label what it is. 1:11:08 So you know what the spices are. Yeah. 1:11:10 So I do that for any recipes that I know I'm going to make in this. 1:11:15 There we go. 1:11:16 So let's get let me just I have the milk the almond milk in the fridge. 1:11:22 I've already measured it out and I have my dates 1:11:25 soaking in it because I know not everybody has a high powered wonder. 1:11:28 I just want to pour it in my Vitamix 1:11:31 and I'm going to add my seasoning jar. 1:11:34 I'm going to smell it even though I made it myself. 1:11:36 Yep, that's everything I want. 1:11:40 And then I'm going to add two 1:11:42 bananas frozen that are saying bananas, right? 1:11:45 Even really quickly in the desert. 1:11:47 And if I take them and I put them 1:11:52 peeled in a Ziploc bag, 1:11:56 I freeze them so that they're not clutching. 1:12:04 And then you can lose 1:12:05 and you can make, you can make, you know, just sorbet in the Vitamix. 1:12:08 It's amazing. 1:12:09 I wanted to close this and put this back for me. 1:12:12 Okay. So now we're just going to blend. 1:12:16 And we're going to put it in a pretty glass. 1:12:18 Hopefully we found a straw. 1:12:22 Oh look at this. 1:12:23 Look at how crazy. Now. 1:12:27 All right. 1:12:28 So I redid the count on chef AJ's meals for today. 1:12:32 We are at 25 different whole plant foods. 1:12:37 And if you are the overachiever that I am 1:12:40 I would bet you could make it to five more with just adding 1:12:45 a few garnishes on top of these dishes, which personally I would attempt to do. 1:12:50 So we already made it to 25 in 1 day of meals, 1:12:55 and it's not about the quantity you're eating, it's about the biodiversity. 1:13:00 So really she hit the mark here with 25 different ingredients. 1:13:05 So it's really also fun to serve it in a jar like this. 1:13:10 But since we already have these milkshake glasses already, I don't know 1:13:13 if you can see how thick this is, but it's super thick, almost like ice cream. 1:13:19 And if you wanted a thicker, you could add a little bit of ice. 1:13:23 Look at that. 1:13:24 And the other thing you can do is 1:13:26 we don't do caffeine here, but there are herbal coffee substitutes. 1:13:30 So if we want it like a coffee date, shake reconnects with those powders. 1:13:34 It's really good if there's leftovers, which there is. 1:13:37 If you have a Ninja Creamy, you can freeze it. 1:13:39 You can put this in popsicle rolls and you can have a date. 1:13:43 Look how thick it is that the straw just stands up. 1:13:46 Just like that. 1:13:48 Dollars at the juice up shack. 1:13:53 All right. 1:13:54 Beautiful. 1:13:55 Oh my goodness. 1:13:56 Okay, 1:13:56 so all these recipes are 1:13:58 going to be available for you guys that have been watching. 1:14:00 I think this has just been amazing to just show that one. 1:14:05 You don't need to be a chef to know how to cook. 1:14:07 You just really need to learn just a little bit. 1:14:11 So now last question for you chef. 1:14:15 And I want to be a little 1:14:15 bit concrete here because people are probably watching this and going 1:14:20 oh my gosh she can do it because she's chef AJ I walk in 1:14:24 my kitchen and I just stare at everything and then I walk out the other way. 1:14:28 What would you say that they like? 1:14:30 What would you say would be something concrete they can do? 1:14:34 We already gave them the recipe, but something concrete they can do 1:14:37 to prepare them on this beautiful journey. 1:14:41 That is their relationship with the kitchen. 1:14:45 Make friends. 1:14:46 Somebody that likes to cook, maybe, or cook with friends. 1:14:49 You know, this is the more you can enroll other people and healthy eating. 1:14:53 Don't do it alone. Get your kids involved. 1:14:56 Get friends involved. 1:14:57 Make these. 1:14:57 Make this a meal, but invite three friends over and make it together, you know? 1:15:04 Absolutely. Absolutely. 1:15:05 I think that sounds like a great idea. 1:15:07 Get the kids involved. 1:15:08 Get your friends involved instead of just sitting around drinking wine 1:15:13 and gossiping like just everybody in the kitchen, and 1:15:16 learn to explore different foods. 1:15:20 I love this chef. AJ, thank you so much. 1:15:22 You proved 1:15:23 that food was built for your gut and that's the best thing on your table. 1:15:27 I don't think anybody that's 1:15:28 watching is going to look at a potential a polenta round the same way. 1:15:33 Again. 1:15:34 They're going to look at it and go, I've got an idea about this. 1:15:36 Chef AJ can be found at chef aj.com. 1:15:40 And she's also got her broadcast across her YouTube channel Facebook Instagram. 1:15:45 Oh my gosh look at this. 1:15:46 This was in the air fryer. 1:15:48 Not yet. 1:15:49 Yet okay don't forget to check out all of her books. 1:15:53 Now, is there anything else you want to add, chef? 1:15:56 Do your best. 1:15:57 You know, it's about progress. It's not about perfection. 1:16:00 And just, you know, just the more healthy meals you can add and the more plants 1:16:04 you can invite to every meal, the better you'll feel, better your gut will feel, 1:16:08 and I think you'll really enjoy the food if you give it a chance. 1:16:12 Absolutely. 1:16:13 Well, here's the key takeaway today, guys, is the food that is best for your gut. 1:16:18 And the food that tastes the best are not two different plates. 1:16:22 Today chef AJ showed us that they can be the exact same plate, so stay tuned 1:16:28 for another one of our episodes and I will see you all very soon. 1:16:33 Thank you so much chef. 1:16:34 Thank you. Best of health to everyone.
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