Overcoming MS Live Cook-Along with Rachel Detroit

04:34 Managing MS through diet and lifestyle.

08:07 Cooking oil-free vegan black beans.

12:24 Making burgers with various ingredients

20:50 Lifestyle changes for managing MS

30:55 Plant-based diet and MS

38:53 Cooking, nutrition and travelling with recipes

42:57 Dark, leafy greens and fiber

50:49 Eating at restaurants 

56:57 Individual choice and substitution options

Rachel Detroit

Rachel Detroit is a life coach and is committed to supporting others in living lives that are true to themselves. 

Her journey to wellness has taught her invaluable lessons about the importance of balancing the body with sleep, nutrition, movement, stress management, positive relationships and mindful substance intake. This holistic approach has allowed her to live well with her own MS diagnosis. 

Sian Southward  02:29

Hello, and welcome back to our all new webinar in the Finding Hope with OMS Season, four our live OMS cook along with Rachel Detroit. My name is Sian Southward, the Head of Programmes here at OMS, and I’m joining you from a very hot London in the UK. In a moment, I shall be handing you over to Rachel, our guest presenter and cook for the night. But before I do that, I just wanted to run through the normal bit of housekeeping to keep everything hopefully running very smoothly. The session is being recorded. You will receive a link to access that recording in the next week directly from Zoom, as well as all the materials. So don’t worry about keeping up with the cooking, you can always watch it back, pause it and replay it. You’ll notice that it is obviously a Zoom webinar, so there is no audio or video component for our participants. You can submit questions at the Q&A button at the bottom. If you are experiencing any technical glitches, we recommend using a Chrome browser and also logging out, then logging back in. We’ve tried to make the webinar as accessible as possible. We’ve got the subtitles at the bottom of your screen, there is an option to click on them and hide them for the session if you’d like. As you exit the webinar later and hopefully not before, there will be a survey that will pop up which will ask you a couple of questions. It’s really great to get your feedback and understand how well the sessions are going. The webinar will run for approximately an hour and there will be some opportunity to ask Rachel some questions at the end, facilitated by myself. So without further ado, I’d love to welcome Rachel to the floor.

 

Sian Southward  04:24

Hi, how are you?

 

Rachel Detroit  04:29

I’m good. How are you?

 

Sian Southward  04:31

Very good. Raring to go, I’m sure.

 

Rachel Detroit  04:34

Yeah, I’m ready to go. Ready to cook some burgers here.

 

Sian Southward  04:36

Excellent. I’m going to stop sharing the screen so that you will become bigger and I will disappear. I’ll just be keeping an eye on the questions coming in. It’d be lovely for you to start by just introducing yourself and I’ll hand the floor to over to you, thank you very much Rachel.

 

Rachel Detroit  04:56

Alright, sounds good. Hello, my name is Rachel Detroit. I am a fellow OMSer, so that’s how I got to know what OMS even was. I’m a lifestyle coach, I’ll kind of give a little bit of background just real quick before we jump into these black bean burgers. I was diagnosed with MS a little over three years ago, and it really changed my life. I wasn’t able to walk very well, at all actually. My Mother had to put my clothes on. It really changed my life and I felt like I was really hopeless, you know, then I found OMS. Well, first, I found everything in the world, you know. I became a doctor, a physician myself, I found everything. Then I found OMS and there was just so many people who were involved in practicing this lifestyle, and all of the lovely things that came out of it, you know. If you need medication, that’s an option, whatever you need it’s an all encompassing, lovely, beautiful programme. Since then, it has helped me reclaim my health, change my career. I was a teacher for eight years, very stressful and now I’m a lifestyle coach. I help teach people how to change their lifestyle to live well with disease. So MS has given me a lot really, it’s given me a lot of really good opportunities to change my life and get well. So today we’re going to make a couple of different things. We’re going to make black bean burgers and making black bean burgers is so important, this is something for us with folks with MS and people in general. It’s super important to be prepared, to have things on hand so we are compliant with our foods. So we can make these burgers, the ingredients in them, I ensured on purpose were cost effective and accessible, so that folks could make them and if you leave something out of the recipe, for example, you don’t have a green pepper or a pepper, leave it out and it’s okay. Don’t leave the sweet potatoes out or the beans, but there are certain things that it’s ok to leave out. Alright, without further ado, let’s get rolling. If you’re cooking along, have your oven started at 425 degrees Fahrenheit (220 degrees Celcius/gas mark 7). So we have our oven preheating there, if you’re cooking along go ahead and start chopping your onions and garlic. We have half a cup of onions and three garlic cloves. We’re going to cook them up a little bit, so that way when we put them in our burger, the flavour is not too overpowering. We’ve cooked it down a little bit. I’m just following the recipe here on my iPad, that’s why I got it. Alright, so we got all of that, let’s start putting the ingredients in a food processor for this to incorporate everything. To start we have three cups of black beans. So something that I’ve learned after getting MS and changing my lifestyle was how to soak and cook my own beans so it’s it’s a lot more cost effective to cook and soak your own beans. You put them in a container with water, cover the dry beans with one to two inches of water and then let them soak overnight. Then you’re going to add it to a pot, bring it to a boil, cover it with about two inches of water, so this is after it’s soaked overnight so the water will be almost gone. You simmer it for 45 minutes. So you bring it to a boil and then bring it down to a simmer and then you get your beans. Alright, so in here I’m adding my black beans. I sizzled up these onions and garlic over here and I’m cooking oil free and the way that I do it is by using nonstick pans. Okay, so I eat whole food plant based, oil free, 100%. I don’t dabble with olive oil or anything. I just completely keep it 100% oil free to keep my saturated fat down. Everyone does their own thing, has their own methods and what works for them. For me, absolutely no oil is is best. Alright, so I’ve got my three cups of black beans, which is the same as two cans if you’re using canned black beans. I’ve got my onions and my garlic. We’re going to add ketchup, we’re going to add liquid smoke and we’re going to end up zipping this all up. Another thing too, this is called a flax egg, it’s made out of flaxseed meal. You add one tablespoon of flaxseed meal to three tablespoons of water, this is all in the instructions. You let it sit and it makes it thick. It makes a thicker flax egg and it serves to make the burger stick well together. We add that in, I did one flax egg, which is one tablespoon of flaxseed meal and three tablespoons of water. That’s going to help us get this all to stick. If you’re cooking along, there were a few things that you were supposed to have prepared before. We have the carrots and the onions boiled for a cheese sauce that we’re making, potatoes too and sweet potatoes boiled for this, which was in the recipe. So let’s add one tablespoon of barbecue sauce or ketchup. I like ketchup, I use this brand. It’s in the USA and it’s called Organicville. They don’t use processed sugar, so it’s organic ketchup and they use agave nectar instead of white sugar or cane sugar, which is important because with MS, we don’t want those extra inflammatory things in our body. We want to do our best you know and it’s all about just doing our best, you can’t be perfect all the time. We’re going to add two teaspoons of liquid smoke in here. This is optional, some people do not like it because in high quantities it can be problematic. I don’t eat it in high quantities, I just eat it sometimes, I think it’s got a good flavour, but you can omit it if you want. We’re going to do one and a half teaspoons of cumin, one teaspoon of chilli powder, half a teaspoon of garlic powder and half a teaspoon of smoked paprika. I love cumin, I use it a lot on everything. My chilli powder, I buy organic from the internet and they come in these big things. Same with my onion powder, because it is a lot more cost effective. And the brand that I use is Frontier Co-op, I get it on Amazon, not to keep pumping up Amazon but that’s where I get it from. Alright, so we got our garlic powder, smoked paprika and then we’re gonna zip this all up. This is almost done. You know, living with MS it’s not like we wake up every single day feeling awesome. I mean with OMS, I almost do wake up every single day feeling awesome. But in the human condition, we don’t wake up every single day feeling awesome and especially with MS. So it’s really important to be prepared and have these burgers on hand, which is why I wanted to make sure we prepared them because it’s such a nice tool to have. This is a really good base recipe. If you wanted to use chickpeas and swap out the barbecue sauce and liquid smoke with curry. Then you have a curry burger. You can play with this recipe and just use that simple foundation that I made, and you can replace the flavors. We’re going to do two tablespoons of corn starch, that’s going to help the burger sit tight and the thing is, this burger has no fillers. So often we’ll have burgers that have fillers. Maybe they use oats or rice or grains. There’s nothing wrong with that. Although for me what I’ve learned in my body and that’s another thing with MS, it’s like I have to be in tune with my body. When I eat a lot of grains, I don’t feel awesome, so I wanted to make a burger that had no grains in it. I’m going to add three fourths of a cup of a finely chopped bell pepper, I used red, I like red because it’s got a kind of smoky taste I feel in there. So, you can use red or green or whatever color you want. Alright, we got half a teaspoon of salt. I’m going to skip this salt, you can put it in if you like, half a teaspoon of salt, and then we’re going to add our one cup of sweet potato, but we’re not going to add it until we pulse this a little bit. So we have all of our good stuff right in here. I’m going to pulse it, but I’m going to make sure that I don’t overdo it. I’m not creating mush, what I’m creating is just combining and breaking down. Then I’m going to add the sweet potato so I don’t want it to be mushy because then our burger won’t stick or cook. All right okay, so I pulsed it a little bit and now I’m going to add the sweet potato, then I’m going to show you guys how beautiful the colour of this burger has come out. Just to remind folks, the cheese that we’re going to make for the mac and cheese and peas. I’m gonna explain to you guys why I chose peas in there. But the cheese that we’re going to make if you have not done so yet, boil two to three medium Yukon Gold potatoes, two carrots and then a medium sized onion for that cheese sauce. Okay, so the burgers are happy. Let me show you guys what I got here. As you can see with these burger, you see beans, you see peppers, you see everything so we were not pulverizing it, we are breaking it down. Alright, so let’s make some burgers here. I’ll speak from my experience, it’s often that I’ll make burgers and I’m like, oh no, they’re all different and weird sizes. I’m going to show you guys a little technique of how you can make them all the same size. I’m going to put all this in a bowl and we’re going to want to make about eight patties out of this. I got all of my burgers in this bowl and I’m going to flatten it up, spread it out so it’s pretty even. Then what I’m going to do is I’m going to split it in half with my hand, this is just a rough estimate. I split it in half again, so that’s four patties, then I split each one of these in half. Then I split each one of those in half and it gives me a rough idea of my eight burgers, that way I can keep them as close to the same size. Not a huge deal, but they’ll cook better, they’ll cook the same, they’ll be the same size. All right, here’s another thing, we have our baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Also, if you’re cooking along and this is a little bit too fast, please remember to go back in and you’ll be able to watch the video again too. All right, so we have our parchment paper here. I line this with parchment paper so I don’t need oil on the bottom of this so it doesn’t stick. A trick is, if you crumble up your parchment paper, it stays and it doesn’t move around and get wild on your spot here. I remember when I was first diagnosed with MS and I found OMS, I had no idea how to cook anything, absolutely nothing. All I ate, which is not the best form of OMS but was still OMS compliant. All I ate was dates, like whole dates dipped in almond butter and cacao which is like totally amazing desserts. But that’s all I ate and bananas and apples, I had no idea what I was doing. You know, it takes time and it takes patience. Right, let me show you guys one of the patties that I have here. It’s beautiful because you see all these lovely foods in there. And that’s fiber which in MS, fiber is crucial, we need fiber. We need short chain fatty acids to be produced in our body to help fight inflammation, and that’s done by increasing the fiber. You know, and more and more as I allowed myself to explore and open up and study and work with folks and work with myself, I’m learning, the way to mitigate and reverse chronic conditions. Again, we’re never going to not have MS, but we can definitely live well, like super well with it. The way to reverse these conditions is through lifestyle change and OMS is a programme that isn’t just food. A lot of times folks will just stop at the food. We just want to make sure that we also keep in check all the other aspects of lifestyle. We’re talking sleep hygiene, you know, how are you sleeping? Are you getting to bed at proper time? If you’re not sleeping through the night, that’s not normal. What changes can be made? Is your room cool? Are you sleeping in a cool room? Are you going to bed the same time every night, waking up the same time every day? These are practices that help us get better sleep. Is your room dark? Are you cutting the screens off? About one to two hours, at least one hour before bed? And I’m not saying I do these things perfectly, absolutely not. But what I’m saying is, this is the science, this is the data that these aspects of lifestyle is what will make us well. Sleep hygiene, substance intake. In the OMS book, it talks about smoking and how dangerous that is for MS. So we ‘ve got substance intake and stress management. Anytime I have any problems with MS, it’s because I’m dating someone, but that’s beside the point. It’s because I am stressed, you know, and so it’s about managing stress, right? So I meditate first thing in the morning, and then I meditate before I go to bed. I also tell myself and my brain, doesn’t mean I always do it, when challenging situations come up that is a really good time to meditate. Doesn’t mean that I do it, I just know. Another important aspect of lifestyle is social interconnectedness. How I felt when I was first diagnosed, I don’t want to make a broad statement, but when I was diagnosed, I felt really alone and lonely because I’m scared, I don’t know what’s going on. This is scary. I don’t know anybody other this person and the outcomes that people share with me, you know. It’s just a lot and I was just 28 years old. So social interconnectedness is super important. Are you reaching out to family? Are your relationships that you have, currently fulfilling? Are they stressful, are they safe? So we have stress management, substance intake, social connection, sleep, hygiene, nutrition and physical movement. Those are just some aspects of lifestyle that are talked about in OMS that are very important to keep up with if we want to live well with this disease, which we do, which is why we’re here. Alright, I’m going to show you guys my burgers and then we’ll put them in the oven at 425, then we’re going to make this cheese sauce and that’ll be real quick and then I’ll show you guys some cookies and we’ll be roaring. Alright, so these are the burgers. They’re so delicious and beautiful. That’s my opinion. Alright, so I’m going to put these in. We’re going to do 12 minutes to start and then we’re going to flip them and then we’ll do 10 more. Alright, so 12 or 13, I just put in 12. Alright, so let’s get roaring on the cheese sauce and the mac and cheese and peas. Alright, so I’ll tell you all why I’m so connected to peas. With MS, you know, it’s a disease where fiber really helps us. Fiber really, really, really helps us. So when we look at peas, green peas, frozen green peas, these are the best ones for cooking this mac and cheese. The dietary fiber is four grams per serving. So in two thirds of a cup, you get four grams of fiber and this is why I love it. It’s matched with four grams of protein. So the fiber and the protein ratio, and like we’re not bodybuilders, maybe some of us are but overall we’re not bodybuilders so we don’t have to stress too much about protein intake, but that fiber in there, it’s just beautiful. It’s wonderful. All right, so this cheese sauce that we’re going to make is very versatile. I wanted to make this because we’ll use it for mac and cheese and let me tell you something. vegetarians, vegans, omnivores, carnivores, herbivores they love it. Everybody loves it. It’s good. So I wanted to make this cheese because you can put it on tacos, you can make a casserole, you can cook some rice and put it on top with veggies, we’re going to use it to top this burger. We’re also going to use it to make mac and cheese and peas. I’ve made air fried tortilla chips and I put the cheese on there. You know, just because we follow this lifestyle doesn’t mean we can’t eat fun things. So this cheese is super, super, super lovely. Alright, so I have three medium Yukon potatoes boiled, I have three carrots boiled and then I also have one medium onion and a fourth of a cup of red pepper in here. The red pepper we didn’t boil, but I boiled the potatoes, onions and carrots. Those are the main star of the show. I saved half a cup of the potato water which is here. We end up using that in here. Alright, so we’re going to add nutritional yeast. This has a lot of B12 in it, we’re not going to eat nutritional yeast to increase our B12 levels, but a common thing with folks with MS is that our B12 levels can be off. So, that’s something. Alright, so we got the nutritional yeast, we’re going to do our half cup of boiled potato water and we’ll add more if needed, and then two tablespoons of lemon juice. Then we got one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. I would recommend for this recipe, like, you definitely can leave some things out, I have done it where I’ve forgotten the lemon and it still works. I would say the pepper though, is important because it tastes so good. Alright, we’ll do half a teaspoon of onion powder and then we’ll do half a teaspoon of garlic powder.  MS for me, it’s been a really big experience of like learning, you know, I’m in an OMS support group and a lot of people have said it takes years to get back to full. I forgot to pull the lemon out, so I’m going to pull that out. It takes years, so hearing other people say that makes me have more patience and give myself more grace while learning how to live with this disease, because it’s not for the soft hearted. It’s not the easiest thing you know, it’s a lot to learn. It’s a lot to grow. It’s a lot of fear. But something that I’ve learned is that fear never helped me and worry never got me anywhere, you know? Because when I first got this disease, all I had was fear and worry, and then I had to keep telling myself okay, worry never helped me, fear never got me anywhere. I just had to keep talking myself up and reminding myself, there is a solution, I can feel better, because all these people are doing it. They’re not that different than me. We all have MS, right? We’re like the same. I don’t know that we’re the same, but like we got a lot more in common than a lot of other people. Alright, so we’re going to do two tablespoons of lemon and then I would absolutely not skip the salt on the cheese. I’ll skip the salt in the burger, but I would absolutely not skip it on the cheese, because I think it does a lot for the flavour to give it more of a cheese like flavour. Actually on the OMS website, there was an article posted within the last year I believe or not, I don’t know if it was a year, I don’t want to quote it. But I read an article that was debunking about how problematic salts can be. I believe you know, everything in moderation. It’s probably okay as long as it’s compliant. Alright, so we’re gonna zip this up. I have my pasta already boiled and cooked. So I did that. I use chickpea pasta. Our burgers are in there, we got six minutes, looks beautiful. I’m just going to wipe the edges down to get all of that nutritional yeast. Something really cool about the OMS diet is that, you know, this plant based, and some folks eat salmon in it too, but this lifestyle, pretty much like this diet, if you will, is the same diet that’s going to help reverse diabetes, it’s the same diet that’s going to reverse heart disease, cholesterol, all of these things and so that’s why this diet is so lovely, and it’s so beautiful to be able to share it with family. Like I feel really good when I’m able to serve my family this type of food. Alright, so here’s our cheese. I don’t want to spill it. But I mean, it’s like cheese cheese, it’s pretty awesome. So my friends who don’t eat OMS because they don’t have MS, they all really like this mac and cheese that I’ve made. Alright, so I use chickpea pasta that I boiled and cooked. In America, the brand that I like is called Banza. Alright, so we’re going to put all this pasta in here. You can decide how to make your pasta, you can make it baked, you can make it with cheese on it. Just going to do it here. Alright, then I’m going to add a little bit all over here. Alright, then I’m going to add these sweet peas and then we’ll cook this up a little bit. We got through those burgers pretty quick. So those are definitely a staple. So I’m going to add one to two cups of frozen peas. It’s really up to you, I use two packs of pasta, so I’m going to use two cups of frozen peas. If you don’t like peas, then you don’t have to add them. You could just leave it as a plain mac and cheese. The reason that I add them is because the additional fiber and the additional protein and there’s an overwhelming body of evidence that continues to grow that shows if we want to reduce inflammation, we have to increase our fiber, you know and that’s why the plant-based diet works so well to mitigate disease. I’m going to use about half of this sauce here. I’m not measuring it. I just want to make sure I have some left for my burgers but I’ll make sure all this gets some. Show you guys what I have in my setup here. Okay, so this is what it looks like so far. I’m going to put it on the stove, heat it up, get those peas to melt, incorporate everything. So yeah, the evidence shows with MS fiber is what’s going to help us and not just with MS, for any disease. A lot of time, folks will not just get one disease, they’ll get hit with a couple and this diet, this lifestyle, this eating plan, meditation, sleeping well, relating well, all of these things, they’re going to help us in every aspect of our life not just with MS. You know, like developing better relationships? Absolutely. Right, so this is all incorporating, those peas are melting down, my burgers are getting ready to be flipped. I have two pieces of bread in my airfryer and I’ll talk to you guys about what type of bread I use and why. Another thing in our recipe pack for today were travel cookies too. I’m not making them on the camera, but I’ve made them in advance and I will show them to you too and talk a little bit about them. Alright, so we got these burgers here looking beautiful. I’m going to flip them. Let me show you guys what we have so far. Right and these are a lot more cost effective than anything you’ll find in the grocery store and tastes better personally in my opinion, and there’s no oil. I give them all a good flip. With these burgers too, my favourite, favourite way to heat them up is in the air fryer. They just get more crispy. They become a more confident burger over time. So when you first flip them, they can be a little bit touchy, so just make sure you clean that burger off of your spatula in between flips, sometimes there can be leftover burger that makes it hard to flip the next one. As time goes on, they become more firm because they have the flax egg inside, right and so with OMS we do flaxseed oil, so we always want like a little bit of flax to get our Omegas. Alright, so I got that going. I’m gonna put them in for 10 more minutes. Look how cute they are. I love being able to eat a burger. You know, it’s like when I first got diagnosed, I was like, do I get to ever eat a burger like what is this? Alright, so I got 10 more minutes. This mac and cheese and peas are getting warm. Going to add a little bit more cheese to it. Check in on our time, I might have gone a little bit too fast on the burger. Hopefully you were able to follow along. Okay, so this is coming together, we want to make sure those peas are melted. Sometimes I’ve made this and I just get too excited and too ready, like I’m just done. And then I’ll like take it off the stove and then my peas are all frozen and stuff. Alright, so we got that, we’re going to let that heat up here. And to top our burger, I’m keeping it pretty simple. I have mustard. I’m going to do a tomato and then I have some kale and some lettuce. The bread that I use for anytime that I need bread or eat bread is Ezekiel bread. It’s whole grain and it’s sprouted bread. Alright, I’m going to cut this tomato up. I’m going to throw some pickles on there too. I’m going to top it with cheese. And it’s like pretty much the best thing ever. All right, so cutting my tomato, we got pickles, we got cheese. All right, let me throw in another bread here. I dropped it and then stepped on it. So this is the bread that I use. All right, and I like to toast my bread in the airfryer I’ll put it at 370 Fahrenheit for five or six minutes. All right, then I’ll be able to assemble the other half of this bread. Our mac and cheese is looking pretty good. We’re kind of getting to the end here. So let’s stir up this mac and cheese, looks so good. All right, and then I’m going to talk a little bit while those burgers are roaring. I’m going to talk a little bit about these travel cookies. So, in your recipe pack you got these travel cookies. So, I made these ones with Tahini and I chose to use Tahini. In the recipe packet it says Almond Butter or nut butter of choice. So I went nut butter of choice which is actually a seed butter, sesame paste. I chose Tahini because the inflammation that occurs when roasting sesame seeds is less than the inflammatory properties that arise when heating other nut products. So for example, Advanced Glycemic End-Products is what we’re avoiding. When we heat up nuts and things, because they are inflammatory. So the Advanced Glycemic End-Products that are created through using sesame paste, are lower than if we use like a peanut butter or something like that. So I just wanted to share that bit of information. But these cookies are super, they’re dense, they’re nutrient dense, they’re easy. I call them travel cookies, because they’re easy to take with you places, you could fill up a bag of these cookies. They are nutrient dense, they’re also calorie dense, right because it’s like eating a bunch of oatmeal, raisins, dried fruit, which increases the calories. So these are a good snack to have around and the recipe is in there and you’ll also get a 10 year anniversary recipe book when you receive the recording of this too. So those are the cookies. I’m going to show you guys the macaroni and cheese. Make sure it’s not like hot. Oh, I have an oven mitt. So I’ll show you guys how that turned out. It’s just a really lovely dish that you can bring with you. This is beautiful to bring with you somewhere, everyone’s going to love it. It tastes really good. It’s the closest thing to cheese that I’ve eaten since I started OMS over three years ago. But, this mac and cheese is so delicious. It’s so easy to make, the cheese is really versatile. We got about five more minutes on these burgers. And then I’m just going to cut some toppings for them. So we got pickles too and we’ll assemble a burger and then that’s that. Yeah, so when I first started doing this, I was really, really, really afraid. You know, doing this in terms of OMS, I was really afraid and I’ve met a lot of folks who have MS. I’ve met a lot of folks who live really well with MS, I just think okay, well if I want what they have, I’m going to have to do what they do, and these people you know, that I admire with MS. Like you guys, all of you guys. You know, what they do, what you guys all do, is you show up, you show up for yourself, you set yourself up for the day, you meal prep, it’s it’s hard you know. Like we wake up, people with MS are so strong and so powerful because we wake up and we don’t know. (We just have to trust, we have to trust and have faith and have courage like every single day. You know, because like, it can be challenging. So that’s why another thing that’s like super important to, you know, your social connections, your social interconnectedness, there’s an Overcoming MS and OMS support group, I don’t think it’s official. So I hope I’m not in trouble for saying it. But that’s how I found out about OMS. You know, there’s a Facebook OMS support group and that really helped me. Another thing too, if you’re looking for recipes, you can follow my Facebook page, Rachel Detroit Coaching. I post all OMS compliant recipes and tips and all types of good stuff on there. Alright, so we got that, let’s check these burgers out. My second piece of bread is about to be done, after I stepped on the first one. I was like five second rule, no, you just stepped on it, you’re not doing that. Oh, these burgers look so fantastic. So lovely. All right, I’m going to pull them out, we’ll assemble a burger here. And like I said, they get better as time goes on. So what I mean by better is firmer, so they hold tighter as time goes on. So we’ll assemble one burger with cheese.  I’m going to make a plate with our burger, mac and cheese on the side and that’s going bring us to questions. I’ll show you the burger and I’ll show you the mac and cheese, and then we’ll be ready to rock. Alright, so here’s my new piece of bread that hasn’t been stepped on. All right, here we go. So this is that Ezekiel bread. I like kale. You know, dark leafy greens are going to provide us the most fiber, the most anti inflammatory properties, the most antioxidants. Although I am a plant based chef and I find a lot of joy in cooking, and pleasure in eating and all of these things, I’m really cognizant of, just because something’s OMS compliant, doesn’t mean it’s like the optimal choice. Like, I shared, I was eating dates and nut butter like, nine times a day probably, I don’t know. I was just scared. I didn’t know what to do. So there are choices that are more optimal, right. So like, although that was compliant. It wasn’t the optimal choice. Although this is such a tricky and difficult disease. We have to give ourselves grace to figure it out. Like, we don’t just know right off the bat what to do. You know, it takes time. It’s a practice, it takes effort, you know, and that’s why it’s so lovely that OMS offers these webinars, to keep learning how to do all of these things. You know, OMS has changed my life, saved my life really, because I would have had no idea what to do. I’d be eating dates and nut butter still. No, I’m just kidding. But I would have no idea what to do. I’d be really lost. Alright, so I got my beautiful little burger. I’m going to pour some cheese on top. Like, if it’s been a while since you’ve had a cheeseburger, do yourself a favour and make this one. And if you like it, you can post some pictures of it. You can post it on my community support group Rachel Detroit Community Support. You could post it in the OMS group, or on Facebook, or Instagram with the hashtag Rachel Detroit Coaching, whatever. So, here’s the burger, right. If you haven’t had a cheeseburger, you got to do this. You haven’t had a cheeseburger since you’ve had MS. You got to do it. All right, I’m going to throw some pickles on here because those are OMS compliant too, and then we’ll do some ketchup. This is getting a little freaky. Agave Syrup. Ketchup. This is just regular mustard. Oops it’s like exploding on me. Right, so we get to have what other people have too. All right, burger, mac and cheese right? This is like, it’s like junk food, but it’s not, you know. It’s like mac and cheese. We could say perhaps, if it wasn’t made this way, it could be less healthy, right? But, and a burger like, oh, that’s just all junk food. But really none of it is. It’s plants and it’s so good for us. So, here is the burger, oh I forgot onions. That’s okay. I’ll get them later. So throw some onions on there. This is the burger. This is the mac and cheese and those are the cookies. But yeah, that’s what we got and it doesn’t take that long to cook it all either. So then we’ll start with some questions.

 

Sian Southward  50:49

Wow, Rachel. You are so the professional, I can’t believe that you can present, cook and talk so eloquently, so, hats off to you. And some really lovely comments already saying that the burgers look amazing. Rachel, you’re making my mouth water, and mine actually, I’m absolutely craving a burger, so thank you so much. Really interesting and different webinar for us. So yeah, obviously, take a bit of a breath. But can I ask you a few questions that have come in from people?

 

Rachel Detroit  51:27

Yeah, absolutely. I’m going to just shut this behind me.

 

Sian Southward  51:34

I think it’s in the pack, but just sticking with the burgers and the cheese, the same question. Can both be frozen and then obviously saved for later date?

 

Rachel Detroit  51:45

Yes, they can. The cheese and the burger, I’ve done both and they taste fabulous.

 

Sian Southward  51:51

Lovely. And how long do the burgers keep for, how long would you recommend freezing those for?

 

Rachel Detroit  52:02

Three, four months. If you have any left by then, perhaps it’s time to pass them on.

 

Sian Southward  52:10

We’ve had some really helpful people also responding to some of the questions with suggestions, but one of them was early on actually, about any ideas on what to use instead of yeast as they’re allergic to yeast. Vicky, one of our OMSers has suggested skipping the yeast, maybe adding a bit of salt, suggesting that we’re actually seeking the saltiness, but just don’t overdo it.

 

Rachel Detroit  52:37

Yeah, that is the same recommendation I would make. Well, first I would check, being nutritional yeast is different from regular yeast, although similar family. So I would check that, but I would do exactly what Vicky said. There’s not really a replacement. It’s more like omitting it. But if you want it a little bit more creamier, you could do like a quarter cup of soaked cashews, right, but we want to be careful with the saturated fat with OMS. So I would do like a quarter cup of soaked cashews. That’s a good balance. That’s what I would do, either skip completely and keep with the salt, or add a quarter cup of cashews and then also keep with the salt.

 

Sian Southward  53:28

Great, thank you. The ladies asked what tips would you have for sticking to the diet when you stay with other people, meet someone for dinner, or you’re out and about?

 

Rachel Detroit  53:40

I love that question. So this took me three years to figure out, so when I go out to dinner with other people I eat before I go. 100%, I am full. I show up and I’m full, like, not full full, but I’m all set. I’ve changed my mindset to when I go out to eat with people, it is because I want to see you, not because I’m going to a restaurant. To  be realistic, a lot of the restaurants are not very good at making salads. That’s so mean, but they’re not amazing at making OMS food. So I don’t show up thinking I’m going to get this beautiful, OMS compliant plate. I eat it at home and I’m full and when I get there, I make sure to order some safe things. I’ll get like a side salad or regular salad that I have to tell them to adjust, but I get really serious with the waiter or waitress and I just let them know. I say I’m allergic, even though I’m not allergic to oil per se. I say I’m allergic to oil so that they know I’m serious, that I’ll get sick. You know it’s a different form of sick right? I’m not going to get sick and drop dead, but it will make me sick. So I let them know that I’m allergic to oil and I always order like side salads or steamed vegetables? Or I ask specifically if there is something that can be made, but when I order a salad because I’m hungry, like I am a hungry woman usually overall, I tell them, I say I would like a lot of calories in the salad and these are the only things I can eat. So you’re going to have to add like onions and cucumbers and tomatoes and avocado and some pumpkin seeds and eggs, like whatever you have, I want you. So it’s about communicating. I think, for me, like I’m already full, and then I communicate my needs really well.

 

Sian Southward  55:37

So one of the questions was around going back to the cookies. And I think just to say, again, Rachel, about what we’ve got that’s come up as well about the recipes. And we can say that we’re obviously going to reshare the recipes for tonight with the links back and also just tell us a little bit about the special anniversary edition of the cookbook that you’ve pulled together for us.

 

Rachel Detroit  56:04

Yeah, so in that cookbook, there’s 10 recipes and the way it’s done is, there’s two or three for breakfast. There’s a foundational smoothie recipe. So these are the recipes that I’ve compiled that I believe are super imperative to living well with MS. So like the smoothie recipe, you can put your flaxseed oil in there, if that’s how you take your flax oil. So it’s like options, and it’s a basic smoothie, which really focuses around the fiber. So there’s 10 different recipes in there. There’s a lot of staples, just like you’ll see here, like these are staples that you can make, like a chili. Accessible, cost effective. So I’m not telling you to like go buy something you’ve never heard of. It’s all things that you can buy from like a regular grocery store. And that is filling.

 

Sian Southward  56:56

Yeah and that’s really important. Obviously, our OMSers said about, you know, being accessible, affordable, and stuff that they have in the cupboard. So that’s really great. I just wanted to raise one question that’s actually was at the start and slightly is controversial, and there’s difference of opinion. So there’s a suggestion that liquid smokes, the use of liquid smoke can be carcinogenic, so linked to cancers. So I know obviously, you said you replace it instead of using the extra virgin olive oil, but just thoughts on that, if you may.

 

Rachel Detroit  57:36

Yeah, so that is why I’m hesitant of using it even. Because I agree with science and I’ve seen it, but the amount that I would have to take in order for it to become carcinogenic, or cancer causing for me, are amounts that I would never ever eat on like a week span or a month or even a year. So for me to use a small amount, like a one, one and a half, two teaspoons. I feel comfortable. But it’s your body, you know, everyone has to make their choice and what they feel comfortable with. Like, I don’t touch olive oil. Some people do. You know, that’s just how my brain works. So yeah, I agree it’s carcinogenic, but I don’t consume enough of it to be that.

 

Sian Southward  58:28

It’s all about choice. And people can come up with substitutions if they’re not comfortable.

 

Rachel Detroit  58:33

Exactly, you can even not put it in and the burger still tastes so good.

 

Sian Southward  58:40

I’m sure. I mean, who is going to eat the rest of the the 11 that you’ve got there. Rachel.

 

Rachel Detroit  58:46

I have a friend coming over to eat with me in a little bit. Because yeah, that’s a lot of food.

 

Sian Southward  58:56

Well, I just wanted to thank you so much for like I said, a really different webinar. Certainly for me anyways since I’ve been doing these seasons and I really enjoyed it. And I love the fact that, you know, not everybody might be able to cook along live, but they can certainly enjoy it and then go back and watch the recording at their leisure. All the materials will be available because we appreciate that not everybody will be able to keep up at this pace, but really, really interesting. Thank you so much. I’ll just finish up and thank you again Rachel. All the lovely comments are coming in, I can see on my screen, so I’ll pass those on too for sure. But yeah, thanks very much.

 

Rachel Detroit  59:42

Thank you.

 

Sian Southward  59:45

Okay, that brings us to the end of our session and just to say that tomorrow night we will be back with another webinar, seven o’clock UK time, so British Summer Time. We’ve got Breathwork with Veronique, so that’ll be for an hour. If you haven’t registered yet, please go to the website and you can still do that. As we’ve said many many times tonight, all the materials I promise you, will be made available. You will be sent the link from Zoom within a week. It will come to you automatically and you’ll be able to access all the recipes, all the information, and of course, that lovely 10 Year Anniversary Book that Rachel’s pulled together for us. So from me in a now rainy London, near London. I’ll say good night and thank you so much again. Bye