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If you read my post about my whole food plant-based diet that I have been following for the past year and have written to me wanting to know more, then this post is for you.
When I posted about my weight-loss success, I had no idea so many of you would be interested.
So on Fridays, the day of the week when things start to wind down online for the weekend, I will post about how I made the changes in my diet work for me.
I will plan on posting a winning recipe – as I have tested, experimented and tried many and some are just not very tasty. Other weeks, I will answer the questions I receive or share new findings and doable ways to live a more healthier life.
Plus I would like to hear your tips and tricks and will share these so other readers will benefit.
For this post, I am sharing my top 3 WFPB success tips and a winning recipe for WFPB no-oil, Crabless Mini Maryland Crab Cakes that I recently made.
When Ed and I sat down to eat these mini crabless crab cakes, after the first bite, at the same time, both of us said… this is good! :-) We knew it was a keeper recipe that would make it into my recipe box.
Not only were they delicious, but it was easy to make a big batch of them to freeze so I would have a few meals ready to go for another night. This is one of the things I had to learn to do.
3 Things I Did to Have WFPB, No-Oil Diet Success
I had to change the way I did a lot of things. Instead of learning to do everything at once, I took my time so the changes I was making wouldn’t feel overwhelming or unattainable.
I am proof that change does work when you take your time and figure out what works for you. For instance, some WFPB eaters don’t use tahini since it is a fat, but I add it when the recipe calls for it, only I half the amount. This works for me… you have to become a test subject to find what works and tastes best for you.
1. I Had to Re-Think What a Meal Looks Like
One of the most successful things I did to follow the WFPB, no-oil way of eating and stick with it was rethinking what a meal looks like.
For me, breakfast use to mean milk and cereal, toast, oatmeal or eggs. Lunch a lunchmeat sandwich, and dinner a meat, starch, veggie and a sweet dessert.
When eating WFPB, you have to rethink this mindset. Why not have a salad for breakfast? Standard breakfast, lunch and dinner fare is just a notion – what has become the norm. But it doesn’t have to be your norm.
For me, what a meal consists of has been an ongoing process of learning to appreciate vegetables, beans, legumes and whole grains in completely different ways and for every meal. I am always searching for new recipes online, at the bookstore and my local library.
My focus has shifted away from ingrained patterns and preconceptions about what a meal should be like; it is no longer meat based, but instead every meal evolves around veggies in all colors of the rainbow.
2. I Learned to Batch Cook
When preparing whole foods that require you to cook from scratch, it takes time. I had to learn to lessen my time in the kitchen by learning how to batch cook and bake.
I now schedule one morning a week for batch cooking. It takes planning to gather recipes and shop for all the food you will need, but once you get the hang of doing it, it makes life so much easier, especially when 5 o’clock rolls around and you ask yourself, “What’s for dinner?” and you don’t feel like cooking.
Just head to the freezer and pull out something that you batched prepared.
- To learn more about how to batch cook, check out this post on WFPB Batch Cooking and this post about Meal Prepping.
3. I Set Up My Kitchen to Feel Like a Chic Bistro
Another thing I did to be successful was to find ways to make my WFPB, no oil journey interesting and that would be, for the lack of a better term, elegant.
I didn’t want granola crunchy style, but rather one of simple elegance, like I was eating at a chic bistro every night. If you have watched The Lost Kitchen from The Magnolia Network that is on Discovery+, then you know what I mean. :-)
When I make dinner, I enjoy a glass of wine, put on one of my favorite Spotify playlists and have learned to enjoy the process of making a meal.
When it is time to serve it up or as they say in bistro language – plate it. I try to make my food look delicious on the plate by adding a sprinkle of herbs or spices. Nothing fancy, but simple healthy fare served in style.
A Winning WFPB Recipe: No-Crab Mini Crab Cakes
These plant-based crab cakes are loaded with that Maryland crab cake flavor, deliver that texture that makes a crab cake, and are easy to whip up for a meal, side dish, or appetizer. No crab claws needed to make them, only frozen artichokes that I buy at Trader Joes.
I made the recipe into mini crab cakes, but you can make the patties any size you want.
Print Recipe
Vegan WFPB No Oil: No-Crab Mini Crab Cakes
When you eat a whole food plant based diet with no oil, fish or meat and miss the flavor of eating a Maryland style crab cake, this recipe is for you.
Course: Appetizer, Dinner, Lunch
Cuisine: American
Keyword: artichokes, crab cakes, plant based, vegan, whole food
Servings: 4
Equipment
Nonstick skillet
Ingredients
- 2 cups artichoke hearts thawed frozen works better than canned – I buy them at Trader Joes
- 1 – 1/2 cups loosely packed and cooked brown rice
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup loosely packed and chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon white miso I buy it at the health food store or Whole Foods
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/2 – 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning add more to taste
- 1 medium clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 cup rolled oats
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp salt this is optional since the Old Bay Seasoning has salt in it
Instructions
In a blender or food processor, add the artichoke hearts, brown rice, nutritional yeast, sunflower seeds, parsley, miso, Dijon mustard, Old Bay Seasoning, garlic, black pepper and vinegar. Puree to mix ingredients but don't over blend. You want the mix to have texture and be a bit lumpy.
Once the mix is coming together, add the oats and pulse a few times to mix them in.
Refrigerate for one hour.
After chilling, scoop out the mixture to form patties using your hands. About 1/2 cup for a burger size. A 1/4 cup for a sliders.
To cook: Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Wait for it to get hot and spritz with water. Add the patties and cook 5 – 7 minutes on the first side and then flip and cook the second side until it is golden. Keep spritzing with water if they begin to stick.
Serve as an appetizer with sugar-free ketsup or the fixings of your choice.
Notes
I chose to cook with no oil, but these can be pan-fried with oil if you use oil.
You can also bake them in a 400 degree oven for about 8 minutes for burgers, then flip and bake another 8 minutes. If making mini crab cakes, bake for about 5 minutes on each side until they turn golden brown.
What to Serve With No-Crab Mini Crab Cakes
If making the crab cakes for a dinner you can make them into burger size patties and serve with roasted herbed veggies or potatoes, and a salad with a no-oil dressing. When roasting veggies and potatoes I found a drizzle of the liquid in a can of chickpeas called Aquafaba makes a good replacement for oil to give them a crispy texture. Just look for chickpeas will less sodium. So far the brand with the lowest that I have found is Furmano’s in the yellow can.
For lunch, make a crab cake sandwich: Place on a toasted whole wheat bun and pile on a tomato, shredded purple cabbage or lettuce and slices of avocado.
If you have any questions or would like me to post more winning recipes or lifestyle topics just let me know in the comments.
If you missed it: Link to My Plant Based Weight Loss Success Story.
