I’m back with another “What I Eat in a Day.” This time showing you how I checked off items from Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen. This list of different foods and other healthy habits helps you stay on track with your whole food plant-based lifestyle. The idea is to prioritize whole plant foods and crowd out the junky stuff!
There is no such thing as perfect, so we don’t need to try to reach for that. Instead, we can use this as a tool to remind ourselves of the healthiest foods to fit into our day. If you manage to hit everything, great! But if you miss a few, you always have tomorrow. Dr. Greger always emphasizes it’s not what you eat on one particular day that matters, but rather your overall eating pattern that counts.
This can be a great tool to get started if you’re new to plant-based eating. It helps to make sure your working towards an overall balanced diet. Once you get the hang of it and are exclusively eating plants, as you’ll see from my video, it’s pretty simple to knock everything off the list.
Escarole Black Lentil Soup
- 1 onion, chopped
- 6 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 cup carrots, chopped
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 2 bunches escarole, chopeed
- 15 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup dried black lentils, sorted and rinsed
- 1½ teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 teaspoon celery seed
- 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
- 1 teaspoon minced dried onion
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ teaspoon chipotle chili pepper
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups of more water as needed
- juice of half a lemon
Stovetop: Add everything except the lemon juice to a pot and simmer on the stove until the lentils are cooked and vegetables softened, about 30 to 40 minutes. Stir in lemon juice before serving.
Crock Pot: Add everything except the lemon juice to a Crock Pot and cook on low for about 6 hours or high for 3 to 4 hours until the lentils are cooked and vegetables softened. Stir in lemon juice before serving.
