Cooking Date Night: Thai Portobello Wraps

     When people explain their propensity to "eat big" you'll often hear something like this:

     "Well, my mother is Italian, so..." OR -
     "We're a typical Jewish family, so, you know..." OR -
     "I grew up in a traditional Mexican home, so..."

     Seems like everyone thinks their culture has the corner on glutony. The other day I read about a woman who was trying to reverse the effects of all that "traditional Scandinavian cooking". Really? I married into a traditional Swedish family. No one gets fat on crisp bread, herring and beets.

Most Swedes look like this because...

...they eat sandwiches that look like this.

   



     Here are some explanations for "eating big" that you NEVER, EVER hear:

     "Well, we're Japanese, so..." OR -
     "Well, you know how we Vietnamese are..." OR-
     "My mother is from Thailand, so, naturally..."
 

Sumo wrestlers eat 20,000 daily
calories of chankonabe (a meat soup)
to get fat. Kim Jong Un is on a peasant
diet. He eats 3 small farmers every day.

 Sumo wrestlers and North Korean despots aside, the incidences of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are still amazingly rare in most Asian countries. In fact, The China Study revealed that "in certain pockets of China where plant based diets were most common, researchers could not find a single person out of 100,000 who had died from heart disease." The study also revealed that "American men were seventeen times more likely to die from heart disease than rural Chinese men." Unfortunatley, for the Chinese, all of this is changing. You can probably guess why.

Some people fear that China is plotting our takeover. Don't
worry, America. Invasion and occupation takes a lot of
energy. Let's see how ambitious they feel after a couple
of generations of fast food.

   





     For this and thousands of other reasons, it appears the verdict is in. To over-indulge in the so-called Western diet is to invite the Grim Reaper to your dinner table.

     But here's some good news: A) The right food can heal you. B) Eating a whole food, plant-based diet is surprisingly tasty! and C) Making the switch is NOT as hard as you think it is going to be.

     Not surprisingly, a lot of the best tasting recipes come from the Far East. Maria and I have long been fans of Thai food (a shout out to our friend PC at Thai Pepper in Newhall, CA) and this Forks Over Knives recipe for "Thai Portobello Mushroom Wraps" is at the top of the list. We made it for a recent stay-at-home date night and, well, you can watch the little movie below.

     So, how can you tell if your diet is having a detrimental affect on your health? For starters, it's a bad sign if the guy carving the meat is using a scythe.

THAI PORTOBELLO WRAPS

from

Forks Over Knives: The Cookbook

SERVES 4

• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• Zest and juice of 1 lime
• 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 large shallots, diced small
• 1 pound portobello mushrooms, stemmed and finely chopped
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped mint
• 4 green onions (white and green parts), thinly sliced
• 4 large romaine lettuce leaves or 8 small ones

1. Combine the ginger, garlic, lime zest and juice, soy sauce, and crushed red pepper flakes in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the shallots and mushrooms and stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes. Add water 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time to keep the vegetables from sticking to the pan. Add the ginger mixtures and cook for another minute. Add the cilantro, mint, and green onion, and remove from the heat.
3. To serve, place some of the mushroom mixture on the bottom of one of the lettuce leaves and fold the lettuce over the filing. Repeat for the remaining lettuce leaves.