258: How To Turn Your Old Favorite Side Dishes Into Delicious Whole Food Plant Based Main Meals You'll Love

Speaker 1: 0:59

Hello there, sunshine. It is a new year and we are so excited for all the amazing days that are ahead for you. You know we've just had Power and Plan Society open. The doors are now closed and maybe you missed out on that opportunity and you're thinking what in the world am I supposed to do? And now I've decided. Two days later I heard the podcast a little late. You know I'm thinking, oh, I'm somehow missed out and I really, really want to get started. I'm motivated, I'm ready, you've got the momentum. Do not stop. This is what we want you to know today. If you're new to healthy, plant based living, you know now. Okay, you've listened. Maybe you've listened in and you think fruits and veggies are good for me. Maybe you've been hearing that from your grandmother since you were little Eat your fruits and vegetables, right. Or your parents eat your fruits and vegetables. I get that. They're good for me and need I get that? But I need to eat more of them and I just don't know how. I mean, all I'm used to is having this little side of canned green beans, or even if you cook homemade green beans, you just ate a little side of those with your big steak and your cheesy other side, right. You're not used to really eating whole fruits and vegetables as a main meal. So what do you do? How do you start eating whole food, plant based, in a way you actually enjoy? So today, where you be, one simple step so that you can get started, gain that momentum you need and find plant based joy. Hey sister, welcome to the power on plants podcast. Are you tired of staring into the fridge wondering what to eat so you can just feel better? Do you want to avoid spending hours in the kitchen making complicated meals in the name of health? Would you love to leave fatigue behind and finally have the energy to do all the things you want to do? Hi, we're shared in a need to resell Christ followers, healthcare professionals, parents of four and big fans of great tasting food. We, too, tried exercising more, eating natural and clean foods, but we still found ourselves struggling with what we thought were changes that come with age or bad genes, and we weren't finding answers to traditional routes. So we dug into the research and created our secret nutritional weapon sustainable plant based living. The truth is, you can eat more whole plant foods and it's not hard. You just need the way. That's realistic and delicious so you never feel deprived. If you're ready to enjoy your meals, no longer be held back by your health struggles and actively live your life, then you're in the right place. So grab your favorite plant based cup of happy pop in those earbuds and let's get started. Hey there, sunshine. Jared and I are so happy to have you joining us today. Welcome back. It's a new year and time for a new you, and Jared and I are so thrilled that you're joining us today to learn how to make that happen, because maybe you're at the beginning of your plant based journey and you're thinking what in the world do I eat? I mean, I've got these veggies. What do I do? Just throw them into a bowl together? I don't know what to do.

Speaker 2: 3:57

Or maybe you're beginning again.

Speaker 1: 4:00

Absolutely, and you've got to have the strategy. What do I do now? What do I do this time differently? That's going to bring me results. I just want you focusing on this one simple thing to get you started. How do I turn an old favorite side into a main? How do I turn an old favorite side into a main?

Speaker 2: 4:22

Flipping the script a little bit, so instead of being a supporting actor, they're the main actor of this play.

Speaker 1: 4:28

Put them center stage. That's what we want to do. You want to get these foods that are great for you. These are the most nutrient dense, fiber packed, phytonutrient packed foods on the planet. Where are you going to be able to get those nutrients any other way? So you've got to get more of those foods into your life and, by nature, crowd out the ones that are causing you to struggle with your health or holding you back from all that you really could be in life. So one simple way and that's what we want to focus on today is how do you turn the sides into, as Jared would say, the star of the show, yes, let's take them center stage. So let's take one thing. Maybe you just would have your steak dinner. What you're going to have with your steak dinner? It's going to be steak, maybe some fries.

Speaker 2: 5:14

Potatoes of some sort. It could be fries, could be baked potato, maybe mashed potatoes, some type of potato, typically, and maybe some bread. I was thinking roll, yes, bread.

Speaker 1: 5:24

Roll. You were on the same roll.

Speaker 2: 5:26

I was Absolutely Same plate. We were on the same plate, same plate.

Speaker 1: 5:30

So you've got your potatoes, let's make the potato center stage. Okay, now there are ways that you can make fries the center stage of your plate. It might not be the healthiest thing, but I'll tell you, you can make some seriously good fries without any oil and without a ton of salt. You wouldn't believe it. I had a friend who started a whole food plant base and she's like Anita, I swear. When you told me to do this and I put those fries in the oven and they didn't have any oil on them, I thought these are gonna be nothing but mush, kind of like a mashed potato. She thought they come out as mushy sticks. She said I couldn't believe how they got golden and crispy and delicious. You could do that. Put that on your plate and then pile them up like nachos so you could have a really good like a bean based chili on there. Yes, a bunch of greens like. Pile those greens on there, get the lettuce from your nacho plate, but make it greener. You know, pick a greener lettuce a darker green a mixed green.

Speaker 2: 6:24

A strategies will cook our veggie chili with kale in it, where it's real small. So it's in there, but you don't see it, oh yeah, you're just skyrocketing the nutrition there.

Speaker 1: 6:35

He's so filled with the good tips. Did you hear that? So if you don't want all the leafy lettuce on top of it, chop it up tiny. Do the kale trick. We give you, freeze a bag of pre-washed kale. Freeze it and then blend it. If you have a food processor, as soon as it comes out of the freezer and it's solid, blend it right away, before it thaws. It will turn into kale powder and you can either put that back in your freezer and have your kale powder for later or just dump that whole bag of kale powder into your chili or whatever it is you're making. You would not believe even canned chili. If you just took canned bean chili that was vegan chili and you put that in there, how the nutrients would be boosted would be amazing. And then you think I don't really want all this leafy greens on top. Well, you've got your leafy greens, they're right there into your chili. Now I would recommend you get more raw, absolutely. But right now we're just focusing on one thing. Let's just focus on one thing let's make the veggies the center, the star of your show, the center of your plate. So you've got the fries here, you've cut them up, you've baked them, you've learned how to do that. You've gotten inside of podcast insiders. Experience pie, our free group. If you're not in it, go right now and get inside. You can ask these questions like what can I do? What's a good way to get these veggies center stage? Everybody's sharing with each other in there? Oh well, I eat this. I like that. That's a great way to do that. But right here, you've got your fries. You've got your chili. Your chili's got beans. That's gonna give you phytates, which are very healthy for you. It's gonna give you fiber. All these things you've been missing. So you've got your bean chili. Minerals. You've got your Iron Raw. Let's get some raw in there. Let's throw some raw tomatoes. Think color when you're building your plate. Let's build your plate filled with color.

Speaker 2: 8:17

Maybe a bit of onion sprinkled on it?

Speaker 1: 8:19

Absolutely raw onion is excellent for you. Garlic and onion are the two cancer fighters, big, I mean. All these foods are cancer fighters, but these are known to be some of the top. Powerhouses Powerhouses to fight cancer. Get them into your life on a regular basis. So here we've taken fries. We baked a whole oven load full of them. We've got them cut up in the quick, simple ways you're gonna learn about when you get into our groups. We show how to do this stuff. It is not hard, it's just new to you. Now we've got a plate of what I've seen different people call ponachos. You're making these potato nachos. I love that name. I didn't come up with that. I wish I could claim that, but someone else did. I can't even remember who it was, but I want you to understand. Now we've taken a food we like nachos. Who doesn't love nachos? Seriously, get the power on plants cooked, but get the nacho cheese on there. Now you've just added more onion and carrot, a little more potato. You've got all these great things that you've cooked in with this quote cheese. That's not cheese, but it's gonna make it cheesy and creamy and satisfy you. So now you've got a star plate that it just lights you up. You could take that same cheese sauce, put it on a baked potato with some steamed broccoli. That takes no time to make. You can pop that into the oven if there's just one or two of you, or into a little oven, like the countertop ovens, the convection ovens. You could put it in a convection oven. You could put your potato in an instant pot. You could put your potato in a microwave, get that potato in the center of your plate. Within a couple of minutes you can have a microwave baked potato on your plate, hot and ready to go cracked open with some quick blended cheese sauce and some pre-cut broccoli that you've just dumped in a pot with a little bit of water to steam it, and that's on top of or on the side of that potato. Now your veggies are center plate and you're eating, and it's delicious. We could go on and on. We're not gonna stay on potatoes, but this is just one side. Think about zucchini. Zucchini we make something called Pete's zucchini. So we take the zucchini, we slice it in half lengthwise, we pull out or scoop out the seed, then we fill that hollow space with something cheesy. It's our Power On Plants ricotta cheese. It is delicious, and that recipe's in the Power On Plants Cookbook. It's really as simple as throwing a couple of ingredients into a blender and or your food processor and now you've got this cheesy thing and you're no longer missing ricotta and cottage cheese and cream cheese. You're not missing those things anymore because now you've found your new favorite. We talk about this all the time. You've got to find your new favorites. Just think about how simple this is. So you fill it with ricotta. Put your favorite oil-free marinara, sugar-free marinara right. You're gonna start replacing those products, those things that are sabotaging your health. This isn't hard. This is a store-bought marinara. You're scooping that over the hollowed out zucchini, you're cooking it in the oven, you pop it on a baking sheet and it's done. It cooks itself in the oven in no time. So now you've got a zucchini. That's the star of the show. I'm not talking about pent and plain veggies at the center of your plate. You'll get to a point where you're very happy with a bowl loaded with vegetables, maybe a little bit of sauce or grain. I mean, it's not hard. This can be as simple as you want it to be. Let the side salad become the main by making it stick to your ribs. We talk about this in so many episodes of this podcast. Go back and listen. As you're listening, you're gonna hear us talk about how do you make a salad stick to your ribs, mac and cheese. Could that become your new main? Yes, it can Not with regular animal cheese. Right, you get this Power On Plants Nacho Cheese going. You've got your whole grain pasta. You're gonna upgrade to 100% whole grain pasta. You're gonna get that and you're gonna load it up with veggies. Let's stop making the pasta the star of that. Show Back off on the pasta. You can have your pasta. Don't let somebody tell you you can't have pasta. Start saying how can I have pasta? I can have a little less of it and I can load it up with broccoli and peas and some sauteed mushrooms and I can get the Power On Plants Alfredo sauce on there Delicious, it's in the cookbook, it's absolutely delicious. It will literally take you about three minutes to get everything thrown into your blender, blend it up and you cook it on the stove because that thickens it up. It takes maybe five minutes to thicken it less. I'm serious. You can get that on your plate in probably 15 minutes. Tops, it is one of the easiest, most satisfying recipes.

Speaker 2: 12:48

Our kids do it. And now you have me. Our kids make it. All of them make it. All of them make it, since they were just little.

Speaker 1: 12:53

Yeah, and people constantly contact us about this recipe. Are you kidding me? If everything in this cookbook is this good, I'm sold Like I had no idea you could make Alfredo sauce. And listen, this is coming from a girl who was the dairy queen. I was addicted to cheese and there's good reason for that. It's created that way by our creator to have an addictive chemical in it that draws the calf back to the cow and guess what it does to you? It's hits your pleasure receptors. It keeps bringing you back again and again. Gotta have cheese. I love cheese, I love creamy things. Well, when you can get off of those things by finding new ways that you love your cheesy things that make the veggies the star of the show, you will not believe the freedom that you're gonna get and how much you don't miss those things because you now have these other things that you look forward to that have gone into their place. There's no empty hole. You're not gonna say, oh, I can't have steak anymore and all these other things on my plate and I can't have these blocks of cheddar cheese. You're gonna say what can I have? Oh, I can make veggies the star of my plate and I can make them the main meal, I can make them center stage with these healthy ingredients. That's just one simple way.

Speaker 2: 14:38

And I will tell you here, you will start to desire those better foods.

Speaker 1: 14:43

Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 2: 14:44

If you think I could never give up a steak, I'm always gonna crave it.

Speaker 1: 14:48

You might in the beginning.

Speaker 2: 14:50

But as you make the transition, you will desire the better foods, not just because they make you feel better, but because you love the way that they taste.

Speaker 1: 14:58

They taste amazing. And how easy. Oh, if you're the cook and the family, if you're the one that stuck in the kitchen for hours, prepare to give that up. Prepare to give it up, because these are the quickest, easiest foods to prepare.

Speaker 2: 15:11

And it's not even just about the food preparation, it's about the cleanup afterwards.

Speaker 1: 15:15

I already talked about this. This is so important.

Speaker 2: 15:16

Yes, we've mentioned it before, but we're gonna keep mentioning it and keep mentioning it because you have to consider all these different elements so it takes you less time to prepare the meal, but then you're also not taking 20, 30 minutes feeling like you've gotta sanitize and clean up all the grease because it's not there.

Speaker 1: 15:33

It's not there. You don't have that. There's no hood grease. There's no grease on your cabinets, the front face of your cabinets.

Speaker 2: 15:40

It's nasty, that weird film too, that kind of turns yellow over the years when it gets baked on almost like a varnish.

Speaker 1: 15:46

You don't have it. It's just gone. And so you talk about saving you time and imagine that stuff's not on the inside of your vessels anymore, Right. What's happening now? Now you've got blood flow. Now there's blood carrying away the garbage, the trash that your body needs to get rid of, and taking the nutrients to the cells that they're craving. What's gonna happen for you when this happens? And it all started with you making the side the main star of your plate.

Speaker 2: 16:11

Yes.

Speaker 1: 16:12

Think about baby carrots. They can become carrot dogs. They can become grated barbecue. So simple. You can take steamed broccoli and make a big broccoli apple fall salad. I make that all the times of the year, all times of the year.

Speaker 2: 16:28

It is the best. It's fantastic. It's one of my favorite things right now.

Speaker 1: 16:31

Take a side sweet potato. Listen, maybe you didn't like sweet potatoes before, try baking one. Let it cool a little bit. Open it up, drain some black beans, put some black beans, some salsa, some of my cashew cream. Take a little cilantro if you like cilantro, a squeeze of lime if you like that. And you know what else I love on mine Sourcrout. Seriously, it's so good. Not a lot, it's salty, but the fermentation is also good for you, so sprinkle a little sourcrout on there instead of salt. It is wonderful.

Speaker 2: 17:02

But it gives you this little punch of flavor in there.

Speaker 1: 17:04

It's really good, oh my goodness Sweet potato, make it the star of your show. If you don't eat them, you are missing nutrients that you need and you're missing some incredible flavor. You know, when I first thought about that dish, I thought that was the weirdest thing. Beans with sweet potatoes. That's just gross. Try it before you knock it. That's all I've got to say. Just try it. It's so easy. I want you to think how hard it is for you right now to take a baked potato, a sweet potato, wash it, get it onto a pan, pop it into the oven and have the oven on. How hard is that?

Speaker 2: 17:31

It's not difficult.

Speaker 1: 17:32

Is it hard to open the can of beans and drain it? Is it hard to pull off a little cilantro, wash it and pop it on there? Maybe you don't like cilantro. Leave that off.

Speaker 2: 17:40

But if you're going to do that, why not wash a few? Bake them all.

Speaker 1: 17:43

Yes.

Speaker 2: 17:44

Then you have a couple extra in the fridge and they'll last for a little while in there. So then a couple days from now think, oh, I don't want to eat for lunch. I've got one of the sweet potatoes in the refrigerator All ready to go.

Speaker 1: 17:57

They get so sweet and you've got a whole batch prepped up. He's talking about meal prep. Now You've got a whole batch of those in there that you can just grab on the go. I'm in a hurry, I need a snack for the car. What do I take? Grab that center stage star.

Speaker 2: 18:10

Oh my word, yeah, and just eat a plain, grab a potato, eat a plain.

Speaker 1: 18:13

They're wonderful. Your taste buds are going to change. Your cravings are going to change. You will not believe how. These foods that have been holding you back, the animal products, the things that make you feel sluggish, like I just heard, all the time I just want to feel good. You've got to get rid of the sluggish foods, get the oils out, the processed foods, the animal products that you think you love and have got to have. When they lose their hold on to you, it's amazing what can happen in your life.

Speaker 2: 18:43

Car analogy.

Speaker 1: 18:44

All right, beep, beep All right.

Speaker 2: 18:47

So every so often, every so many thousand miles, what do you do?

Speaker 1: 18:52

Change the oil.

Speaker 2: 18:53

You change the oil.

Speaker 1: 18:54

Why.

Speaker 2: 18:54

Because the oil has the dirt debris, the different byproducts of combustion that have gotten in it and it becomes viscous, it becomes thick. So what do you have to do? You have to drain it and put clean oil in there. Now, our blood is not oil not a perfect analogy here but we are not getting those oils into our blood so our blood's able to circulate in our body the way it was meant to. When you start putting all those oils in there, it does become thicker they can measure this and it doesn't flow exactly like it should. And then we feel heavy and we feel weighed down and we don't have that energy that we should. Food should energize us.

Speaker 1: 19:34

And when you say that, maybe they're picturing the oil, like the vats of oil or the cans of oil, the containers that we buy and put into our food. It's important to get those out, but it's not just that. It's the oils, the saturated vats in the animal products. They're doing the same thing to you, and so you get build up in your vessels and you wonder why you're having all these diseases that are linked to poor blood flow. You know, all these diseases go back to the same thing, though, and it really is cellular dysfunction. Your cells are sick, they've gone rogue in some form or fashion, and the way they go rogue is they're not getting the nutrients they need, and they have a buildup of garbage. Why? Because the blood's not flowing correctly. They're not able to absorb it through your intestines because you don't have the gut bacteria you need there. You've got holes in your gut lining different things like that. All of these things go back to the similar Problem of having cells that are not functioning well, though. So, when you can get to the root of that problem, you get your body the nutrients that it needs by making these side dishes, the things that were meant to be your mains, the actual mains. All of a sudden, you're still having lasagna and tacos and all these things that you like. You're having the Burritos and you're having big nourish bowls and some new things that you've never even had before. Your world is expanding, your palate's expanding and your blood's flowing. Wow, my joints not hurt anymore. You're moving it all around, like I'm moving my arm. I mean, I talked to the other day about how it just hit me like I'm 52 years old and we come home from beach and I want to wash my feet. I didn't want to take a whole shower, we just gone walking. So I'm putting my feet up in my sink Easily, just popping them up into the sink and washing them one at a time. I'm thinking there are a lot of 50 year olds that cannot do this, that cannot move. You've got to have the nourishment that your body needs to be able to function and to live out your calling, to be able to feel good every day, to wake up and look forward to life. So I want to ask you this what side dishes do you enjoy? List them out, make a literal list for yourself. This is all. I'm gonna take you a few minutes and then figure out some simple ways that you could turn those into a main meal. This is where it all begins. If you wonder oh, I'm new, I just don't know where to start. What can I do? Start getting these things on your plate on a regular basis as the star of the show. Whole plant foods. These are the five power foods fruits, veggies, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and the herbs and spices. You need those too. Flavor that stuff up. Make it taste great. Get the power on plants could be. Learn to make five minute sauces. It is going to blow your mind. Don't just put a veggie or two in a bowl plain and expect to like it when you're used to eating these other rich foods. Learn how to make vegetables taste amazing. Learn how to make your sides, this star of the show, not just pile in a bunch of plain ones. Again. You get to a place where you love the plain veggies. I can take steamed broccoli now, squeeze some lemon on it and be perfectly content and satisfied. Makes me so happy. As long as it's not cooked to a mush, love it. Look you do. You cook your broccoli however you want, but I'm telling you, you take that and you put a little lemon on it. It's amazing, but your taste buds change. Maybe do you right now. That wouldn't taste as amazing as if you had our nacho cheese and you poured that over the top of it. There's different ways that you can do this to make it work for you, but I want you to start finding those new favorites. If you think I don't know where to start, I've got this list of all these different veggies. I don't know what sauce to put in it. I don't know what to do. Go and grab your copy of the power on plants cookbook bundle. We have a lot of different bonuses in there for you. They're gonna give you a great place to start. That's power on plantscom forward slash cookbook. Again, that's power on plantscom forward slash cookbook. And then get into our free community podcast. Insiders experience and you can get on the inside and ask your questions to each other and Learn more from us and see what we're doing. And that's power on plantscom forward slash P I E. That's pie. Power on plantscom forward slash pie. We love this group because it's where it all starts. You gain momentum, you get the ball rolling, you start getting results and then the next time the course or the membership opens up, you could come in and you've already got momentum, you're already getting results, and then you can go to the next level and you can master. How do I do these things? In what order would it work best for me? Oh, if I do this and then this and this, that's how it can build on itself. That's how I can really start compounding the results I'm getting. Don't Make excuses for yourself if the doors are closed right now. Go and get inside the free community. Grab the cook, but get started, start taking action, and then I want you to DM me. You can actually DM me inside our podcast insiders experience. You can DM Jared Dms and let us know. We want to hear your testimonial. I've been listening for this long. These are the results I'm getting. I've tried this cookbook recipe. It's changed everything for me because I thought I couldn't live without cheese, and now I've got my creamy Alfredo sauce, and now I've got my ricotta cheese, and now I've got all these different things that are moving the needle for me and I feel so much better and I know I can stick with this long term because I actually feel better. But I love the lifestyle I'm building. I'm enjoying the relationships. I'm not worried about spending hours in the kitchen. I'm learning how to do this, one simple step at a time, and today I want that step to be get that list going. Brother, sister, make your list of your sides that are going to become your mains. Then come into power on plants podcast insider experience. That's power on placecom. Forward, slash pie and tell us what you're doing. What side are you trying, what new thing are you gonna try? Share it, snap a picture doesn't have to be perfect. Listen, we are about real life. We want to live real life with you. We're sick of the fake social media bull that just does not get results. That's not real. We are about real. We're about authentic. Share your struggles, share what you're going through, because when you get in there and you share and you start taking those actions to be apart, you are gonna get results like you will not believe. We can't wait to see the pictures inside of Pi so that we can see what you're doing, what you're learning, how you're growing and creating the lifestyle that you were born to live. Have a wonderful week, sunshine and jaren. I will see you again inside podcast Insiders Experience and we look forward to hanging out with you again next time on Power On Plants. Thank you.