One of the many great things about eating all (or more) whole plant-based foods is that the more you eat, the better! Being rich in nutrients and low in calories, you can eat to your heart’s content (literally) while shrinking your waistline, gaining loads of energy, improving your heart health, minimizing your risk of getting a chronic degenerative disease (or helping to manage a disease if you already have one), and slowing the effects of aging, to name a few.

One of the challenges that comes with eating all (or more) whole plant-based foods comes in the beginning due to all the fiber you’re getting that your body is probably not quite used to. Think of fiber as a scrub brush that cleans out your intestinal tract, helping your body absorb nutrients while moving out the waste.

Fiber is a complex carbohydrate that our bodies cannot digest. When undigested carbohydrates reach our colon, any soluble fiber (and undigested sugars) gets broken down by bacteria in our colon, which produces gas.

Break wind, pass gas, cut one, let one rip, cut the cheese, fart. Whatever you call it, we’ve all done it. In fact, according to the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NDDIC), on average we produce between one and four pints of gas every day and we pass gas between 13 and 21 times per day.

The NDDIC points out that the more sulfur your gas contains, the more odor it has. As it turns out, most animal-based proteins happen to have more sulfur-containing amino acids than plant-based proteins. So meat- and dairy-eaters pass smellier gas than whole plant-based eaters.

If you go straight from the Standard American Diet to a whole foods plant-based diet, you are most likely going to experience a lot of gas and discomfort that can last for several weeks. Eventually your body will adjust and you will stop experiencing excess gas and discomfort.

Whether you’re goal is to switch completely over to a whole foods plant-based diet or just to increase the amount of whole plant-based foods in your diet, it’s best to gradually increase your intake of whole plant-based foods over several weeks to give your body time to adjust. And be sure to drink plenty of water.

The best part about going to a salad bar is having all sorts of healthy whole plant-based foods all laid out so that all you have to do is load them up on your plate. It’s quick, easy, and healthy!

Have you ever thought about having your own salad bar at home? It’s simple, and for a moderate time investment just one day a week, you can quickly and easily create colorful and flavorful salads all week long.

Purchase a wide variety of your favorite veggies. Be sure to get a rainbow of colors and different textures. Mix a variety of greens such as romaine lettuce, spinach, arugula, and kale. Start with a variety of common salad veggies such as tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, bell peppers, and red onion.

Then try adding others such as avocado, celery, beets, green beans, peas, zucchini, raw butternut squash, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, sugar peas, fresh ginger, and any other veggies you can think of.

Sweeten it up with fruit such as grapes, strawberries, blueberries, diced apples, or mango.

Wash, dry, and cut all the veggies, then store them in an air tight container in the fridge for up to four or five days.

Top your veggies with beans such as chickpeas, kidney beans, black beans, or pinto beans. You can also add nuts such as walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, cashew pieces, or slivered almonds and seeds such as pumpkin or sunflower seeds to create a satisfying and healthy meal.

To use up remaining veggies after a few days, simply toss them into a hot skillet to stir fry with a soy-based sauce and serve over brown rice or quinoa. Yum!!!

Have you ever started off a great meal by sautéing garlic in hot oil, only to have the garlic quickly turn brown and take on a very bitter taste that infiltrates the rest of the food that gets added to the pan? And if the rest of the ingredients are light in color, the brown garlic looks like little burned pieces throughout the dish. Not very appealing.

There’s a great technique for developing flavor and avoiding bitterness that’s called sweating. With sweating, you place a skillet on low heat and add a small amount of oil along with finely diced veggies such as garlic or onions. Continuously stir the veggies over low heat until soft and translucent to extract and concentrate the flavors.

I did an assignment in which I sweat a finely minced clove of garlic by stirring continuously over low heat until soft and making sure not to brown the garlic. The garlic pieces seemed to plump up slightly as they sweat. I added a half cup of water to the sweated garlic, simmered for 30 seconds, then strained the liquid into a container. The liquid was clear and very faintly yellow, with a sweet, mild garlic taste similar to that of roasted garlic. The garlic pieces had a very pleasant, sweet garlic taste that was delicious and would enhance any meal.

I repeated the assignment, only this time over higher heat which quickly browned and shrunk the garlic pieces. Like before, I added a half cup of water to the garlic, simmered for 30 seconds, then strained the liquid into a container. This time the liquid was clear and light brown, with a rich, nutty, somewhat bitter taste. The garlic pieces had a very bitter taste that would add a bitterness to any meal.

So the lesson here is that sometimes it’s worth it to sweat the small stuff.

What could possibly be better than preparing delicious, whole plant-based recipes! How about learning how to create amazing whole plant-based dishes based on cooking methods and flavor profiles? In other words, creating delicious plant-based dishes out of thin air based on what nutrients I want, what flavors I want, what colors I want, what textures I want, and what method(s) I want to use to achieve those things!

On February 17 I started learning exactly that! I began the Professional Plant-Based Cooking class at the Rouxbe Cooking School, and I am loving every minute of this class! For example, so far I’ve learned, with much practice, how to properly use a chef’s knife. I have to admit that it got off to a somewhat rocky start because I got a little too confident a little too early, and had two minor accidents. That’s why I’ve been practicing, practicing, and practicing!

I’ve also learned that boiling and steaming veggies does not automatically mean bland and over cooked. On the contrary, proper execution of those methods enhances the flavors and colors of the veggies! Creatively finishing the veggies with seasonings after boiling or steaming resulted in some of the tastiest veggies I’ve ever had!

I will be posting about my experiences with my cooking assignments and also posting recipes on the Healthy Recipes page, so check back to see what I’ve been up to.