Pesto Recipe, plus added info on Dysbiosis & Your Immune System
This makes a big batch for a family of three. Cut it in half if you are a lone wolf or small-portion duo. :-)
NOTE:
-Almonds make a great/cheaper substitute.
- Any plant-based milk could be subbed in for the aquafaba, and/or you could sub in olive oil.
6.8.2020
Posting a recipe that has pine nuts (which are more expensive than our favorite/cheap peanuts) and basil (which is not yet in season, but is just about to be!) made me uneasy, because I still receive push back that stating that Plant-Based Whole-Foods are bourgeois nonsense, but it bears to be mentioned again: we are a family of 3 living under 40k. We operate under a tight budget, and even we can enjoy pesto. :-)
Here’s some more handy links about how budget-friendly Plant-Based Whole-Foods can be:
You will save so much money eating plant-based whole-foods, you’ll be able to spare the extra cash for a few pine nuts here and there. Think of it as paying the farmer, instead of paying the doctor.
Second, pesto can be incredibly healthy for you if you leave out the disease-perpetuating, environmentally-harmful calf-milk.
How is pesto healthy?
Basil boasts a boatload of health benefits (supports cardiovascular health by reducing blood pressure, boosts mental health, helps prevent cancer, reduces high blood sugar helping folks with Diabetes, fights against infections with its antibacterial properties, and reduces oxidative stress), and just 1 ounce of it has 30% of your Vitamin A and 145% of your Vitamin K!
It’s made with heart healthy oatmilk which is full of essential/beneficial fiber that is great for your whole cardiovascular system.
Pine Nuts are PACKED with vitamins, minerals, and heart-healthy plant-based protein (<—cholesterol free)
This recipe was reverse engineered from my old batches which were full of cheese and oil. To give it that slightly tangy, umami flavor that would have come from cheese: it has balsamic vinegar and nutritional yeast (<—which gives you essential B12); and to make it liquidy without all the oils, there is oatmilk (which also helps give it a creamy flavor) and aquafaba.
Boy Howdy is this just as delicious as our old batches, but after you eat this scrumptious green wonder you feel revved up and ready to go, not sluggishly full of oil and the saturated fats from the incredibly harmful processed cow-milk that was meant to make a baby calf grow (not perpetually feed a humans disease & growth through adulthood).
Ditch the old stuff and move forward. You’ll be healthier, more energetic, happier, and you’ll be helping us turn the tide toward environmental sustainability.
Continue for: how we make Plant-Based Whole-Food Pesto, pages from gastroenterologist Dr. Will Bulsiewicz’s book describing how your immune system is affected by what you eat (<—another world-renowned/award-winning doctor who promotes PBWFs), and a full day of PBWF Family feasting.
Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.
![What you need for a batch of PBWF pesto: a blender, 2 bushels of basil ($3.68 at Wegmans right now), balsamic vinegar, nutritional yeast, oatmilk, pine nuts, aquafaba, garlic, and salt. (Forgot to photograph lemon juice in this line up and can’t recreate it because who has two extra bushels of basil about. :-) Add in lemon juice too, or skip it and just add more balsamic.) Why isn’t there oil in this? Because all the nutritionally-focused, whole-food docs are harking that we need to limit our processed oil intake and this dish really doesn’t need it. Why are oils considered processed? Because “They contain no fiber [like you get if you instead ate nuts, seeds, avocados, etc], no minerals and are 100% fat calories. Both the mono unsaturated and saturated fat contained in oils is harmful to the endothelium, the innermost lining of the artery, and that injury is the gateway to vascular disease.” . Which docs are advising against oil? Dr Caldwell Esselstyn (gold medalist turned cardiologist/heart surgeon, who was the first to prove that you can reverse and prevent heart disease through no medications, just plant-based whole-foods), Dr Dean Ornish (another doc who proved the same reversal and prevention, and is now showing all sorts of other diseases one can avoid following a plant-based whole-food diet), Dr Neal Barnard (who showed all of the above and that plant-based whole-foods can reverse Diabetes or completely prevent you from getting it), the list goes on and on.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d3b061355a82b00017fb3f0/1591612260169-F8DGM5VGSH3883X0XBGV/IMG_20200605_173719.jpg)
What you need for a batch of PBWF pesto: a blender, 2 bushels of basil ($3.68 at Wegmans right now), balsamic vinegar, nutritional yeast, oatmilk, pine nuts, aquafaba, garlic, and salt. (Forgot to photograph lemon juice in this line up and can’t recreate it because who has two extra bushels of basil about. :-) Add in lemon juice too, or skip it and just add more balsamic.)
Why isn’t there oil in this?
Because all the nutritionally-focused, whole-food docs are harking that we need to limit our processed oil intake and this dish really doesn’t need it.
Why are oils considered processed? Because “They contain no fiber [like you get if you instead ate nuts, seeds, avocados, etc], no minerals and are 100% fat calories. Both the mono unsaturated and saturated fat contained in oils is harmful to the endothelium, the innermost lining of the artery, and that injury is the gateway to vascular disease.” .
Which docs are advising against oil? Dr Caldwell Esselstyn (gold medalist turned cardiologist/heart surgeon, who was the first to prove that you can reverse and prevent heart disease through no medications, just plant-based whole-foods), Dr Dean Ornish (another doc who proved the same reversal and prevention, and is now showing all sorts of other diseases one can avoid following a plant-based whole-food diet), Dr Neal Barnard (who showed all of the above and that plant-based whole-foods can reverse Diabetes or completely prevent you from getting it), the list goes on and on.
What the heck is aquafaba? It is simply the water that your beans have been cooked in, or from within the can of beans you bought. You may be throwing out this wonderful ingredient, and you should definitely stop: it’s a handy addition to a all sorts of meals, you can make vegan mayo out of it, and I’ve read that you can turn it into all sorts of fun dishes (<—I want to make just about everything on that link! <3 ), but I haven’t tried them out yet.
Throw everything into the blender: including the stems! If you (like I once did) think that you need to chuck the stems you (just like I was) are wrong.
It’s done in a jiffy and tastes great over polenta, with a side of balsamic tomatoes, mushrooms, kale, and green beans. Get ye all the fiber you can! <3
Also tastes great with fresh arugula, balsamic tomatoes, and polenta. :-)
Q’s Morning Chalkboard
Plant-Based Whole-Food Kiddo Breakfast: berry bread, watermelon, and some leftover (melted in the fridge) cacao nice cream with peanut butter.
Worried about pediatric nutrition and mental prowess with a plant-based diet? First, both those links will set your mind at ease and both are from doctors.
Secondly, this is what Q drew after breakfast: “It’s a T-Cell and a Macrophage and the Macrophage is gobbling up the corona-virus.” He’s 5 now, and 2 years ago, he already knew/loved macrophages enough for them to be in contention for his yearly Halloween costume (he instead went as his own creation: Cephalopod Guy, “His super power is cleaning up the oceans!”)
Want your kiddos to be the healthiest souls they can be while also protecting their environmental future? Switch to plant-based whole-foods.
Also watch StoryBots* because it is great for teaching kiddos all sorts of science info! <3
*We explain every time that he watches this, that the boss is a terrible example of a leader and you should never ever ever act or talk like that.
Plant-Based Whole-Food Lunch: polenta, pesto, balsamic tomatoes, bell peppers, and kale.
An afternoon of working in the garden. What’s Q up to? Deadheading that flowering bush. “I find this really fun and calming, Mama! Wanna try?” <3
Q still deadheading during an Opa visit. :-D <3
Treating my father with health and vitality: this is nice cream I made to taste like rainbow sherbet (banana, strawberry, raspberry, orange, and a dash of lime juice.)
After Opa left, we continued to work in the yard. Q sprayed the plants with Neem (have a beetle frenzy out there) and I worked on weeding and cutting back our vigorous hops.
He’s often dancing and I’m often cooking (and dancing) :-)
Plant-Based Whole-Food Family Feasting: Vegetable Red Curry (carrots, broccoli, peas, kale, asparagus, and garbanzo beans), with bell peppers, easy avocado, and quinoa.
Q’s favorite weekend treat: plant-based zero-waste popcorn.
I often get the impression folks think it’s all seriousness around here. In reality, that kiddo is talking happily to us all the livelong day; and any moment he isn’t talking, he’s either drawing or laughing/giggling wildly, and playing with his amazing Papa.
We’re the sort of family that have smile-lines from days filled with laughter, we’re the sort of family that does multiple family hugs through the day (Q’s favorite is when Wicket gets in on the action, and this always causes him to squeal-sigh “Family hugs are the best with Wicket!!”), we’re the sort of family that has never felt better/closer/healthier.
I go to sleep every night with a heart full and a face slightly sore from all the smiling, I’m just equally sizzling with protective passion for a planet that needs us to wake up before it’s too late. :-)
Nightly Reading
We got this fantastic book from friends as a birthday present for Q, and it has long been a favorite of this word-loving soul.
My favorite part, however, is how Q always bellows when we hit this page, “Ugh! I get that he’s happy to share, but he should NOT be littering like that!!!” <3
And here’s some illuminating info from my nightly reading of doctor-written nutritional information. This is from world-renowned, award-winning gastroenterologist Dr. Will Bulsiewicz’s book “Fiber Fueled”
What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️
Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕
Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥
Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎
Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️
What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health, Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.
We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️
Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️
If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕
We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖
