Tag Archives: culinary medicine

Cooking and Recipes

Kitchen Scrap Veggie Broth

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If you’re like me, the taste and expense of store-bought vegetable broth is just not something you want to deal with, and broth can seem like a crazy undertaking, with millions of ingredients and a long time, but once you get in the habit you’ll be glad you did.  The control over your flavors, for different kinds of soups or applications is benefit enough, but you’ll also be producing less packaging waste AND stretching your groceries for every last little penny.  Who knew onion skins would become your most treasured kitchen commodity?

It works like this: you go through your week, chop an onion here, smash some garlic there, and various other veggies in your travels.  Save them, and especially the skins, the seeds, and the leaves.  Have veggies that have gone a little limp or are a bit too near the end of their life?  Put em in, they’ll boil down to flavor and the solids will be filtered out! Put all these unwanted scraps in a gallon ziploc bag and keep that baby in your veggie drawer until its full (up to 7 days) combine it with a broth bag, cover with water and BOOM broth.

Here’s one such example (its big, you can make 1/4 size no problem!):

6 mushrooms (and stalks from 5-7 more)20160302_105553 Continue reading Kitchen Scrap Veggie Broth →

Events, Health, Lifestyle

Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference 2015

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20150930_131000It’s registration day at the 3rd Annual IPBNHC in Anaheim, CA and you can feel the excitement as die-hard PBD and Vegans gather along with medical professionals some of whom already subscribe to a PBD/Lifestyle and some who are here to learn more and jumpstart this way of life for themselves and their patients!

The agenda for the next few days is full of information from some of the world’s most famous and prolific Plant-based advocate Doctors, dietitians and researchers, along with all meals presented to attendees to fully integrate the message.  I look forward to learning from these brilliant minds, experiencing the creativity in the healthy foods they’ll be serving, and networking with like-minded people around these meals.20150930_130948

And such goodies they give in your welcome bag that really indicate that they take the mission seriously to have it serve in all areas of your life.   Continue reading Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference 2015 →

Cooking and Recipes, Restaurants and Dining

Vegan Options at Restaurants Project

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My goal: To help all/many more restaurants have at least one vegan option on their menu!

Submit this letter, or modify it for your own uses!

___________________________________

Suzannah Gerber

(412) 901- 1216

contact email

Dear (Restaurant Name Manager/Owner):

Have you considered offering vegan options on your menu?

I am a part-time vegan chef and plant-based diet Medical study researcher and consultant at INOVA, and I would like to offer my assistance to you, at no cost, to help develop vegan options for your menu that integrate stylistically with your restaurant and use all or mostly ingredients you already purchase.  In addition to vegan options, I would be happy to help you consider allergen-sensitive items to accommodate gluten free, soy and nut allergies as well.

Why should you have vegan items on your menu?

Veganism has become very popular over the last few years, and is gaining in popularity.  Celebrities like Beyonce, and politicians like Bill Clinton, publically support the vegan diet.

Plant-based diets help treat health issues such as heart disease, chronic pain, and obesity. Nationwide campaigns such as “Meatless Mondays” speak to an interest in alternative diets.

Vegans and Vegetarians have meat-eating friends and family, and look for restaurants that accommodate everyone.  The choice for a group of 4-6 with 1 vegan is a restaurant with at least one or two vegan options on the menu.

Why is this consultation free?

My goals are to increase the amount of nutritionally balanced vegan food available, and to educate vegans about what locations can serve them.  Personally, I would like more options when I dine out with my non-vegan friends! Also, as a vegan chef, I would love the opportunity to work with restaurants with a variety of needs, culinary techniques, and restrictions, to learn how to make vegan food available to the widest possible audience.

By adding vegan items to your menu, you will open your doors to a new population of customer, a population who will happily promote the existence of your restaurant simply for offering vegan options. I will show you the many vegan websites that list and promote restaurants with vegan options, and personally help your restaurant get onto these lists.

I look forward to discussing adding a tailor-made vegan option to your menu!

Suzannah Gerber

______________

Help others see the bigger picture, one restaurant at a time!

Health

2015 International Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference

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As a vegan consultant and researcher for INOVA, I investigate the efficacy of plant-based diet, and the prevalence of inclusion of PBD in peer-reviewed studies, for a variety of health concerns relevant to current medical studies and patient treatment plans. Plant-based diets are on the rise, I am happy to report, and there is more and more interest in scientifically quantifying the results, which will likely make PBD more than just another passing dietary fad. plantricianproject-w590h590

“A nation in which physicians and allied healthcare professionals have received compelling education about the foundational pillar of prevention: a whole food, plant-based dietary protocol. A sustainable, financially sound healthcare system wherein nutritional medicine and its proven ability to prevent, suspend and even reverse virtually all chronic disease, as well as many autoimmune diseases, is fully integrated throughout the healthcare practice spectrum.”

That is the vision statement from the conference, colloquially referred to as the Culinary Medicine Conference.  2015 International Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference

It is exciting to know there is such a dedicated and growing community of people spreading the good news about an animal-free diet.  It is my hope that this continues to grow, and more and more people become aware of the practices surrounding these industries, and that these industries are pressured to change as a result.

Stay tuned for more links to publicly published medical studies.  The bigger picture includes health, compassion, and great food!