(Part 2) Best products from r/PlantBasedDiet

I've been growing microgreens for 2 months - just broccoli and kale so far. They are the easiest to get you started as they can survive the widest temperature range, humidity range, grow well in substrates (non-soil mediums like coco coir and hemp), and tend avoid mold problems - I've never had any issues myself.

Here's some pics of my results + setup:
https://imgur.com/a/nQZrev2

I use a couple of 75w blue+white LED grow light panels - one for each tray of microgreens. Blue is important for vegetative growth which is what microgreens are all about.
75w blue-white grow light panels

Flowering plants requires more of the red light spectrum. Microgreens don't need that red light but when I started I had a couple of 90% red + 10% blue LED grow light panels and the microgreens did okay under those and where still edible.

Lots of people love white T5 florescent lights (which of course contain the blue light microgreens need) but from what I've read they generate a lot of heat and you need to circulate air around them more - this is often achieve with little box fans. Though, in cold climate that heat can be beneficial. Personally, I think if your growing in a typically well-heated area of your home you can just go with LEDs.

In the pics I linked to you'll see 7" humidity domes over my trays. I don't use them anymore and find they provided no benefit. If anything the extra humidity was hurting the microgreens. It could've been insufficient oxygen to despite the top vents. They just didn't grow as strong. You might need them in a very dry climate though.
7" humidity domes

The trays I use are called "1020 trays" because they're 10x20 inches. They're from Bootstrap Farmer on Amazon. I recommend this brand over others due to their durability.
1020 trays

I use 10x20" hemp mats as a growing substrate and love them. I'm considering switching to coco coir some day due to how cheap it is but I'm still doing research on that.
hemp substrate

The seeds I use are from Mountain Valley Seed Co. The germinate very well and I've had zero problems.
kale seeds
broccoli seeds

I just zip tied the grow lights to a tiny wirerack I had around. I'm going to expand to a 48"w x 24"d x 72" high wire rack soon so I can use 1 shelf for 4 10x20" trays and use the other shelves for storage or whatever. If you get a large wirerack like that I recommend something in Alera's industrial line. A little pricey but they're sturdy beyond measure.

I'm still very much a n00b at all this and this is all just based on my 2 months of experience.

/r/microgreens is a great resource.

I highly recommend checking out some of John Kohler's videos where he interviews microgreen growers. This one he did with the owner of City Hydro got me interested in microgreens:
How to Grow Microgreens in Your Home & Make $100,000+ a Year

City Hydro has come great videos on their YouTube page as well:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe0J-lbIU2Pta8mR6euWg-g/videos

Their setup takes up more space that I have in my modest apartment but it's still inspiring.

Posted this on your r/vegan post, but I figure it might help someone here who might not otherwise see it.

You need to see an allergist. It sounds to me like you’ve got oral allergy syndrome, which is basically where you’re allergic to the pollens of foods that are in the same family or otherwise structurally similar. It’s not at all uncommon, but you need to see an allergist because you need to make sure there’s no underlying cause. Also, because OAS can be a bit, erm, unpredictable in that you don’t always realize that you’re eating something that will trigger your allergies, you will probably want to have an Epi-Pen and/or emergency inhaler in the event you have a severe reaction. If your allergist deems it a good idea, keep them on or near you at all times, and remember to get replacements whenever they expire. I’ve gone years without having to use my Epi-Pen but I still have several within easy reach regardless of where I am. I also have made sure that all the people I’m around regularly know where they are and how to use them.

Get evaluated for celiac and related disorders. This would be done by a gastroenterologist, which you will likely need a referral from your PCP to see. Given your inability to keep weight on, I would wager that you have some sort of malabsorption issue — the most commonly occurring one being celiacs. Celiac.org has a symptom list that might be helpful. Another one that has more info.

Have your vitamin/mineral levels checked, in particular Vitamin D. Low levels of Vit D can indirectly cause malabsorption problems. There are a handful of other vitamins/minerals that can cause the same thing, but they are almost always related to low D levels. Fix the levels, and you’ll begin to feel better, although you’ll never be able to undo the damage that’s already been done if this is what the issue is.

Try a stomach acid supplement and/or digestive enzymes. Low stomach acid is a relatively unknown problem that can cause malabsorption issues, amongst other things. I use this one because it’s cheap and I’ve yet to find one that works as well. Edit: This one is not vegan, but as I said, I’ve yet to find something that actually works and is vegan. If anyone has a suggestion, let me know. Keep in mind that every person is different, so what works for me might not work for you. For example, I have a friend with the same disorder as me, but these give her an upset stomach and the ones that she takes (don’t recall the brand) don’t do anything for me. If you don’t want to buy anything like this, you can test if this is your issue by taking apple cider vinegar. The usual starting point is a tablespoon taken about 20 minutes after you eat. For me, I found that I needed more and taking it before I eat was often more helpful.

As someone else mentioned, try pre- and probiotics. This is a brand that’s frequently recommended in the zebra, although I’ve known a couple people who felt they’re too strong. Edit: This one is vegan. This is something else that’s been recommended with good success. Two tablespoons daily, usually in the morning, although it’s more than fine to take more. I know at least one person who drinks it rather than water and swears by it. I also give it to my dog with stomach issues, and he drinks it exclusively even though water is also available. An electrolyte replacement would be a good idea as well. LyteShow (Amazon link) is the brand I prefer, but there are several other brands available. Stay away from things like Gatorade/Powerade and other “sports drinks”. While they’re good in theory, most of them are no better than soda.

Do some reading about gastroparesis, mast cell activation syndrome, dysautonomia, and autism in adults. They’re all related, and chances are high that you’ll at least find some insight into how to manage your symptoms even if you don’t find all the answers.

You are not alone, and your symptoms are not unusual. It’s not “all in your head”, nor is it a result of “being picky”. Unfortunately, it is up to you to advocate for yourself and find a medical team that won’t brush you off. In the meantime, I would strongly caution you about changing your diet suddenly. I understand wanting to change it, to be better as quickly as possible, but you can shock your system when there’s underlying issues. Take it slow, find things that work for you, and go from there.

I used to puncture (not open) cans of veggies, like corn, drain 1/3 the liquid, and heat them in the engine compartment of my car while driving. Think I moved beyond that.

Hard pretzels are consistently the one snack that's with low/no oil. Still would check ingredients. Not quite WFPB, but widespread, vegan and low fat. Still, I find snacks like these don't give good satiety and I keep reaching for them. Easy energy.

Taco Bell is vegan with modifications. Enough oil in it though but food on the go. The two easiest and cheapest things to order is thus:

• Bean Burrito. Make it fresco (means replace dairy/cheese with pico de gallo).
  
  
• Crunchy or Soft Taco. Make it fresco. Remove Beef. Add black beans.
  
  Grande meals composed of this are huge and cheap. Check your orders before leaving. Some locations really are bad at screwing it up.
  
  Some equipment I recommend in your situation:
  
  
• A good chef's knife for chopping and prep work and a short knife (2-3") for peeling and other work.
  
  
• a foldable mat to do chopping on. These are cheap and much easier to clean and portable than wooden blocks.
  
  
• A collapsible silicon colander. Portable. To clean greens. I don't use a salad spinner much anymore, takes up a lot of room and I don't want my greens that dry.
  
  
• Like before, a collapsible silicon bowl for salads and other prep plus to microwave and eat direct from. Easier than constantly tossing paper plates.
  
  
• small glass jar (from marmalade or anything used) to mix dressing with.
  
  For much of your cooking, a microwave will actually be enough. Oatmeal, potatoes, rice, beans. Sure spaghetti and the rest will work too with practice.
  
  Panfrying and searing isn't a major requirement in the WFPB kitchen and much could also be done in a conventional oven. You can get a toaster-oven for around $50 if you stay in the same room consistently although I don't think it's necessary. You can get yourself an countertop cooktop for $50-100, but the room will unlikely have ventilation or an outdoor, so this or toasteroven can backfire if smoke occurs.
  
  There is one product I don't necessarily recommend for the hotel with the microwave, but if you are out on the road with a car a lot, and that's a HotLogic Mini Oven:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/HotLogic-Mini-Personal-Portable-Black/dp/B00EC7XJ00/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1550340406&sr=8-3&keywords=portable+oven
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Foval-Power-Inverter-Converter-Charger/dp/B01H2XD2DY/ref=sr_1_6?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1550340598&sr=1-6&keywords=car+inverter
  
  Consider this not for cooking but for reheating. It's a glorified hot plate that won't burn anything. I recommend the 12v with an good inverter in the car over a 12v version for the simple reason that you can use it in hotel rooms without modification. If you buy a 12v version and buy an adapter for outlets, you are much more likely to forget the adapter in hotel rooms.
  
  If it's in the running due to extra people, 2 mini size is better than one family size imo.
  
  The pyrex 6 cup they sometimes bundle with it is not spillproof so it was useless for soups and other wet stuff, but I got a 46 or 54oz glass glasslock-style spill-proof container at a local Marshalls that was perfect.
  
  There is also those Indian Heat n Eat meals. Kohinoor and the like. Many have butter but there were some vegan varieties.
  
  Also, up raw food eating. Fruits, salads, etc.

> six-foot-one and cycling between 210 and 230

Well, at 220, you're BMI 29. Above and equal to 30 is obese and above and equal to 25 is overweight. So you definitely have room to improve. This is very good news. You should target BMI at 22 or even 20 if you're not muscular.

Somewhere in the range 150 to 170 pounds. But 150 is better unless you're really muscular.

This is a good summary: https://twitter.com/whsource/status/1088556749617979392

The big problem is "energy excess". The cure is to increase the amount of energy that you can store in your muscles by doing strength training (you need to train ALL your muscles) and to eliminate all that belly fat so that the fat will finally have a place to go temporarily. The belly fat is the storage organ for fat, and once it's filled, it can no longer store fat and the fat leaks in the bloodstream. From there, it goes into the muscles, and then the glucose no longer has a place to go. And at this point you've elevated lipids and elevated glucose and you get an heart attack.

EDIT: So now that it's clear that you must lose weight, how to do it? Well, you need to minimize caloric intake while still getting adequate nutrition. I think that the best is a small portion of beans, a big portion of veggies, and one fruit. Repeat this 3 times a day (with most calories in the morning). Your caloric intake should be so low that your blood glucose can't rise much. Then start exercise program. You need to stimulate all muscles, and the ideal is to stimulate them in both ways: big resistance few repetitions and moderate resistance more repetitions.

Stimulating the heart muscle isn't really interesting for you, let it rest, you don't need cardio.

EDIT: Of course, you may also considered the typical supplements used in vegan diets, namely, b12 supplement and EPA/DHA supplement. Get this: https://www.vegetology.com/3-x-opti3-3-x-b12

For exercise, get this: https://www.amazon.com/Bodylastics-Stackable-Resistance-Anti-Snap-Exercise/dp/B01H5K10VK/. These bands allow you to train every muscle, you only need a solid door to attach them.

I feel your struggle friend. I recently lost 75lbs since going on a WFPB diet.

Most of these recipes are really simple:

https://www.amazon.com/Eat-Live-Quick-Easy-Cookbook/dp/0062684957

Soups and stews are great because you can make them and freeze them.

Also, learn to make your own plant based salad dressings (oil free of course). Then you can grab some veggies or hit up a salad bar and have something easily.

There are a lot of simple recipes for potatoes or rice and I think those are really filling. Beans and rice might sound boring, but I love how it tastes with seasoning and hot sauce (my mouth is watering thinking about it).

If you want to lose weight (and do it Whole Food Plant Based), these are the 6 things people consistently need to cut out:

1. Oil
   
2. Sugar
   
3. Salt
   
4. Chicken
   
5. Eggs
   
6. Cheese
   
   Are there other things you should avoid? Sure. But people that are unhealthy and on a standard american diet seem to be eating those things the most consistently (more than say, pork chops and hot dogs).
   
   If you aren't losing weight, it's always the food. There are three things to focus on: 1) What you eat 2) How much you eat 3) How often you eat.
   
   Don't stress too much about calories in, calories out at this point. Obviously you have to eat at a deficit to lose weight. But first find 8-10 meals you can eat regularly and feel comfortable making and enjoy. Then you figure out how to best eat less. :)
   
   If you're a picky eater, start with a food you like and look up recipes for that. If you throw out a food or meal you enjoy, I can help you find or modify a recipe.
   
   Good luck!

Buy an Instant Pot on Amazon. Get the 8 quart version if you can afford it.

Buy some silicone baking mats on Amazon.

Get a cheap food processor.

Then, stock up on dried beans (black, kidney, great northern, pinto, etc), dried split peas, dried lentils, dried chickpeas, and dried pasta.

Buy some better than bouillon style vegetable base. (Not a whole food, but it's used in small amounts and making your own vegetable stock doesn't seem worth it.)

Buy some frozen corn, peas, broccoli, and spinach.

If you can, buy some frozen berries for putting in oatmeal.

Buy some canned tomato products like diced, crushed, sauce, etc.

Get some nutritional yeast from the store, and if you like it, buy it in bulk on Amazon.

For fresh stuff, get potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and sliced mushrooms. Then whatever greens you want, fresh fruit, and maybe some peppers as you need them for recipes.

From there, you can make all kinds of food in the Instant Pot with minimal effort. Chili, soup, stews, pasta, pasta sauce, burrito filling, taco filling, 'cheese' sauce, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, refried beans, and hummus.

You can find lots of recipes on youtube, but once you know the basics you can make lots of stuff.

Want to make some pasta? Toss in 3 cups of water, 1 tablespoon of vegetable base, 1lb cup of whole wheat penne, a 28oz can of tomato sauce, mushrooms, peas, broccoli, and whatever else you want. Set the instant pot to cook for 5 minutes on high pressure, and about an hour later you've got a few days worth of pasta.

You don't even have to soak beans when making them in an Instant Pot. Just toss them in, look in the manual for how long to cook them, and walk away.

It also works as a slow cooker, rice cooker, and yogurt maker. And because of the keep warm setting, you can put something in to cook, head off to class, and have a warm meal when you get back.

Pressure cooked beans and lentils taste better than canned, and the chickpeas will be softer and creamier. You'll also save a bunch of money this way.

Hope that helps!

Every night I have a base of either quinoa or rice, prepared in my rice cooker with various vegetables and spices. If rice, I'll roll it up with nori for homemade veggie rolls.

With dinner I have a 12 ounce glass of water with two tablespoons of flax and one tablespoon of chia.

I buy my pinto beans and black beans loose in bulk at the local grocery store when picking up my vegetables, usually around 5 or 6 pounds of each at a time.

Cumin, garlic powder, tahini, and dry garbanzo beans go for a good homemade hummus in a food processor. Needs a fresh lemon or two squeezed into the tahini. Original recipe had olive oil and salt, I leave out the oil entirely and either cut the salt down to a dash or none at all.

I keep oats and almond meal on hand to make pdb cookies with the same food processor, just add a banana or two, cinnamon, nutmeg, almond butter, and raisins if you like. The original recipe called for dates and I said eat me I'm doing raisins.

I got peppermint in bulk to make tea with, both by itself as well as mixing with chamomile, mugwort, etc.

I keep almost all of the above in these convenient cereal containers to both extend shelf life, shelf space, and remove any branding or advertising. Mason jars are also awesome!

Don't forget you can dehydrate your own food as well!

Edit: I don't work for Amazon, I just live no-car and order like this to survive!

One thing I've enjoyed and is quick, is yam flour, available at Amazon. It's made from true yam, not sweet potatoes. It's similar to mashed potatoes, but I'm not allergic to it :) There's also elubo/amala yam flour, which has a different taste, less bland.

I mix the flour into cold water, then microwave for 5 minutes to cook it.

This is really your call. I believe in the idea that reducing your intake of poor-quality foods is better than not reducing that intake at all.

Personally, it took a while to get the cheese-monkey off my back, and there have been periods of time where I went back to eating it. I'm not going to say I'll never eat it again, but the more I stay away from it, the more I realize that I don't feel good when I do eat it. And if it doesn't make my body feel good after I eat it, why do I do it?

You should look into The Cheese Trap, which goes into detail about why dairy is so delicious, and what are some of the common reasons we are attracted to it, even if it's not a good choice for us.

That said, you've been at this for 2 weeks-- try doing it for another 2 weeks without dairy and see how you feel! It may take some time for you to adjust.

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

https://smile.amazon.com/Stanislaus-Cucina-Whole-Tomatoes-Pound/dp/B0050IKUBG

---

^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

no, I mean Peanut butter is NOT plant based, hence the word (butter) it's processed, but you can buy PB2 or peanut flour which has 95% of the fat taken out, it's much better for ya.https://www.amazon.ca/Protein-Plus-Roasted-Natural-Peanut/dp/B0052OOYOW?pf_rd_p=ade63561-ce66-434d-8f8d-09bbdf7a0c11&pd_rd_wg=P16S2&pf_rd_r=EATJHWYCE7XX54V10P9R&ref_=pd_gw_cr_wsim&pd_rd_w=ktw0O&pd_rd_r=f1609769-bdb0-4cfa-acf2-9471e5d87953

I bought Baron's off Amazon based on a recommendation here. It's thinner, so not much mixing to do (and I'm not left with an inch of unmixed tahini left on the bottom). It's not as bitter, though it's still an overwhelming flavor on its own. I use it in dressings, never plain.

Wait for cyber monday - https://smile.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-Multi-Use-Programmable-Pressure/dp/B00FLYWNYQ - if you have more than four people in your family you may want to go 8 quart though.

Yeah, tomatoes are very flavorful as shown in the figure below:

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep00196/figures/1

Flavor network and the principles of food pairing

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep00196

BTW, we could get Alta Cucina tomatoes from Restaurant Depot for $5 a can:

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=40403.0

> Ask your pizza store if they will sell you a case. Most around my area will.

It's bloody expensive on Amazon, shipping is high for such a heavy #10 can:

https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/Stanislaus-Alta-Cucina-Whole-Peeled-Plum-Tomatoes%2C-%2310-can%2C-6-unit-case.product.100131944.html

https://www.amazon.com/Stanislaus-Cucina-Whole-Tomatoes-Pound/dp/B0050IKUBG

http://www.pennmac.com/items/3231//alta-cucina-whole-plum-tomatoes

They didn't mention anything about BPA-free linings, though.

Amazon has a "Look Inside" for this book.