Vegan Dreams – Less plastic, More plants, More Fiber – Page 3 – Dr. Plastic Picker
 

Category: Vegan Dreams – Less plastic, More plants, More Fiber

One of 3 Rosemary Bushes in our HMO parking lot.

November 10, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Did you know that Salvia rosmarinus or Rosmarinus officinalis commonly known asĀ rosemary, is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native to the Mediterranean region.”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary I had known these shrubs on my walks around the parking lot, and I had seen bees around them. But for some reason yesterday I really noticed the plant, and broke off a few branches to smell the leaves. Indeed, it smelled like Rosemary. I thought they were native, but they are a transplant from the Mediterranean that has a very similar climate to our little corner in Southern California. This is a wild growing cultivated plant. Just reading the Wikipedia page there is a long history of it’s journey during Greek and Roman times, through Europe, and finally “Rosemary finally arrived in the Americas with early European settlers in the beginning of the 17th century.” Then at some point it arrived in a little hidden corner of our HMO Parking lot.

I know that the particular non-descript HMO complex I work at was built about 30 years ago. Rosemary plants can live about 30 years. I wonder how old this plant is? I wonder who planted it? I love Wikipedia. It details the history of Rosemary and “In Don Quixote (Part One, Chapter XVII), the fictional hero uses rosemary in his recipe for balm of fierbras.” What is the balm of fierbras? “According to a chanson from 1170, Fierabras and Balan conquered Rome and stole two barrels containing the balm used for the corpse of Jesus. This miraculous balm would heal whoever drank it . . . Don Quixote mentions to Sancho Panza that he knows the recipe of the balm. In Chapter XVII, Don Quixote instructs Sancho that the ingredients are oil, wine, salt and rosemary.” When Don Quixote drinks the balm of fierbras, he vomits and sweats and is healed from it. Sancho gets diarrhea and is nearly killed from it.

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Inspired by a recipe posted by Retireby40.

November 9, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It’s important to give credit where credit it due. I made a super simple Udon Soup yesterday, but it was a reinvention of a recipe for Khoa Tom Pla Thai Rice Soup with Fish) from Retireby40 – one of the personal finance bloggers I follow. https://retireby40.org/sahd-cooking-khoa-tom-pla/ I really love Thai food and Joe is Thai, and his recipes are really good. I find them easy to follow and not too fussy. I called my mom to tell her about the recipe, and she approved. She is a superb Vietnamese cook and she has always thought Thai food is as fresh and healthy as our native foods. Plus Joe’s recipes are usually frugal. Please click on Joe’s original link to give him credit, and also he has links to buy the ingredients if you don’t have them at home.

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Spices that make up the Philly Cheesesteak Sirloin Rub

Novemeber 8, 2020

by drplasticpicker

We watched President-Elect Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris yesterday as a family. We made it an event. Before the actual speech and dinner, we had been inspired by real friends on my personal Facebook that suggested Philly Cheesesteak and Arizona Ice Tea in celebration of the swing states that brought the electoral collage home. The entire day had been happy with smiles and CNN playing in the background. Everyone seemed to be smiling, even the political pundits. Trump has really aged Jake Tapper. We were low on kitchen staples anyway so needed to go to a grocer.

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Bag of potatoes.

November 7, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Something dawned upon me yesterday while I was prepping my fourth 5 lb bag of potatoes. We had grabbed the bag on one of our grocery runs. I think this was from Vons, our local grocer. I had never purchased an entire 5 lb bag of potatoes in bulk before. It would spoil too quickly for me to be able to use it all. My mother-in-law and father-in-law often buy food in bulk including large sacks of onions and carrots, and seem to be always working with basic food ingredients. But for me, I had eaten plenty of potatoe containing foods but they were packaged in plastic and blasted with artificial flavors. The preservatives were likely palm-oil based and likely killed a poor orangatang due to displacement from palm oil plantations. Those packaged “potato” foods likely had the fiber processed out of it.

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Fun being a Food Instragrammer Hobbyist!!!

November 2, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I made Home-Made Pesto last night. We had it for dinner and our children agreed it was better than the Costco one. Creamier, my daughter said. It was simple and easy – and I am continually shocked as to why I had not known how to make this earlier? After dinner, there was enough to refill a clean Pesto Jar from the local organic market. I have to admit, the store cought pesto from the organic market was so vinegary that I had to force myself to finish it. It was shipped from Italy, and the main oil is actually sunflower oil not even olive oil. In our pesto we used walnuts instead of pinenuts, and usually walnuts are the quarter of the price of pinenuts. Ever price conscious – I’ll stick with walnuts.

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October 24, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I’m making beer bread right now. It’s amazing how simple it is. Mr. Plastic Picker is Korean-American. I took a Korean History class my Junior year of college at Crimson University because my then boyfriend (the same Mr. Plastic Picker) was Korean, and I had an elective that I took pass/fail. I think I got a B in the class but that was planned, as I put in the minimum effort and I passed the class. I remember calculating out that my GPA was in the mid 3.7ish range (which back then was good for Crimson University) and even if I got an A- in the class, it would actually hurt my GPA. So I decided to take this one class Pass/Fail strategically the spring of my Junior Year so I could study for my MCAT. The MCAT went fine, and I passed the Korean History class. I don’t actually remember much from the class, I think because I put so little effort into it. I do remember Professor Carter Eckert (I think that was his name?) said Koreans were thought of as the Irish of the East. That made everyone laugh at the analogy because of the stereotypes of the drinking culture in both cultures. It was more in reference to the Japanese colonial era of Korean history where the Empire of Japan exploited the Koreans as hard labourers. Much of how the Irish people have been exploited by the British. If you wonder why there is such a visceral reaction to all things Japanese in Korea, you must know the context of that colonial history.

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Fancy glass container we rediscovered in our kitchen. Will use for the vinegar.

October 17, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Today’s title is pretty good. Sometimes I even surprise myself! But seriously. This is advice for all my children, patients, premed interns and young physicians that I mentor – don’t do shady stuff. This is more a reaction to other people I have to interact with as an HMO Middle Manager. It’s a challenging role. Sometimes I look around and realize it’s been 3 1/2 years now. 2 1/2 more years that I’ve committed to my term. But I’ve also committed 9 years to helping stop climate change. Now middle manager work is easier because I sleep more and more things are “fixed” like the physician schedule. Plus I’ve realized I can help save the earth in my middle-manager role (I got to early on cancel all our plastic water bottle orders!). I can’t step aside until a group of really wonderful young pediatricians is ready to take over. They are all with young children now, so I’ll keep the seat warm for a few years.

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My almost vegan banana walnut muffin. It was DELICIOUS! Appropriate portion size. Mostly organic. Food waste project as the bananas were overripe! Would have been $3.15 at Starbucks. Plus avoided plastic trash.

October 16, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It’s Friday and 550AM. It’s still pitch dark outside. My circadian rhythm is definitely in tune with the sun and moon, because I had noticed I had been up at 4am recently. I realized that the time change is coming, and the clocks will reset and it will be 5am again when I now wake up at “4am.” So I’ve really been getting up at the same “time.” Maybe the world should just set the clocks according to my sleep schedule? LOL. Whatever the real time is, it’s in the early morning and the best time of the day.

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Rediscovered a durable plastic friend. Our Popsicle molds!

October 4, 2020

by drplasticpicker

The world is in chaos these days. I was obsessively checking CNN and Politico since Thursday night, since every time I checked someone else who I would think of as evil doers was getting COVID-19 due to not wearing mask. But as a pediatrician and generally one that does not wish anyone harm (I just wish they would not get reelected), I realize that it is a sad situation for the country. I think the moral of the story is not to doctor shop. When you have a good physician who does not bow to your every whim, then probably you have someone who cares about you and will take care of you rather than worrying about “satisfaction” scores. Again, it’s just sad all around. I do not wish harm to befall on anyone. I do wish the next administration will help stop climate change.

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October 3, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Didn’t quite turn out like the picture from the website. It was good fresh out of the oven but a bit too dense. I think I’d rather figure out the yeast thing. I don’t mind if some bread takes time.

One of the neighborhood cats was stalking our two bunnies who live on our second story balcony! I had been hearing some commotion out there and figured it was just Peter and Bella hopping around. But it was a cat! Apologies to all the cat lovers out there, but our household is definitely a bunny and dog house. I was so mad! I may not dote on our bunnies but I do love them, and any vet bills would cost hundreds of dollars. Once Peter had some congestion and Mr. Plastic Picker took him into the bunny vet and Peter needed Azithromycin for $150! It looked exactly like the Azithromycin I prescribe to kids. Mr. Plastic Picker wanted to leave them out there, but I insisted on bringing them in the house. So the married bunnies in our house hopped back inside and will just shed like crazy indoors When I spied the neighborhood cat on the rooftop where she had leaped onto our awning, I was so mad. I grabbed one of the bunnies dried poop pellets and threw it at her while it was pitch dark! Go away you killer of songbirds!

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