Sparse but cheerful bouquet

I've enjoyed the scent of the carnations. The yellow mums, not so much.

I could smell the carnations a little! Yay!

I just watched (on 5/12/21) a seminar by the experts who produced the film Forks Over Knives 10 years ago.   It was great to hear of the strides that have been made by people eating whole food plant based diets.

I started Low Fat Plant Based eating after the Ornish program...and this arm of vegetarian thought wasn't even mentioned by the Forks over Knives experts in the film or the seminar on May 12, 2021 ten years later. Dr. Dean Ornish designed a life style program to help those of us who survived a heart episode, offering a way to reverse heart disease. I may waver sometimes from it, but it has good research behind it, and is in agreement with the Forks over Knives Whole Food Plant Based diet. Thank you to all the research which resulted in these healing concepts that are not supported by the pharmacological industry nor the medical insurance industry.   Barbara Rogers

PS...on the gas shortage! Today, 5/13/21 Thursday, gas is back in the pumps. But people are still lining up! Such a funny species!

• Today's quote:

When we laugh, we give ourselves over to

the immediacy of the present moment.

Breakfast sausage - plant based.

I'm not that crazy about meat, of any animal. To eat, I mean.

But when there's a good looking plant-based sausage in the freezer section at Hopey's Grocery, I'll try it.

My vegan friend asked what brand it was...she chooses her plant based meats from one brand.

I hadn't seen the instructions to thaw in refrigerator before cooking. So I microwave thawed one link, then cooked it the requisite 12 minutes. It browned very nicely.

 It was mildly spicy, but not beyond my tolerance. This is my created plate, with Michele' and Jeff's mug of coffee.

I never identified any cheese that's in it...and though I saw little bits that looked like corn, they weren't such when I ate them...all disolved easily in my mouth.

The next time I fixed one of these links, by then it had defrosted in the refrigerator before cooking. And surprisingly it was spicier. Maybe just that link, or maybe the method of cooking with that one change. And drinking a sip of coffee made it even more spicy...so I soon learned to take a bite of toast (with nutritional yeast) after sausage, before coffee.

Incidentally, I bought another package of it when I saw there were 4 left in the freezer at Hopey's. They often will run out of things because they get lots of things just in one batch.

Today's quote:

We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong. 

-Karl Popper, philosopher and professor (28 Jul 1902-1994)

NuStep at the rehab center

Here are my pink laced sneakers pushing and pulling on the recumbant stepper machine at Pumonary Rehab. I'm working it up to 20 minutes each time I come in three times a week.

I'm showing how it looked when I started. I had already done 20 minutes on a tread mill, showing a bit over .7 of a mile. And following this routine, I joined others in my "class" to do weight training using thera-bands. Whew. And all this work is paying off.

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From my other blog, Three Family Trees...I posted this last week.

I finished the Ornish Cardiac Rehab (9 weeks) on Sept. 24, 2020. While the pandemic continues, we all wore masks except to eat the nice vegetarian lunches. I increased my abilities to walk and climb hills, and lost some weight. But the Ornish program talks about not just recovering from heart disease, but reversing it.

So I learned not only to eat vegetarian and low fat dishes, but to prepare them, because my usual places to get food out weren't making these kinds of things. And I had to keep track of everything I ate. And I also took active part in a group counseling session, and a meditation/stress reduction session twice a week. I also did these at home on the days I didn't go to the rehab program.

My cholesterol number was halved. And I started losing weight. Not to mention, I don't get out of breath just doing simple tasks any more. 

And just finishing that program, I turned a corner and addressed my chronic lung difficulties. So now I'm in pulmonary rehab. It's more focused on endurance. We started with a test to see how far we could walk in 6 minutes. I dare say when I complete the program I'll have that test again. We also do some weight training, as well as recumbent stepping. I am up to 20 minutes on each of the walk and recumbents. So my walk is now over a half mile (0.7 last Friday.)

I have eaten a few things not on the Ornish diet. But each time I make sure to go back onto it strictly the next day. I'll be meeting my cohort friends this Tuesday to see how everyone has been doing in the 2 1/2 weeks since I last saw them.

And I'll finish the 8 weeks of pulmonary rehab in a few more weeks. Before then, I'll see my pulmonologist and have a breathing test this week also. So I hope the fact that my coughing has greatly reduced will show up as better health in my lungs. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, as I write this I'm doing a breathing treatment with a nebulizer. I haven't changed my treatments, nor did I stop any of the cardiac medications that I was put on following my May heart attack with a stent inserted on my heart. My cardiologist did see me already, and says I've increased my heart volume from 30% to 50%, which is low normal. (A heart doesn't pump out all the blood that's in it at one time. 60% is normal.)

Anyway, I've decided to spend some time focused on my ancestry again. So I'll start soon, and be submitting some new compilations here again. I'll start with my Rogers/Swasey ancestors of my father, George Rogers Jr.

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Update on Wed. Oct. 14, 2020

The pulmonologist said my breathing test was better than a year ago.

I asked if I could stop taking some of the meds I'd been on, namely the one that made me shaky and not even able to write. He said yes, skip the Albuterol in the nebulizer, but keep it around in case I need it. And I could use the saline solution in the nebulizer just once a day, preferably in the morning.

I haven't been coughing every time I change positions, especially at night...so I feel much better about having been doing the exercises now since the last day of July. And I'm thinking of somehow continuing them through the winter. 

And yesterday Oct. 13th, 6 of the Ornish graduates in my cohort #35 met in a park with our masks on and talked about how we're doing, and some of our concerns. On the top was the possibility that the hospital will no longer offer the Ornish program of rehabilitation. We don't know for sure the outcome of the meeting last Friday. So we all are holding our breaths on that thought. 

I have been looking through many vegetarian cookbooks lately. What a fun thing to do. I want to eat everything, and only a few will actually make it to my table.

 

Ornish based recipes, a la Barbara

The diet recommended by Dr. Ornish is very low fat and totally plant-based. With the goal of not just recovery from heart disease, but reversal of it, I'm following it as best I can.

Trying to thicken the vegetable stock which had been used to cook the mushrooms and beans. Then I added the rest of the Teriyaki sauce and finally the tofu, which had been oven roasted after being marinated 30 minutes in the Teriyaki sauce.

Voila! Instead of onions and broccoli, as the recipe calls for, I had green beans and extra garlic...but the fresh ginger was already part of the recipe. I had the first of 6 servings, served over brown rice. The rest of each are in small containers in the fridge.

The whole meal had no oil or fats of any kind. And using corn starch to thicken the sauce gave a lovely thick gravy. Since I didn't have Sake or Mirin wines, I used a commercial Teriyaki sauce (diluted with vegetable stock) which met the Ornish guidelines...and the whole dish was delicious.

My version of the recipe says  this:
INGREDIENTS: (serves 6)

1 c. Teriyaki sauce
3/4 c. water
1/3 c. reduced-salt tamari sauce
1 T fresh gineger root peeled and finely chopped
1 T fresh garlic pressed or minced
1-1/2 lbs. extra firm tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 c vegetable stock
1 lb. green beans, cut into 1 inch lengthes
4 c. fresh crimini mushrooms, quartered
3 T cornstarch
1/4 c. water
3 c cooked brown rice, for serving

Cube tofu and marinate in Teriyaki sauce mixed with water, tamari sauce, ginger and garlic for at least 30 min or overnight. Turning tofu to coate. Strain and reserve the marinade.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread tofu cubes evenly over baking sheet. Bake until tofu is lightly browned, about 25 min.

In large heavy-bottomed pan over medium-high heat, bring beans and mushrooms, vegetable stock and 3/4 c. of remaining marinade to a simmer. Simmer, stiring frequently until beans are still slightly crisp about 7-10 minutes.

Add remaining marinade, bring to a simmer and cook 2 minutes.

In a small bowl, whisk cornstarch with 1/4 c. water until smooth. Mix into mushrooms and beans and cook until glossy and thickened, 1-2 minutes. Add tofu.

Serve over brown rice.

I've got lots of left-overs, since there aren't 6 people that came to dinner!

Today's Quote:
Friday I tasted life. 
It was a vast morsel.  

A Circus passed the house —- 
still I feel the red in my mind though the drums are out. 

The Lawn is full of south and the odors tangle, 
and I hear to-day for the first time 
the river in the tree.

—Emily Dickinson