Speaker 1: 2:09

Hello, sunshine, I hope you're ready for something spicy, because today we're talking about a green leafy vegetable that can boost your heart health and also add so much flavor to your food. We're also going to be sharing the simplest way to get more of this deliciousness into your life. 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 Jared and Anita Roussel, Christ followers, healthcare professionals, parents of four and big fans of great tasting food.

Speaker 1: 2:55

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 the traditional route. 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. We are so happy to have you joining us today. We are talking about a delicious green that many of you probably aren't getting. There was a long time that we didn't even know this green existed. I think growing up we didn't eat it. Did you eat arugula?

Speaker 2: 3:51

Not that I remember, no.

Speaker 1: 3:54

So I just gave it away. It's arugula, that's what we're talking about today, and if you've tried it in the past and you think you know I just don't like it. I'm going to switch this podcast off. Don't do it, because you're missing some incredible benefits, and there is a way that you can eat arugula and actually enjoy it. You it. You don't have to eat it plain. But one thing that made us think so much about it is that lately we've been on a kick of eating a lot of it in our salads, and our teenage son has even been making his salads with straight kale and arugula lately and loving it. He puts our pop cashew cream on it, which is an under five minute sauce. Literally, it takes me one minute to make it now, and it's not just because I me, it's because it's that easy. You can find that recipe in our cookbook. If you don't know how to make cashew cream, it is going to be a game changer for you. But he'll take some of the cashew cream, put that in there with this garlic sauerkraut that we absolutely love, and we don't need a ton of sauerkraut. We can talk about why that is later, but some fermented can be good for you. So he puts a little bit of the sauerkraut, the pop cashew cream and then a little bit of brown mustard and it makes the best dressing. It is so good.

Speaker 1: 5:02

You think plant-based is going to be difficult. When you learn the power in plants method, I promise you it is not going to be difficult and if you're just now finding our podcast, listen, there are over 300 episodes for you right now that's if you find it currently down the road. There are going to be 400, 500, 600. We have a free group you can join at poweronplantscom forward slashP I E that's forward slash pie and it's a free group where you can get in there and get to know each other and ask your questions and share what you're learning and learn from others. It's such a great resource but you feel like it's going to be difficult until you learn the way that we know to do this, how to make it simple, enjoyable and delicious, and it is going to change everything for you.

Speaker 2: 5:48

And you also may think it's going to be bland, but if you listen to what my son puts into a salad all those flavors this salad is anything but bland. It's absolutely bursting with flavor.

Speaker 1: 5:59

And you think how can something that simple be that good? And maybe you like just a little more color and variety in your salad. He does that sometimes too, and so do we, but he's just been on this kick crease eating the salad I've just described for you. It's wonderful for him. I mean, what parent doesn't want their teenage son to be eating more kale and arugula? Of course we want them to eat this way, right, and he's got it in a way that he likes it, that tastes good, and I want you to think we're taught these things like.

Speaker 1: 6:27

It's hard, it's difficult, it's going to take so long, but this is the fastest way we've ever eaten, and this is why there are so many different things that you can just throw into a bowl or throw into a food processor, or throw into your blender to make a delicious sauce or make a different type of sandwich than you've ever thought of before, because you can't think past slices of bread. Right now. There are so many wonderful things waiting for you, and that is why I'm so excited to be working on the course right now. I cannot wait to get the course into your hands, because I'm going to walk you through all these different opportunities to up level your eating and to make it so simple that you're never going to miss your old favorites, and that's what it's all about now one little detail you may have glossed over unintentionally.

Speaker 2: 7:14

He's almost 18 and he's making the salad himself. So you're saying it's fast, quick and simple, but he's doing it for himself. So, as a parent, it doesn't get any faster than that. If your children are learning these principles as teenagers, where they can do it for themselves, now that's a convenience at this point, but going forward, this is a very important life lesson, where they know how to provide for themselves, they know how to give their body the nutrition that they need.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Absolutely. If you start learning plant-based, the way that we show you how to do it, it is going to change so many things for you, and that includes your children's future. Think about what you're planting the seeds you're planting in their life, literally. When they're younger, you're feeding them the seeds, but as they grow, the seeds are going to sprout of the things that they've seen you do. Wow, this is the easiest way to eat in the world. Mom's taught me how to make this two-minute sauce and Dad showed me how to throw together this whole meal in under 15 minutes, and we all love it.

Speaker 1: 8:17

And we spend more time doing the things that we love, because, number one, because we finally feel amazing and we can do more of those things, and that is what our heart is.

Speaker 1: 8:26

That's why we're doing what we do and we show up for you every week to show you these amazing things. And we come out with the cookbook and we come out with the cookbook bundles because you say I don't know how to do this, it's all so new, or I've been doing this for so long, but I keep falling off the wagon. These recipes are your key to starting again, and you don't have to start all over again. I'm not saying that, but it's just a new way of thinking, a new way of doing things, because when you can see the way that I put these recipes together, it is going to blow your mind even if you've been doing plant-based for a while how quick and simple it is, but even more than that, how much tastier it is. Just one example coming to my mind of how I show you how to make tofu scramble. I give you the sauce that changes tofu scramble from tofu with a little bit of yellow on it?

Speaker 2: 9:19

Do you think you can sprinkle a little bit of turmeric on tofu and think, oh, this is going to taste like egg and why do you? It doesn't it doesn't.

Speaker 1: 9:26

But why do you think that? It's because that's what you see. In every tofu scramble recipe. You see tofu and turmeric and you might add maybe some garlic, maybe some onion powder. If you're looking at a quote, fancy recipe.

Speaker 1: 9:40

But if you can learn my two minute hollandaise sauce, which is in one of our cookbook bundles, you can learn all about those at powerandplantscom forward slash cookbook. It will change everything for you just in the fact that, hey, I want something that's like a scrambled egg on my toast or in my breakfast burrito, that actually tastes like it. Because you're not going to get that type of creamy, fatty, delicious flavor that you can get from this hollandaise sauce. That has no oil in it, no dairy in it, but it tastes just like the old thing and it tastes like an egg yolk. So most people are not adding anything like this to their tofu scramble. So my point in saying all of that is when you get these recipes in your hand that we put into the cookbook bundle, this is what we eat in a day.

Speaker 1: 10:27

If you're wondering, what does your Danita eat? What are they doing? That makes it so simple. This is it. These are the main recipes that we're eating and we go back to them time and time again, as is evidenced by the fact that we all use our own cookbook on the regular, because we'll say how much did we put exactly in that if we want to know, like a certain measurement or something? But you'll get to where you can make them on the fly without using them. After you've used the cookbook for a while, you'll start to get to where, hey, I can do this. Oh, look, she used this for that. Now I can use this for this other recipe. And you'll not only get recipes, you'll get ideas and inspiration, and it's going to change everything for you.

Speaker 2: 11:08

And strategies. You'll learn the strategies in the recipes that are in the cookbook. But the cookbook we refer to not daily, but we go back to it and that's really how it originally was created was for our own use and we just thought the world needed to share in our recipe, so we made it available.

Speaker 1: 11:26

You know it's hilarious.

Speaker 1: 11:27

We love plant based so much off that we're not even talking about arugula right now, Like we have all these things we want to say about arugula, but the reason this is so important is because you've got to wrap your mind around the fact that this is not hard. Maybe you'll think, oh well, but eating kale and arugula for me right now, like that's just not going to work or my kids aren't going to do that. That's not what is in the cookbook, because if you love lasagna, now you're going to need to know how to make a plant-based lasagna that's easy and delicious. You know actually tastes lasagna. It's not some kind of strange concoction with weird ingredients in it.

Speaker 1: 12:01

Right, you're going to need kind of a meaty sauce on your pasta, like a bolognese sauce. You're going to need all these things that you already love, like a burger or a frosty, or some brownies or some brownie batter, hummus All those things that you love. Now you need to know how to replicate those things if you want to succeed, and then you'll never think about falling off the wagon again. You'll never think about it, and so we wanted to just point out how simple this salad was. It's so easy and you do you within the whole food, plant based realm of what we're teaching you. But once you learn this simple system of how to do this on the regular that you love it so much you would never even think about going back. That's where we find ourselves. We don't find ourselves driving by restaurants, thinking oh.

Speaker 2: 12:48

I wish.

Speaker 1: 12:48

I could stop. No, we don't. And you can get more of these incredible ingredients like arugula into your life, even if you didn't like them before and I say that because years ago I did not like arugula into your life, even if you didn't like them before. And I say that because years ago I did not like arugula. I thought it had a little bit too much kick. It was a little bit spicy to me, but it is peppery. If you eat some pepper in your food, that's great. You should be eating some pepper in your food. It's really good for you. But it's very simple to add arugula to your life. So first we want to tell you why you want to add it. Number one it's the leafy green. All leafy greens are good for you. Anytime you can find a way to get more leafies into your life, do it.

Speaker 2: 13:27

Vitamins, minerals, the antioxidants, I mean, the list goes on.

Speaker 1: 13:31

Right, we just saw a study where they were looking at the nitrates in vegetables and they found that the most nitrates were found in leafy greens. Well, what's a nitrate? Why does that matter? Nitrates, when you eat them in plants, are super healthy for your body when they're in their whole plant food form and your body breaks it down into nitrites and ultimately into nitric oxide. And I want Jared to tell you why nitric oxide is so very important for you.

Speaker 2: 14:02

What we know is that nitric oxide is extremely important for vascular health. The most immediate thing that people will notice with it is that it helps to relax their blood vessels. It helps it to open up. Well, what does that do? It improves blood flow. It reduces the resistance that your heart has to work against. So what does that do? It lowers your blood pressure. Well, now that your vessels are open, what's happening? Your blood's flowing, and it's flowing more freely. Why does that matter? Because you're taking oxygen. You're taking nutrients to your body, to your brain, to your muscles, to your organs, everywhere in your body. You're getting more of these nutrients, more oxygen, so it gives your cells more fuel to function more efficiently.

Speaker 1: 14:47

And don't you think it's just as important to think about what's getting transported out If you have no blood flow, the garbage can't get out either, and your cells need to get rid of the garbage, so you need good blood flow for that as well. So you have a twofold problem if you have poor blood flow, if you have high blood pressure and you have clogged arteries and things like that. So what the research has shown us is that arugula has the highest known concentration of nitrates in it, and the leafy greens in general have the most, but they found that arugula is the highest among the leafy greens in general have the most, but they found that arugula is the highest among the leafy greens. So you definitely want to be getting more of this into your life, because when you can improve your heart health, you are going to feel so much better and be able to enjoy so much more of life. No-transcript is critical.

Speaker 2: 15:35

Another aspect of nitric oxide I just want to touch on is that it also encourages healing with the inner lining of your blood vessels. So not only is your blood vessel relaxing to reduce the pressure and increase flow, it's also helping that inner lining to heal, which, on a plant-based diet what happens is you don't have damage where things like cholesterol and the saturated fats and then these plaques can build up. So it's got multiple aspects of where it's helping your cardiovascular health.

Speaker 1: 16:03

So when it comes to arugula, you want to get a lot of it into your life everywhere you possibly can. So what's an easy way that you can do that? Think about where you would add pepper and maybe, if you don't add a lot of pepper right now, what might you add pepper to that you would enjoy Black pepper. That is where arugula is going to shine. It's going to taste amazing. So if you like to add pepper to your baked potato, try mincing up some arugula and getting it into your baked potato. I always add pepper to my salad, so I love arugula in my salads and I put as much as possible in my salads because I know how good it is for me and I've started to enjoy it even more. It's the beautiful thing about taste buds.

Speaker 2: 16:46

I would say that the salad bowl is kind of a gimme Because it's a leafy green, you would just naturally think in salad. But I want you to think outside the salad bowl. Now, you've just mentioned, anita, about baked potato. But where else might you use something peppery, maybe a chili, so you could stir it into chili, because the leaves are a little bit smaller. You can chop them up, stir them in that, stir them in maybe beans that you've cooked in a crock pot.

Speaker 1: 17:12

Yeah, I always put pepper in my beans, so that's a fantastic idea. Yeah, you're coming up with some really good ones over there. You're making me hungry again. This happens when we do podcasts and he starts coming up with these great tasty ideas. I love that. Okay. So the other place is maybe if you make sandwiches, do you add pepper to your sandwiches? I love it. I mean, I remember when we used to go subway back in the day. We don't do that anymore, but when we did, I would always have them add pepper to my sandwich. So if you like pepper on your sandwich, think about where you like pepper or where you might add pepper. That is where you want to start getting arugula in and then, once you start eating more of it, you're going to start liking it more as time goes by. No-transcript Just because you didn't like something once doesn't mean you won't like it in the future.

Speaker 2: 18:14

In the same vein of sandwiches, I did want to bring up wraps paninis. I love it so other aspects of the quote unquote sandwich family.

Speaker 1: 18:24

It's the good stuff. So think about brainstorm. This is the challenge we want to leave you with. Go right now and get a pen and paper or, if you like, using notes on your phone or your device, just take three minutes and jot down some ideas of where you would add pepper, where you would enjoy it in your meals, and then buy some arugula. You can buy it pre-washed right next to the mixed greens in most grocery stores. Now, even organic, most will carry it organic.

Speaker 2: 18:55

In our local Publix. It's a regular right there, right next to the lettuce.

Speaker 1: 18:59

I think our Walmart carries it, and I'm not kidding, it's everywhere.

Speaker 2: 19:03

It's not just for Whole Foods anymore.

Speaker 1: 19:06

I shouldn't say it's everywhere, but it's most everywhere. You should be able to find it. I like finding it in my farmer's market. That's my favorite place to find it because I know it's just been picked. It's great for you because it's just come off the plant, full of nutrients. But even if it's something that's been in the market for a while, it's better than not getting it at all. We know that it is great for your body.

Speaker 1: 19:27

Get some arugula, pick it up. So the second part of the challenge is then buying some and bringing it home. And I would say, if you're just starting, get some that's pre-washed so that you don't have to think, well, I'm gonna eat it, but you keep waiting because you don't want to wash it. So go ahead and buy your arugula, get it in your house, put it somewhere in your fridge that you actually see it, and prep those meals. Get those meals planned. If, even if it's just in your mind, this week I'm going to have blah and blah, have all the ingredients ready for those things. Get the arugula in and then join us in our free group at powerandplantscom. Forward, slash p-i-e and let us know what you made. Snap a quick picture of it, show us how you're enjoying your arugula. Share your ideas. We're excited to hear all about it. Sunshine. We hope you're having a great week and we'll see you on the next episode. Thank you.