Free Telecourse: Why diets don't work!

I thought I would let some of my friends in blogger land know about a free telecourse that I am holding next week.

Why Diets Don't Work
We don't fail diets, they fail us!


Are you frustrated, discouraged and depressed over trying to lose weight? Do you think why bother? Are the emotional and physical deprivations of diets getting you down? Then you need to join us for a lively and informative phone call where we will discuss why diets are an ineffective means of achieving long term health and weight loss. The problem is not personal will power. Diets are unnatural and unrealistic and present health- threatening restrictions that you should know about.
Date: Tuesday April 3rd, 2007
Time: 8:30 p.m. EST

To take charge of your health and your weight e-mail info@melissawest.com to register for this free phone call.

What's a telecourse?
Instead of having to book a flight, hire a babysitter, find a hotel and schlep through airport security to attend a seminar, you simply dial-in to the teleseminar phone number at the scheduled time. You’ll join your fellow participants and the seminar leader on the phone call. Teleseminars consist of lecture, Q&A, and discussion, all over the phone.

Lentil Patties

These are the pumpkin seed crusted lentil patties from Dreena Burton's Vive le Vegan. I grilled these babies up on my George Forman grill. I almost gave that grill away when I went vegetarian a number of years ago, but I'm glad I didn't. They are great for grilling veggie burgers, which have a tendency to fall apart and not hold together as well as meat burgers. I love that these patties are coated with ground pumpkin seeds. It gives the patties really nice crispy coating and a good boost of iron for those vegetarians concerned about getting enough iron in their diets.

Another successful vegetarian cooking class

Last night I hosted another vegetarian cooking class. The menu was spring rolls and summer rolls with ginger dipping sauce. We made these first, stopped and enjoyed our appetizers and then went back to cooking and made the buddha rice bowls.

Pumpkin Millet Muffins

My mother in law recently gave me a gift certificate to purchase a new cook book. I rushed out the door to choose a vegetarian cook book from the local bookstore. I decided on Rebar Modern Food Cook Book. They have an interesting ecclectic mix of recipes. This is one of them. The pumpkin millet muffins have a wonderful texture and taste. I loved the crunchy millet, pumpkin flavour and toasted pumpkin seeds on top. This recipe made a big batch too, which was nice. This allowed me to enjoy them for breakfast, during breaks between teaching yoga classes, and to share some with my friends.

Signature Salads

Finally blogger is letting me upload images! I have been trying to post for a number of days, but I really didn't want to without a photo!

Pictured here is a typical salad that I eat everyday. I think salads are an extremely important building block of a nutritious meal. It is with salads that we can get a lot of vitamins and nutrients as well as raw digestive enzymes that help us digest our cooked food. That being said we can also get into salad ruts. I try to keep my salads exciting by using nuts, seeds and other additions. This salad has pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds and other veggies.

According to Brendan Brazier, pumpkin seeds are iron-rich. Iron is a nutrient that some people have trouble getting enough of, especially if they don't eat enough meat. I like to add pumpkin seeds to my salad for some extra iron in my diet.

Hemp seed nuts are a great way to add protein to a meal. Hemp seed nuts are probably the finest source of raw protein in nature. Hemp is a nutreint-rich whole food in its natural state. There is no need to create isolates or extracts from it. The protein present in hemp is complete, containing all 10 essential amino acids. Since hemp protein is raw, its naturally occurring digestive enzymes remain intact, allowing it to be used by the body with greatest ease.

I love cupcakes!

This weekend we had a family get together so I volunteered to bring cupcakes. Pictured here are lemon gem cupcakes from Vegn with a Vengance iced with lemon buttercream icing adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Also from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and pictured here are the Chai Latté cupcakes. Now, these were a hard sell next to the ones frosted with lemon buttercream icing... however, I think on their own they would have been very much appreciated. They were a delightful little tea cake.

I'm back!

Wow! Does it ever feel better to be back in the land of the living! You have no idea what a drag it is for a foodie to loose all desire for food! I kept thinking about how little I had to contribute to my blog and whether I would ever have anything to contribute again! LOL!

Here is lunch from today. Roasted red pepper pesto pasta with spinach salad. I garnished the spinach salad with toasted almonds, mandarins and PC Mango Vinegrette This is definitely a five minute meal that I will add to my menu for my April cooking class. It was so quick and easy it wasn't even funny. I can think of a couple of things that I would do to tweek the recipe... but this one is definitely a keeper.

Nutritionally speaking this dinner is also a home run. The walnuts in the pesto are of course are a great source of omega 3's. Spinach is a good source of iron. Boosting iron stores with spinach is a good idea, especially because, in comparison to red meat, a well-known source of iron, spinach provides iron for a lot less calories and is totally fat-free. One of my nutrition and lifestyle coaching clients is making the switch to vegetarianism and is concerned about how to find certain nutrients that are commonly found in the meat kingdom, in the animal world. So there you go, no need for red meat to get your iron, or fish to get your omega 3's. You can have a well balanced nutritious diet as a vegetarian.

More good news about chocolate

Still not much cooking going on here. Gastro intestinal challenges mean there is not much more exciting than green tea and toast happening here. So while I am taking a cooking break I thought I would leave you with more good news about chocolate.

Not only is it good for your heart, but new studies show that good quality dark chocolate is also good for your brain! A special cocoa, designed to retain naturally occurring flavanols, could help maintain healthy brain function. This could eventually lead to new weapons against cognitive decline and dementia. Several studies have indicated that flavanols could improve blood vessel function. My February newsletter discussed the health benefits of chocolate... now here is another benefit to add to the list.

The flu

We have been suffering from a bad bout of flu in our house so there has been very little cooking going on here. I thought I would stop by to give you some tips on avoiding the flu. I myself have been making sleep a top priority and have definitely experienced way less symptoms of the flu than my husband and daughter. We have been eating foods that are very easy on our stomach including waffles, pancakes, and crepes. Above is a picture of a ginger pear waffle from Isa Chandra's wonderful cook book Vegan with a Vengance. So stay well, get lots of rest, avoid sugar, eat lots of garlic, keep your stress levels low, exercise and wash your hands. Be Healthy!