Vernon's Vision

Favorite Summer Drink

2015-06-19T21:29:00.003-07:00

*Casie Here* ~ Long time no post! Yikes!!!

This has been my go-to summer beverage of choice lately. I made this for our daughter's birthday party and have kept it going ever since.

I bought a big bag of lemons, limes and box of oranges at Costco and wanted to use them up before they went bad, so I washed them real good and sliced them up (usually one orange, one lemon and 3 limes) as well as a sliced peach and then any other extra fruit I have left from lunch. There really is no rhyme or reason, just whatever I feel like. There were some grapes, blueberries and raspberries in there too. I just fill it up with our filtered tap water and put it in the fridge. I keep refilling it for about 3-4 days, then dump out the fruit, wash the container in the dishwasher and start over. The longer it sits the better. It is REALLY tart so I add a little squirt of my liquid Stevia (Skinny Girl is what we have) and it is delicious! I have used the Skinny Girl with vanilla and I think it tastes like an Orange Julious!

I will warn you, I go to the bathroom a lot, but that is good! I'm staying hydrated and my kids love it too.

Enjoy this pretty drink at your house too!

THIS is how your refrigerator should look.

2014-08-17T18:45:00.002-07:00

Why all children need to have annual eye exams.

2014-08-13T21:41:00.003-07:00

How Artificial Eyes are made.

2014-08-13T19:00:00.002-07:00

Some individuals acquire extreme eye trauma or disease that requires the eye to be removed. For cosmetic reasons, a prosthetic eye may be used to fill the empty eye socket. Modern prosthetic eyes are very natural looking and the video below shows how they are made.

CLICK HERE to watch this very cool video about how artificial eyes are made.

20/20 Isn't Everything

2014-08-12T22:44:00.002-07:00

I wish more teachers, parents and pediatricians understood that just because a child is seeing good on an eye chart does not mean that the child doesn't need a comprehensive eye exam.

Eye problems are more than just blurry vision. Headaches, double vision, uncomfortable vision, eye discomfort, irritability, fatigue, distraction, headaches, inefficient reading, reduced academic performance are just some of the symptoms of eye related issues.

Many children are unable to identify that they have blurriness or uncomfortable vision. They only know how they see and assume that the way they see and feel is normal and is what everyone else experiences.

I recommend a dilated eye exam for all children by an optometrist every year to make sure their eyes are seeing to their greatest potential and to rule out any ocular conditions or disease.

Don't let your child's eye issues keep them from performing at their highest level in the classroom.

Call (402) 292-0651 to schedule an appointment at our office.

We offer evening and weekend appointments.

2014-08-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

Forks Over Knives

2014-08-12T20:05:00.002-07:00

I have recommended this documentary to hundreds of patients and friends.

Forks Over Knives can be viewed on Netflix, you can purchase the DVD online or you can check if your local library has this video to checkout.

I promise you this video will make you think differently about food, nutrition and disease.

Here are the FOK trailers:

2014-08-12T19:51:00.001-07:00

Stop the Cycle

2014-08-09T21:03:00.001-07:00

Decisions we make at every meal each day contribute to our ultimate health outcomes.

2014-08-04T12:48:00.001-07:00

Dr. Greger's 3rd Annual Speech

2014-08-02T09:28:00.001-07:00

Modern Love First Tasting!!!

2014-07-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

*Casie Here*

Finally, after months and months of waiting, we got to taste what Omaha's very own vegan restaurant, Modern Love, had to offer! They have not officially opened yet (next week, August 5th and we will be there that night too ~ they are already booked up for like 2-3 weeks out on Open Table), but we got in on a sneak tasting with our Vegan Omaha Meetup group tonight!

Happy Birthday (a day late) to me! Let's celebrate!!

I matched her colors (on purpose). ;)

Some of the restaurant crew! Isa, the owner of the restaurant is on the far right with her back to me.

Rosemary Lemonade. Delish!

We had assigned seating and we were placed next to this very nice couple! Danielle and Scott. We had a very enjoyable time talking with them throughout dinner!

We got one dish of each thing to share amongst the 4 of us. They put up with all my picture taking and were very patient with me!

We each got to have our own "shot". It was like a cold soup. It tasted like corn on the cob. I don't know what it was made out of, but it was yummy! *UPDATE* I found out what it was! Corn milk with chili oil, lime and cilantro flowers on top! Fun, different and yummy! Felt like I was at a swanky upscale restaurant....oh wait, we were!!!

This was Farmer's Hummus Plate. Roasted garlic hummus served with overnight tomatoes, roasted radishes, rainbow carrots, cucumber, and flatbread.

These pickled radishes were tangy and seasoned perfectly!

I loved the rainbow carrots. So beautiful!

The flatbread was flaky and soft. Yummy!!!

These were Jalapeño Corn Fritters over tomato jam, arugula and fresh basil. I am not a fan of spicy hot, but even though these have jalapanos in them, since they were roasted, it cut the heat and they had just the right amount of kick. Soft and tasty! Really good!

Isa talking with our waitress.

This was her take on a Cesar Salad. It had quinoa and pine nuts, tempeh 'croutons' and bacon eggplant. The whole salad and dressing were delicious and the bacon eggplant pieces were very good. They did have a smokey flavor, just like bacon!

This dish was called Mac N Shews. Isa's take on macaroni and cheese, but made with cashew cream cheese and a bunch of other yummy spices. It came along side a pecan crusted tofu, BBQ cauliflower and braised, garlicy kale.

The BBQ Cauliflower had a smoky, tangy kick sauce on it. They were different and wonderful. Everyone liked it!

The tofu or like I like to say "vegan pork chop" was extremely good. Great texture, not rubbery or dry, it was fabulous.

This dish was the Seitan Marsala. It tasted like Mushroom Stroganoff. This was a root vegetable mash on the bottom, mushrooms, fresh herbs and micro green sprouts. The sprouts gave it such a fresh, earthy taste. The Seitan had grill marks and tasted very good, rich and 'meaty'. This was Vernon's favorite dish of the night. Everyone in the place was raving about this dish. Definitely a comfort food!

This is John. He is the head of the Vegan Meetup group, Vegan Omaha fb and has his own blog, The Laziest Vegan in the World, and he's Isa's boyfriend. I had to take his pict, because he is not in very many himself. He is always behind the camera! Such a nice guy. He does so much for the local vegan peeps!

This was the Vanilla Bean Peach Pie. It was supposed to come with Ginger Ice Cream, but ours did not. We got the luckiest plate in the joint. It had a vegan marshmallow ice cream on it.

Lets just get a better look at this, shall we? After every bite, I was trying to get right back to that creamy, chunky, fluffy scoop of Heaven before Vernon could get to it (hee hee hee). That was MINE. There were huge chunks of VEGAN marshmallows and cashew pieces in it surrounded by fluffy, airy (weirdly ~ did not seem very cold) ice cream with chewy, candied ginger curls on top. Oh. My. GOD. Seriously people, this was THE best ice cream vegan or non vegan that I have EVER had in my entire life. What was Casie's favorite thing of the night? Hands down, no doubt this little scoop of creamy goodness. But everything really was delicious. I am so excited for the rest of Omaha to taste how freaking good eating vegan can be!

The walls look like they have wall paper on them, but it all was hand painted with stencils! Very detailed work and very 'modern'!

I had to get a pict. with my celebrity chef, Ms. Isa herself! Vernon's lucky I didn't bust out my 'Isa Does It' cookbook to have her sign it right then and there! It was wonderful of her to bring this exciting all vegan restaurant to OMAHA of all places! Thank you Isa! Dinner was fabulous! We can't wait to be back EVERY month to try the new monthly menus with seasonal veggies / produce! You rock!!!

Still finishing up the outside sign painting!

We had such a fun night with great food and meeting new friends. We can't wait to go back next week on opening night! How exciting!!! Book your table today on Open Table. Let's get the word out that Vegan food can taste fabulous and support her awesome restaurant!!!

Modern Love - Omaha's newest vegan restaurant

2014-07-22T15:25:00.001-07:00

http://www.modernloveomaha.com

Opening August 5th!!!!!

Here is their starting menu and I suspect it will be continually changing.

Cookbook Superstar Isa Moskowitz Opens Vegan Restaurant in Omaha

2014-07-22T14:44:00.001-07:00

Vegans and Plant-Based individuals from around the world are so jealous of Omaha right now!

Cookbook Superstar Isa Moskowitz Opens Vegan Restaurant in Omaha

Another physician recommends plant-based diet.

2014-07-22T14:30:00.001-07:00

Cardiologist Kim A. Williams, M.D., the next president of American College of Cardiology, adopted a plant-based diet. After seeing great results, he’s recommending his patients do the same.

Check out his article:

In this guest blog, Kim A. Williams, MD, a cardiologist at Rush University in Chicago and the next president of the American College of Cardiology, explains why he went vegan and now recommends it to patients.

Physicians want to influence their patients to make lifestyle changes that will improve their health, but sometimes the roles are reversed and we are inspired by patients. It was a patient's success reversing an alarming condition that motivated me to investigate a vegan diet.

Just before the American College of Cardiology's (ACC) annual meeting in 2003 I learned that my LDL cholesterol level was 170. It was clear that I needed to change something. Six months earlier, I had read a nuclear scan on a patient with very-high-risk findings -- a severe three-vessel disease pattern of reversible ischemia.

The patient came back to the nuclear lab just before that 2003 ACC meeting. She had been following Dean Ornish, MD's program for "Reversing Heart Disease," which includes a plant-based diet, exercise, and meditation. She said that her chest pain had resolved in about 6 weeks, and her scan had become essentially normalized on this program.

When I got that LDL result, I looked up the details of the plant-based diet in Ornish's publications -- 1- and 5-year angiographic outcomes and marked improvement on PET perfusion scanning -- small numbers of patients, but outcomes that reached statistical significance.

I thought I had a healthy diet -- no red meat, no fried foods, little dairy, just chicken breast and fish. But a simple Web search informed me that my chicken-breast meals had more cholesterol content (84 mg/100 g) than pork (62 mg/100 g). So I changed that day to a cholesterol-free diet, using "meat substitutes" commonly available in stores and restaurants for protein. Within 6 weeks my LDL cholesterol level was down to 90.

I often discuss the benefits of adopting a plant-based diet with patients who have high cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, or coronary artery disease. I encourage these patients to go to the grocery store and sample different plant-based versions of many of the basic foods they eat. For me, some of the items, such as chicken and egg substitutes, were actually better-tasting.

There are dozens of products to sample and there will obviously be some that you like and some that you don't. One of my favorite sampling venues was the new Tiger Stadium (Comerica Park) in Detroit, where there are five vegan items, including an Italian sausage that is hard to distinguish from real meat until you check your blood pressure -- vegan protein makes blood pressures fall.

In some parts of country and some parts of world, finding vegan restaurants can be a challenge. But in most places, it is pretty easy to find vegan-friendly options with a little local Web searching. Web searching can also help with the patients who are concerned about taste or missing their favorite foods. I typically search with the patient and quickly email suggestions.

Interestingly, our ACC/American Heart Association (AHA) prevention guidelines do not specifically recommend a vegan diet, as the studies are very large and observational or small and randomized, such as those on Ornish's whole food, plant-based diet intervention reversing coronary artery stenosis. The data are very compelling, but larger randomized trials are needed to pass muster with our rigorous guideline methodology.

Wouldn't it be a laudable goal of the American College of Cardiology to put ourselves out of business within a generation or two? We have come a long way in prevention of cardiovascular disease, but we still have a long way to go. Improving our lifestyles with improved diet and exercise will help us get there.

CardioBuzz is a blog for readers with an interest in cardiology.

To view the source of this article, CLICK HERE .

Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

2014-07-11T21:39:00.001-07:00

Samuel L. Jackson watched Forks Over Knives and it changed his life!

2014-07-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

Click here to learn more about Samuel L. Jackson's body transformation.

!0th Anniversary ~ M's Pub

2014-07-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

*Casie Here*

We went to M's Pub for our celebratory dinner.

We ordered a cup of the soup that night to split so we could try it. It was a jerk zucchini with lime oil and pineapple. We really, really liked it and it was just enough for us to share and get a taste! Excellent flavors!

We ordered the Vegetarian Lahvosh that they left off the cheese and sauce. It was ok. Basically a crispy cracker with a few veggies and artichokes on the top.

The Falafel Cakes were grilled and served over cucumbers, tomatoes, kalamata olives and lettuce. It originally came with feta cheese and yogurt sauce, but they left those off. These were pretty dry. We have definitely had better falafel cakes (Victors and Amsterdam are both extremely better).

Black Bean Cakes seared and served over pickled vegetables with chipotle aioli. They did have sour cream in them though. They were also just ok. Nothing too spectacular.

The pickled vegetable underneath were pretty good. They had a little kick to them.

This was on the speciality menu that they have going

for two weeks. The Seared Beet Cakes. Now these were really, really good. They did taste a little beety, but it wasn't over powering and they were so beautiful. The flavors they had with it were really good. Orange scented yellow beets, spiced nuts and cara cara orate vinegar. Vernon and I both loved these.

Our next stop was Borgata Brewery Company. They had a band playing, called Buca Ruse and they were really good. It was a lot of fun! We saw some parents of Sophie's classmates there and it was nice to chat with them and catch up since we hadn't seen them since the end of the school year. We had a fabulous time there, too.

We stopped at Caffeine Dreams on the way home to get a Two Birds Bakery muffin for a vegan dessert. They were pretty good.

Best compliment of the night...Vernon said I was aging well! So sweet! We had a great night out together.

"Thin Line" by Ivori Holson

2014-07-10T14:38:00.001-07:00

CARROT Hotdogs!

2014-07-04T13:24:00.001-07:00

*Casie Here*

I have ONLY known about carrot dogs for about 3 years (thanks to Ashley), but this is the very first time I have attempted to make them. Don't ask me why it took me so long to try them, because I truly don't know. And I kinda knew this would happen, but they are simply one of the most awesome "meat" replacements I have tried. I am sorry I haven't tried to make these sooner. How can a carrot taste like a hot dog????

Ummmm, these really do!

I didn't take picts of the other steps,, but I should have. It was really easy. HERE is the recipe I followed from a fellow Omaha vegan girl! The only thing I did differently was add some vegan Worcestershire sauce to my marinade, everything else was the same as her recipe.

Everyone LOVED them. The kids gobbled them right up and all the adults just raved about them. They don't taste like carrots at all. They tasted like a gosh darn hotdog, BUT without the yucky feeling you get from knowing all the animal parts that are ground up and unhealthy additives (nitrates, etc..) in real hot dogs.

I put sautéed onions on the bun as well as DILL relish (NOT sweet relish, just plain dill relish) and then ketchup and mustard on the top. OMG it was just delicious.

I promise you will love them if you try them!
I used real minced ginger instead of powdered ginger, that is why mine have "chunks" on them. But you can't even taste the ginger in the final dog. It's just part of the magical marinade!

It's as simple as boiling them until fork tender, stopping the cooking process by shocking them in ice water. Putting them in a ziplock baggie full of marinade. Leave them overnight and when you are ready, heat up in a skillet with some of the marinade. They are easy and amazing great!
GO MAKE THEM TODAY. DON'T wait 3 years like I did.

Plant-Based Diet Reverses Heart Disease | Physicians Committee

2014-07-02T07:39:00.001-07:00

Plant-Based Diet Reverses Heart Disease | Physicians Committee

Correlation between meat and diabetes - Houston weather, traffic, news | FOX 26 | MyFoxHouston

2014-07-02T07:18:00.001-07:00

Correlation between meat and diabetes - Houston weather, traffic, news | FOX 26 | MyFoxHouston

Isa's Fake CHICKEN!!!

2014-06-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

*Casie Here*

I made a batch of Isa's fake chicken out of her new cookbook Isa Does It. I will give you the ingredients and how you make it, but I will not give out the amounts of everything. You will have to get her book if you want the amounts! Sorry, but her book is SO worth it! I have made almost every recipe out of her book and they have all been good!

Pepper, Salt, Sage, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Nutritional Yeast.

Vegetable Broth, Pinto beans, olive oil, soy sauce or liquid aminos, and vital wheat gluten.

This is the pot I use to steam.

Mash up the beans completely. I think next time I will use the food processor to make sure they are ground up better.

I just mashed with a potato masher.

Add all the ingredients in the order she tells you. Easy as dumping it in.

Mix it all together with a fork.

Portion it out and you can form it into a patty shape.

Fold each foil packet up.

Place in the steaming basket.

Let it steam for 40 minutes. DONE.

This tastes and smells AMAZING. Seriously, I want to eat a whole patty the second they are cool enough, but instead I refrain and just take off little pieces! It is so, so good. Mine were pretty square because I was running out of foil and had to make my pieces smaller. But really who cares what they look like.

I let them cool off a little and them wrap them in cling wrap and stick them in the freezer.

You can take out how ever many you need when you are cooking dinner. I usually only use one with a meal. I thaw, chop it up and "brown" it a little or sautee them on the stove. You really would not need to do anything except warm them up and eat. They are good any way you fix it! I will crumble one up and use as "meat" in a spaghetti noodle dish or slice in strips in a veggie, rice stir fry dish or on a sandwich with hummus spread and vegetables. I use this one interchangeably as "chicken" or "beef". It really works for either.

This batch will last me a good couple months. So, its not a lot of work, time or money for the easy results!!!

She has other kinds of fake meat recipes in there too. I have made the italian sausage recipe and absolutely love that one too for Italian dishes!

Please go purchase Isa's book HERE! You will NOT regret it! I PROMISE.

AND her restaurant Modern Love will be opening soon here in the big O!!! YAY!!! We will be first in line. I wanted it to be open by our anniversary, but I don't think it will be done. :(

Do Vegetarians Get Enough Protein?

2014-06-12T08:42:00.003-07:00

Vegan Banana Nut & Date Muffins

2014-06-11T18:33:00.002-07:00

*Casie Here*

I had some ripe bananas to use up, so I decided to make some banana muffins. I looked up some recipes and tweaked it to make it my own.

Here is what I did:

Chop up 10 Dates (I get ours from Costco)

Prepare 2 chia 'eggs' (take 2 TBS. Chia Powder + 1/2 cup water ~ mix, let sit for at least 5 minutes)

We have gotten our Chia Powder Whole Foods, Trader Joes or Hy-Vee and we have also gotten it from our favorite online supplier for a lot of our food (www.vitacost.com) make sure it's the POWDER. I have use the seed before and it works fine, I just prefer the more ground up texture of the Powder.

After a little while it gets thick and goopy like and EGG!

I mixed my chopped dates with the chia goop to help separate the sticky bits of dates and get them more evenly distributed (otherwise they stick together in one big clump).

Mash 6 Bananas

Add 2 containers of applesauce or 1 cup total)

Mix all the wet ingredients together.

Add 1 cup Almond Milk. This is absolutely my favorite milk EVER. There are a lot of new variations of this out there, but I love this one the most and I don't care that it has 20 more calories than the reduced sugar one.

I didn't take any picts of the dry ingredients bowl except for when I mixed the two together. Here are the dry ingredients. Pretty standard.

2 1/2 cups whole wheat and regular organic flour mixed (use whatever flour you have on hand. I just like to buy both and mix it together)

1 1/2 cup oats (just regular Quaker Oats, not the quick cook ones) You can get a HUGE box at Costco

1/4 cup flax seed

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt (I use pink Himalian salt from Costco)

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup chopped walnuts (also from Costco)

The flax seed we use from Costco.

Ready to be put in the muffin pans.

I use this scoop to get them even. I didn't fill it quite full, just 3/4 full for each muffin. This batch makes 36 muffins.

And done.
Nice and warm!

Honestly you can not even taste the dates in this muffin. They are mostly to make the muffin moist. I LOVE dates in all my muffins. It adds sweetness so you can cut down on the sugar you use. Another one of my very favorite muffins are my Orange Date Muffins HERE.

These were so, so good. My kids snatched a bunch up as soon as they were cool enough to touch.

In a bowl mix together

2 1/2 cups whole wheat and regular organic flour mixed

1 1/2 cup oats

1/4 cup flax seed

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt (I use pink Himalian salt)

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup walnuts

In a separate bowl mix together

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 chia 'eggs' (2 TBS. Chia Powder + 1/2 cup water ~ mix, let sit)

6 ripe bananas (mashed)

2 containers Organic Applesauce (1 cup total)

3 TBS. Vegan Butter (we use Earth Balance) this could be optional

1 cup Almond Milk

Stir the two together.

Scoop into muffin tins

Bake 350 for 25 mins