You've got questions...
Q: I've been making my own oat flour to use instead of white flour and to save money since it's cheaper than whole-wheat pastry flour. Anyway, my baked goods are coming out a little denser than they did with wheat flour. My instinct is to increase my leavening slightly, but I thought I'd ask someone with experience in this first!
A: You generally don't want to fuss with leavening agents (adding more baking soda or baking powder won't necessarily mean it will rise more). Oat flour is great but can be very tricky. It's very easy to over-stir which makes it dense or gummy (or both!)
Check out my baking post for tips on perfect baking.
Q: I was wondering if your cookbooks have pictures in them of all the food . I would love to buy them but I just don't buy cookbooks without pictures . And if they do how do I buy them?
A: Yes the books have pictures; they are full-color cookbooks. You can buy them in a bookstore (such as B&N) or on Amazon. They're also available digitally in the Kindle store, Nook store and iBooks store. If you're international, try Book Depository.
Happy Herbivore Light & Lean (NEW!!)
Q: If you faithfully follow the plant-based diet, can you get rid of your insulin and other medications?
A: Many people have! I highly recommend reading Dr. Neal Barnard's book, Prevent and Reverse Diabetes
(Note: this is in regards to T2 diabetes, you cannot "reverse" T1).
Each week we have a Herbie of the Week story -- stories of people who changed their life, lost weight, got off their meds, etc. eating a plant-based diet. Many past stories include people who were on huge cocktails of meds, had diabetes or pre-diabetes. I highly recommend checking their stories out!
Q: I have recently developed a yeast intolerance (self diagnosed). I'll admit that I normally eat a ton of foods that contain yeast and my body is just over it. Any suggestions? I'm basically limited to veggies and beans (no fruit).
A: Have you tried the meal plans? They center around vegetables and beans. We use fruit occasionally, but you can typically leave it off without upsetting the recipe too much. You might also want to read my blog post on yeast and the anti-candida diet.
Q: For the Italian sausages, will peruvian beans work instead of pintos?
A: I've never worked with peruvian beans so I can't say with any certainty (sorry). Generally with a recipe like this, you want to make sure the alternative bean (peruvian) has the same color, texture, taste and moistness as the original (pinto).
