Table of Contents
In today’s podcast, Dr. Alex Jimenez, Health Coach Kenna Vaughn, and Sports Dietitian Lizette Ortiz discuss how food substitutions can help a person feel full and provide the necessary nutrients for a healthy body.
[00:01:51] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Hey, guys, we’re coming to you live from the amazing PUSH Fitness Center. Today we have an excellent, fantastic guest that is now a regular, I do believe. Lizette Ortiz, who’s got a lot of amazing dynamic changes for diets. We talked last week about how we can make diets better for us and make them fun. Today, our focus is on specializations and choices and an option changing of our foods to make it easy for us to see. So substitutions are the topic today of foods, specifically with the flare of Lizette Ortiz. So we’re going to take a look at that. So Lizette, tell us a bit of what you’re going to do today because we will talk about nutrition and food substitutions. After all, I know that you got a lot of knowledge and a lot of insights. So we want to present that information for people to get it and enjoy different options. So take it away. You got it. Tell us a bit of food substitution.
[00:02:54] Lizette Ortiz: Thank you for having me again.
[00:02:58] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Oh, absolutley and Kenna by the way. She’s over there on the other side. So if you want to see Kenna, there she is right there.
[00:03:06] Lizette Ortiz: She’s doing amazing with controlling everything.
[00:03:07] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Yes, we’re going to dynamic here.
[00:03:09] Lizette Ortiz: So basically, as we talked about last time, a lot of what I like to tell my clients if they want weight loss, if they wish to live a little healthier, feel better is decide what you want to include in your diet and what you don’t. When we have a lot of weight and include too many different things, it usually doesn’t work out very well. So it’s good to know what to cut back on and how to. More importantly, today’s talking about how still to enjoy your favorite foods, your favorite flavors. But without those added calories from extra fat, extra grains, extra carbs, simple carbs that aren’t needed, and especially, I believe that locally here in El Paso, the Mexican diet is very obviously popular. A lot of us are raised on that, you know, so to suddenly one day be like, well, no more tortillas for you. No more chilequilas, no more tacos. It’s like, Well, that’s my identity.
[00:04:07] Kenna Vaughn: Yeah, it’s just not realistic.
[00:04:10] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah, it’s not realistic, and it’s not easy to keep that lifestyle. It’s not sustainable when your culture is part of it. For example, when I was living in Japan, I tried to tell a Japanese person or a Korean person, or an Asian person in general. All right, so no more rice for you. No, it’s a staple of their diet. And it’s like with Mexican people; it’s the same. It’s like, Oh, OK, so no more beans and no more tortillas for you is like, Well, no, that’s not…
[00:04:39] Lizette Ortiz: Going to work out.
[00:04:41] Lizette Ortiz: What I would like to talk about mostly today is some of my favorite substitutions that I’ve made to continue to enjoy Mexican food because I love Japanese food and Italian food. But Mexican food is my favorite.
[00:04:54] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: But this will be with a healthy flair. So we’re going to have it a healthy flair, and we’re going to make it suitable for us, and we’re going to make sure that we make our families healthy and happy, and I’m excited about this, this presentation today. So we got a lot of really cool pictures. So let’s get it on.
[00:05:12] Lizette Ortiz: All right. So let’s start with our Prezi, our first one. This is one of my favorite go-to’s because it has a Mexican flavor and because it’s a one-pan meal or a one-bowl meal, one dish. I love those. They’re the best, especially if you don’t have the time you don’t like cooking. These are the fastest dishes you can ever make. It’s easy. We have a few pictures here. In the first one, you’ll see we have the ingredients, which for this, I use the chopped fresh chili, pork in chunks, which is usually what is used for chile verde. So normally, this would be like the substitute of chile verde where they, you know, pork and chili verde, which is green chili sauce. And it’s normally what is made with just pork and potatoes.
[00:06:03] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Where did you learn how to do this particular plate? Tell me a bit about the history of this plate because this is good.
[00:06:08] Lizette Ortiz: This is my thing. Yeah, I came up with it.
[00:06:13] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Oh, this is yours.
[00:06:15] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: This is a masterpiece.
[00:06:18] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah, this is Ortiz’s dish of pork and salsa verde.
[00:06:24] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: What does Alfonso think about this? Does he love it?
[00:06:25] Lizette Ortiz: He loves it. He likes it. Fonzie loves it.
[00:06:27] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Fonzie, I like the name Fonzie.
[00:06:30] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah. If you know me or you know Fonzie in El Paso, that’s probably my husband. That’s awesome. A lot of people here, and everyone knows him as Fonzie. So, yeah, baby, we are talking about you if you’re listening.
[00:06:41] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: We’re going to get some insight into what you get fed.
[00:06:46] Lizette Ortiz: Yes. Oh my god. Yeah, he loves it. He likes these, luckily. He’s not like, “Oh, I’m not too fond of this, I don’t want to eat that, don’t make me this.” He’s not like that. He’s not picky.
[00:07:00] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: He’s reasonable.
[00:07:04] Lizette Ortiz: And he goes with the flow with everything, including the choices of my main menu items. So luckily, as I said, the original salsa verde stew is usually made with just pork and potatoes and salsa verde, and that’s that you typically accompany it with tortillas. So instead of that, I added some more nutrients and more fiber and more just vegetable portions by chopping up some extra things. So instead of only having the three ingredients, meat, potato, and salsa. I also added chayote, a green squash-looking thing you see next to the red potato. Yes, that is a squash. It’s a type of squash. It comes in spiny varieties, like that one that doesn’t have thorns. When the weather’s harsh, the skin tends to be thick, so you might want to peel it when the weather is nice.
[00:07:51] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Any techniques on peeling it?
[00:07:54] Lizette Ortiz: Just like a carrot or a potato, peel it, and you don’t even have to. I don’t like the extra fibrous skin, so when I do it, sometimes I gauge it. When you cut it, you’ll know if the skins are too thick. You know, if you want to skin it or not. So that’s also a good substitution if you just want to skip the potatoes altogether. I would substitute with the chayote because it has a similar texture. It’s nice; it stays firm, it stays in nice little squares, it keeps its shape. And so, it gives you that feeling both visually and textually.
[00:08:32] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know what, when I first saw the picture, it looked like a green apple. It looked like a green apple to me initially, you know, similar color.
[00:08:39] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah, but it’s so good. Have you ever had chayote?
[00:08:42] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: No, never.
[00:08:43] Lizette Ortiz: In any presentation?
[00:08:45] Kenna Vaughn: No.
[00:08:46] Lizette Ortiz: It’s so good.
[00:08:47] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Does it taste like jícama?
[00:08:50] Lizette Ortiz: No, it’s different. It’s even better. It’s juicier than jícama. OK, so it’s not going to have a starchy texture to it. It’s more like a juicy texture. It’s really good. You should try it.
[00:09:02] Kenna Vaughn: Maybe.
[00:09:03] Dr. Alex Jimeenez DC*: We’re going to do a podcast on that.
[00:09:06] Lizette Ortiz: It’s going to be all about chayote.
[00:09:09] Lizette Ortiz: But yeah, that’s good. And so another thing that kind of also gives you a similar semi-starchy texture is carrots. So also cut those in chunks, sort of cut everything in about the same size. And so just with your chayote and carrots. You’ve already added so many more vegetables to the dish would initially have, right? And those are my go tos usually. And then, on top of that, I put whatever else I have, which this time I had kale. So I just cut all the hard parts like the stems and the thick veins. I cut those out, and I only use the ruffles. All the leaves chop that up and then some mushrooms because mushrooms are delicious and green onions because I had a lot of those. Otherwise, I would have used the regular white onion.
[00:09:48] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: I know this is now. I see that the plate, as you were before it was prepped. It looks pretty dense with mushrooms. You use more than three mushrooms, right?
[00:10:00] Lizette Ortiz: Oh, you know what? It’s the meat. OK, but once you start cooking, oh, and then the salsa verde, you see the little thing. Yes, I make that.
[00:10:08] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Talk to me because this is important, and there’s a lot of people there that they’re losing their husbands because they don’t cook. But you got to give them a special, you know, the go-to thing here. So how did you make that?
[00:10:22] Lizette Ortiz: With that salsa? I have the recipe for that salsa in a video. If you go to my website, I would say it was perfect.
[00:10:30] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: What’s the website?
[00:10:32] Lizette Ortiz: The website is a little long, but it’s easy to remember. It’s DIY. Like, do it yourself DIY mind-body upgrade one word DIY mindbodyupgrade. And then there will be links for recipes and video recipes and things. And I have my recipe for that salsa verde, and it’s really easy. You either grill. I like grilling it. So in a pan or griddle or wherever you want, you put your green tomatoes, tomatillos, Spanish for green tomatoes. Grill those. Grill some onions, garlic. I always put garlic in mine and your choice of chili. Usually, people will use jalapenos for it. But I don’t love jalapenos. I can have them. But they’re not my favorites. I use chili poblano instead because they have a smokier flavor, so I roast those, and then you just blend everything together. And that’s it. And you can add water. If you want it to be lighter, you can just leave it nice and thick. It’s up to you, and it’s really easy to do.
[00:11:25] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Kenna, do you do this kind of stuff for your husband?
[00:11:27] Kenna Vaughn: Not this tasty. No, I’m picking up some tips right now.
[00:11:33] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: What do you think he’ll say if you show up and you make a plate like that?
[00:11:36] Kenna Vaughn: Oh gosh, he would probably love it because he loves spicy food, things that we always joke around that I was raised in a house that uses salt and pepper. So there’s…
[00:11:47] Kenna Vaughn: Not a…
[00:11:48] Kenna Vaughn: Lot of flavors.
[00:11:49] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: No, your mom did that.
[00:11:52] Kenna Vaughn: Maybe, some Italian seasoning every once in a while, but he’ll he would probably love this, so this good.
[00:11:59] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah, try it and let me know. OK, so this is the for the salsa verde. So basically, you saute all your harder vegetables, all your starches. So your chayote, potatoes, carrots with some onions. So saute all that within no more than one teaspoon of oil, so keep the oil low.
[00:12:17] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Is that a Wok?
[00:12:18] Lizette Ortiz: It’s not. It’s just a big pan. But if you had a wok, that would be cool too. Just a big pan that you can just saute in. That’ll work. And then you put the onion, and the meat’s first, let the meat cook a little bit, and then add your thick starches, which is the second picture you’ll see there where it has potatoes and carrots, and the chayote’s all together.
[00:12:45] Kenna Vaughn: OK, so you want your meat brown first?
[00:12:49] Lizette Ortiz: Yes, and then toss all the starches and the bigger chunks.
[00:12:53] Kenna Vaughn: And does that help them not get soggy? Like keeping up with the potato texture almost?
[00:13:01] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah, by not putting them all together, it just doesn’t cook them as long because at least for this dish, it’s pork, so you do want it to cook thoroughly. You know, it’s very important that it cooks thoroughly, but also because I like the browning that it gives, you know, like the texture and the flavor of the meat, when you let it brown a little bit first, the kind of like sears that I guess, you know, like mini seared chunks in a way. And then you add the other things so that they start cooking; you cook them until they’re soft. And then, I added the kale at the end because of its leaves, so kale and mushrooms go at the end because they cook fast. And then once it looks like the starches and potatoes and things are getting to the right texture, you add in your salsa verde and then cover it, simmer it for at least five to 10 minutes, and you’re done.
[00:13:48] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: That’s an amazing plate. This is good anyway. Do you prep the meat at all the night before or anything? Do you give it any sort of like seasoning or anything?
[00:13:57] Lizette Ortiz: No, but it would be even better if you did that.
[00:13:59] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: What do you recommend doing with it?
[00:14:02] Lizette Ortiz: I mean, I do season. OK, so all of this, you would throw whatever seasonings to taste; I add many things. I add garlic powder on top of the actual garlic in there, but I add garlic powder. Sometimes I’ll have a seasoning salt a little bit. But when I use meat, I like using the English sauce, the Worcestershire. I really think my cuisines flavor involves that a lot and cumin. I love using cumin, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce are my go-to.
[00:14:34] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: For a plate like this, for example, cumin. I say you can make a disaster. You could make the whole house smell like cumin. How much cumin would you use on a plate like this, the entire design, like a tablespoon or a teaspoon?
[00:14:43] Lizette Ortiz: I don’t measure things, but I have it in a shaker.
[00:14:48] Kenna Vaughn: So about two shakes, all right.
[00:14:58] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: All right. That’s funny.
[00:14:59] Lizette Ortiz: So that’s one. Please go ahead and try it. You can use any vegetables again. It doesn’t have to be these vegetables. You can use broccoli. I’ve used broccoli before because that’s what I had. I always have carrots, so there are always carrots in it, and you can use any other vegetables. You could have used spinach instead of kale; you can use cauliflower. You can use any like any vegetables.
[00:15:21] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Very lean. So the artists in the kitchen. I like this.
[00:15:25] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah.
[00:15:26] Kenna Vaughn: How many portions do you usually get from this? Could it feed a family of four? Do you have leftovers or?
[00:15:34] Lizette Ortiz: This is supposed to be for two people. OK, it looks like a lot, but we only eat one meal and one smaller snack meal. So we need to get most of our proteins and vegetables in one big meal. So that’s it. This is pretty big. If you’re accompanying this with like a soup or a salad or something like that, this could be for maybe three or four people. But if this is your only meal because there’s enough if you see how many vegetables, it’s like a carrot per person, half a potato per person, that’s already several cups of vegetables per person. Yes. And so that’s just one meal. So this would be for two people if that’s your only thing, but you can also accompany other things. So yeah, that’s about a pound of meat. We usually eat half a pound of protein each day in our meals.
[00:16:22] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Let me ask you, particularly about choosing how much to eat and everything. Let’s say you do a leg day or versus just aerobics. Do you change it up in terms of, you know, Hey, Alfonso, you did legs today, so you get a little extra piece of meat or something, or you did aerobics, and you get no meat or something? How does that work?
[00:16:40] Lizette Ortiz: That is so funny that you say that because yes, that is precisely what I do, and I don’t think he doesn’t know that, but yeah.
[00:16:47] Lizette Ortiz: He does now.
[00:16:47] Lizette Ortiz: And he’s listening. He knows now. But yeah, I do consider how much I exercise, how much he exercises, what we do if we remember to take our protein after we workout. What are we going to eat later? What snacks do we have for later? If it’s something that’s high in protein or not, you know, like I’ll take a lot of those things into account. So yeah, sometimes it’s like if I worked out, but he’s slacking, then it’s like, we’re going to get like the same, or I’m going to get a little more. But no, he’s a guy. He’s bigger, so he needs more. So it’ll probably be more even if we both worked out, and he usually gets a little more protein or…
[00:17:25] Lizette Ortiz: More,
[00:17:26] Lizette Ortiz: Whatever carbs, like a potato in this case or something, because his body functions better with carbs, mine functions better with fats. OK, I’ll let him have more.
[00:17:35] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know, that’s so cool because I think that the family knows their spouse, and he knows what does. Do you know what is good? And in this situation, it’s essential to pick out the amplitude of the proteins and the amplitude of the carbohydrates versus the fibers. So this is very good, important. I mean, I think it’s one of those fundamental questions that you know how to gauge as you get advanced into nutrition. And I think the world is now saying that we don’t have to eat meat every day or high proteins, specifically on the days that we work out hard, but not on the days we don’t. So it’s kind of cool. So we got other plates coming out; what other plates we got?
[00:18:11] Lizette Ortiz: So now it’s chilaquiles.
[00:18:13] Kenna Vaughn: I’m going to ask you one question first. Everyone thinks that eating healthy is hard and it’s really expensive. This looks very budget-friendly. Is it budget-friendly where one, you purchase all these ingredients?
[00:18:26] Lizette Ortiz: It’s very budget-friendly. We talked about this last week, and Dr. Jimenez proposes to save money like if you just saved money by doing it right, like I can’t spend any more money on this. So no snacks, there’s no money for snacks. And truly, I spend so much less money when I eat clean than when I eat other crap. You know, like when I fill up like rice is cheaper. But where’s my nutrition? You know, right? And that’s bland. You’re still going to want something else, so you’re going to end up eating junk anyway. And junk is pretty expensive. Yeah, this is cheap. Like my husband and I, it’s just the two of us. But we eat like this, or you’ll see other pictures. We do eat healthy snacks that we buy. We spend maybe $150 every two weeks, but it’s all just healthy stuff.
[00:19:20] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Did you hear that, Trudy? 150 bucks? Did you hear that 150 dollars every two weeks? Now we can do that. Another thing I noticed about this is that you cut these, these vegetables up, and there was a lot of fiber, obviously in this thing. We’re not just feeding, you know, Alfonzo and his muscles; we’re feeding his bacteria. And what I love about this thing is that you can almost see the probiotics having a Hallelujah song going on. You can hear the thumps, and they’re happy, all the fibers coming in, and they’re going to enjoy this. You mentioned a couple of things like rice versus high-fiber foods like this. Rice is absorbed in the first five feet of the intestine. Once it leaves, it ends up injecting into your body so quickly. No food for the bacteria. So this is where we look at it, and we say this is a food that’s not only good for your body, but it’s suitable for your bugs, and your bugs keep your whole hormonal system together.
[00:20:14] Lizette Ortiz: Everything working right?
[00:20:15] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: And you know what? You see, I hate to say, but we talk about this because we’re older. And did you poop in the morning, and did you feel good? Did you know it makes a difference, right? So if we do, we make it happen. Let’s go to the next plate and not talk about this kind of thing.
[00:20:29] Lizette Ortiz: OK, let’s go back to yummy things. So another delicious Mexican dish that I love, especially for breakfast. I recently went to Guanajuato with my mom and my aunt and my cousin, and I swear every morning I had chilaquiles for breakfast because every hotel had them, and I love them, and they’re so good. However, the bad thing about chilaquiles is that you usually fry the tortillas used for them. And so that already sabotages your entire plan for the whole diet. Yeah, for the entire day. Exactly. And then the eggs are usually fried eggs, too, you know? But there’s no reason for that to be the case. You can still enjoy your chilaquiles. These are honestly very small changes that I make is instead of frying the tortillas, I cut them up and bake them, I put them in the oven at about 350 for about 15 minutes. But that’s here in El Paso with our altitude and our everything. So you check on them. Yeah, so they’re crispy and golden. I wouldn’t recommend putting them at any higher temperature than 350 because that would probably just be too much. It would burn. And then the salsa is again my salsa that I make.
[00:21:43] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: That’s the same salsa?
[00:21:45] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah, that’s the same salsa I make.
[00:21:46] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Make sure we put a link to that salsa.
[00:21:47] Lizette Ortiz: So yeah, I’ll go on a link in there. But yeah, that’s my salsa that I make all the time; I buy the green tomatoes every time I go to the grocery store, I buy my green tomatoes, and there’s always like a batch of salsa at home. And then what I did for this is I sauteed some onions, and actually, first, I just baked the chips and then threw them in the pan. And then the salsa, as I mentioned, already has garlic, and it has onion, and it has the chile. And so that’s already a lot of flavors. So you don’t need to add oil; you don’t need to add any garlic, onions, anything. That’s it. And so just pour it on top of the chips and kind of smooth around until they start softening a little bit. Once it starts simmering, you leave it there, cover it and make sure it’s nice and hot. And then I just crack the eggs on top of that, as you can see there, and then covered it. Oh, spread just some salt and pepper on top, and green onions cover it for a little longer until the eggs are cooked to your liking.
[00:22:45] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Are those six or seven eggs?
[00:22:47] Lizette Ortiz: Six eggs.
[00:22:48] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Six eggs, OK?
[00:22:49] Lizette Ortiz: Yes, they’re a little uneven. I know there should be the seventh one in the middle right now.
[00:22:53] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: No, that’s good.
[00:22:54] Lizette Ortiz: But I guess Fonzie didn’t work out that day, so he didn’t deserve the fourth egg.
[00:22:58] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: He gets half a huevo. That’s funny.
[00:23:04] Lizette Ortiz: We got three that day; actually, he does prefer four eggs. But he must have selected the steak because I only gave us three eggs each. So we both liked it, I guess. And so that’s it. And you just covered once the eggs are nice and cooked, how you want them. I scoop it out with either a spoon or a spatula or however you want. Normally, the sauce is nice and thick. If it’s too soupy, then use a spoon. But I like it either way and just serve it. And then you see in the final picture a side of salad, of course, right? And chilaquiles are the type of thing that you can have for breakfast. Or you can have breakfast for lunch, breakfast for dinner type meal. So I really like them because of that.
[00:23:45] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: I like that breakfast for dinner; that is so cool because sometimes I want to have breakfast for dinner. That is so cool. Wow, that’s amazing.
[00:23:53] Lizette Ortiz: So that one’s easy. That was really easy. It’s just the salsa. And I mean, if you don’t want to make the salsa, you can just buy it like they sell salsa verde at the store. Salsas are excellent like we talked about last time, even as dressing substitutes because they don’t have any oils; salsas are made by roasting or boiling or steaming some vegetables and blending them together.
[00:24:17] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Say that again, they’re made by how?
[00:24:19] Lizette Ortiz: Either roasting vegetables or boiling, or I sometimes steam them. But for the most part, it’s boiled or grilled vegetables and just blended. That’s basically what an authentic good salsa should be. There shouldn’t be any oil in it, any grease, anything. So salsas are super safe to just go to the store, buy yourself a big salsa verde and bake your chips and then just do the same thing. You don’t have to make your own salsa. You can always just look for something. Look at the ingredients. You know, it should only be vegetables, maybe some salt, or a couple of not so terrible preservatives, like if they need to be in there. But other than that, it’s a really simple meal that the other thing that you will notice, and I’m sure some people are like, Hey, Donde estas la queso? So where’s the cheese, right? It’s like, Yeah, well, that’s another thing we’re modifying here: we’re not putting cheese, so we’re cutting back on that fat. But if you want the cheese because it’s part of it and you must have it, there’s nothing wrong with grating, you know, a little bit an ounce of cheese and spreading it all over an ounce of cheese divided by two people. That’d be nothing. Nothing, even one ounce per person. It’s like maybe a hundred and something calories. It’s good fats, you know, but it’s a little you’re not going to dump half a pound of mozzarella on top of these eggs. There’s no reason for it. So that’s my second go-to favorite item that I like to make.
[00:25:39] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Let’s go to the next one here.
[00:25:41] Lizette Ortiz: OK, so after this, I wanted to mention some other dishes that I’ve enjoyed making that might be enjoyable for some of our listeners. How about we talk about the popsicles last time I made these delicious popsicles?
[00:25:57] Kenna Vaughn: No, it’s getting really hot out. So that would be an excellent thing.
[00:26:01] Lizette Ortiz: I am obsessed with popsicles right now, you guys. I have ten pineapple popsicles in the freezer, and I made ten cucumber chile. So these are actually the inner popsicles folder.
[00:26:18] Kenna Vaughn: And you can see it.
[00:26:20] Lizette Ortiz: OK, so basically in all of my local, my paisanos here will know what I’m talking about is in Mexico, we have paletas, you know, like popsicles. We have popsicles everywhere in the world. But our Mexican paletas usually have some unique flavors. And so, one of my favorites is the cucumber and chile-lime. So pepino con chile popsicles. And I remember when I was growing up in Mexico, I remember that was my go-to. It was my favorite. They’re delicious. It’s cucumber and lime and a lot of sugar, and so that kind of ruins the whole thing. So it’s like, oh, popsicles are good, but they have a lot of sugar.
[00:26:58] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: So what do you use instead of sugar?
[00:26:59] Lizette Ortiz: Well, I use the Monk fruit sweetener instead of sugar, which we were also talking about. And so one thing that I’m doing this summer is making my own cucumber and chile-lime popsicles easy. One cucumber, two limes, Munford sweetener, chile powder. Blend it, pour it into the popsicle mold, put the stick in, and then enjoy it. And it’s really easy. They’re really easy to make, and they’re really quick. If you want to add more flavor, you could use tajin powder. I don’t know if you’ve seen it. And you can add some tajin powder, and it has real sugar in it. But it’s very, very little. So I mean, you wouldn’t add more than a tablespoon for an entire batch of popsicles.
[00:27:49] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Lizette, you mentioned something about the Monkfruit? So tell us a bit about monk fruit and your experiences with monk fruit sugar. What is that about?
[00:27:57] Lizette Ortiz: It’s great. So it’s made from monk fruit. OK, but so far, it’s a sweetener that they extract from this fruit, and it’s been used as a sweetener for apparently thousands of years by people, and where it’s from, I forget where but I want to say it’s from Asia somewhere.
[00:28:22] Kenna Vaughn: So for these popsicles, how long do you freeze them for?
[00:28:26] Lizette Ortiz: That’s a good question. Do you know why? Because when I first made some popsicles, I gave them two hours, and I tried to pull them out, and the stick came up. So I was like, Well, I guess that wasn’t enough. But those weren’t the cucumber ones. OK, so those were creamier. Creamier stuff takes longer with the water ones. I would say four hours just to be safe. Just to be safe, I would say at least freeze them for four hours. OK. So it is just what I would say. Besides that, that one’s really good. The cucumber ones. And then, oh, monk fruit sweetener. Yes, I like it a lot because it’s sweeter than sugar. Not by a lot. I want to use it even like whatever one tablespoon of sugar. I’ll substitute for one tablespoon of monk fruit sweetener, but things usually end up being a little extra sweet. So maybe I would go like half or almost one to one, but not quite. But it doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste. It has a lovely, sweet, natural taste to it; honestly, I think. And yeah, it’s just the lack of aftertaste that makes a big difference.
[00:29:35] Kenna Vaughn: And where do you buy it?
[00:29:37] Lizette Ortiz: I get mine at Sprouts, but I’m sure other health food stores have it. There’s also; actually, Sprouts has it by the pound, where you can like, grab a bunch of it and buy a pound of it at a time, which is what I did last time. But there’s also a brand called La Canto, and they make little packets, and they make different types like white sugar or brown sugar flavor. Or, I mean, they don’t flavor it. It’s just the way that they extract. It is a little different, so it has a little more caramel flavor or not. So that works out pretty well. I especially like just the plain regular white one because it’s the most similar to sugar. I like sweets.
[00:30:19] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Let me ask you this is when you work with your clients, how is it that when we’re looking at these particular substitutions, how do you adapt to an individual and assist in creating a diet that’s right for them? Like you can say, do you look at them and say, you know, this is kind of an apple-shaped body, a slender body? And how do you tailor that?
[00:30:44] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah, that’s an excellent question. And you can go by body type. A lot of the time, because usually that kind of lets you know what body type you have and somewhat foods work better for them. What kind of exercises, how much activity and everything but over our lives, we can change our bodies. So, for example, someone who is generally like tall skinny type. Right? If they don’t take care of themselves, they can change their body over the years to become a more rounded body type. And so now they’re going to have to do things that are naturally rounded body type will have to do to lose weight or get back into their skinny all the time shape. However, people who usually struggle to gain weight will do better with carbs. At least that’s something that has been, you know, noticed because they burn a lot. They also have a hard time putting on muscle because they just burn through all this so fast that it is just like they need the carbs for fuel. But someone, for example, like I’m in OK shape right now. Still, I tend to gain weight quickly, and so if I were to eat tortillas every day, like if I were to eat every day tortillas and rice and beans and like steak, like regular Mexican meals every day and like huevos for breakfast and then tortillas and other foods for lunch. And then, some other thing for dinner, I couldn’t like my body does not respond well to carbs. So, for example, a person, in that case, I would tell them, All right, well, for your body type, I will have to get rid of these carbs, have to get rid of grains, and have to get rid of tortillas, reduce them. At least if we don’t get rid of them completely, at least reduce them. If you’re going to do tacos, do just two tortillas instead of four. Eat the rest with either lettuce wraps or just by itself. You know, like I’ve eaten my fair share of open-faced burritos. You know, like, I’ve gotten a burrito, you know, it’s like, All right, thank you and open it and eat the insides with a fork and you’re eating the delicious stuff inside and then the pieces of bread just kind of extra. So, yeah, I do base it on that. And most importantly, though, I ask them, Do you tend to gain weight quickly? Do you like these foods? Do you struggle with this? And so that will also help me make side. Yeah. Right? What to suggest.
[00:33:11] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: So let me ask you when we look at your portfolio of diets and how do you help your clients specifically retune their diets? And what I mean by that is, you know, your husband, for example, Fonzie, and you know that if he eats a particular food, he packs it on, you know, yourself. How do you work engage? How do you tell the person what to look for in terms of the things that make them swollen and get kind of chunky? And how do you help them adapt? You mentioned something about the use of a diary. And you said something like that. Tell me, how do you do that?
[00:33:52] Lizette Ortiz: The first thing I like to start with is a semi-elimination diet. I know where it’s like; all right, we’re beginning to jumpstart. You’re going to get rid of all of these foods, and we go, really, really strict. And it’s like none of these, not even any potatoes, not even anything that could irritate you. Like any nightshade, family foods like tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, all those things. No grains. I have them like that for at least a week and then slowly add one food at a time. OK, see how they feel. And then we can gauge what is causing inflammation, what’s causing bloating, what’s causing headaches, even sometimes?
[00:34:33] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: What do they report to you in terms of inflammation that things aren’t sitting right? Let’s say they eat a portion of a particular food, and it just keeps on whether it’s milk or certain byproducts, dairy byproducts. What can we help them to zone in on if it works or not in terms of an elimination diet?
[00:34:49] Lizette Ortiz: It depends on what they feel, I guess. But what I mostly hear is people are used to inflammation.
[00:35:05] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Tell me about that. What do you mean by inflammation? And Kenna, tell me what the patients tell us when they say, I’m bloated? I feel puffy, too. I think, you know, inflammation. What is it that they should look for that pips them off? That inflammation is, or do they eat the wrong thing?
[00:35:23] Lizette Ortiz: That’s the thing is, like so many people are used to inflammation. I’m sure you understand what I’m saying because many people don’t even realize that they’re bloated until they’re at the end of this first week. And they’re like, my stomach feels so much smaller. This feels so much better. I didn’t realize, but I don’t feel this discomfort. People don’t even realize that they have discomfort until it goes away, right? And so, something that I would say pay attention to. I would do it once a month, once a year, at least every six months. I would like to do a detox. So like take at least three or four days at least of super clean eating, no grains, no anything that’ll irritate you, and then slowly add foods, OK, and see how you feel. Just listening to your body is so important, like you need to; as you said, I know my body and my husband’s body. And I can’t see every client’s body, but I mean, there are patterns that you can notice, but in yourself, just kind of know what feels right, what feels wrong. If you feel like when you stopped eating something, your stomach is smaller, you don’t feel nauseous or bloated or pain or discomfort, then now you know that you probably shouldn’t be eating that.
[00:36:34] Kenna Vaughn: I’ve said before that many people associate inflammation with just joint pain or a physical thing they can see. They don’t think about their intestines and how they’re eating, and what it contributes to their headaches. Or, like you said, your nausea or your bloating. You don’t realize that even using the restroom could be so easy and simple because the foods you’re eating are really causing inflammation in there and just wreaking havoc on all the insides. After all, we can’t see it. So definitely detoxing is excellent to do. Like you said, once every six months, just give your body that clean reset. So, you know, the food sensitivities you have can change. So doing it every six months or a year will help you get better in tune with your body, which is a great thing. You should know your body and help you so much, and it’ll help you with the foods you can have. And even with the substitutions, it’s just a great thing to do. Do you have clients who say, no, I’m not going to detox, or they don’t understand its purpose, or how do you get around things with your clients that maybe might be a little tricky? Or have you had not had to come in contact with that?
[00:37:54] Lizette Ortiz: No, I haven’t so far. Not necessarily because most of my clients have had at least; maybe I’ve just gotten lucky. They’re very like; they’re ready. Let’s yeah, whatever it is, let’s do it. Most people are surprised. You know what? Now that you mention it, I’m thinking about it. And most people don’t eat enough, like, especially with women. Yes, we tend to think, Oh, well, the less I eat, the more to lose weight, right? And it’s like, Well, no, because now you’re starving yourself. So currently, you’re storing everything. And so, no, when I tell people it’s like, you’re not eating enough, you need to add this many more vegetables, this many portions of meat they want know like, what am I going to eat all this food?
[00:38:36] Kenna Vaughn: I bet that could be hard for them to like almost a mental thing. They automatically think that if I eat more, I’ll gain weight. But it’s not. My mom. Sorry, mom, she was one of those people I know; she thought, you know, eating less means fewer calories, so it’s better for you. And she was eating saltine crackers with butter on them. They’re so great. They were delicious until my uncle came over and was like, Oh, you’re just eating crackers. And my mom said, Oh, I’m trying to lose weight and eat less. And he was like, You’re just eating flour. You know, literally filling your body.
[00:39:19] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: The gluten people are just exploding right there. So yeah, when we look at this area here, we talked about what you mentioned a little earlier about having popsicles. And what we’re looking at the popsicles right now, we can see it on one of the monitors there. Is that Alfonso?
[00:39:36] Lizette Ortiz: That’s Fonzie, yes.
[00:39:36] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: He’s enjoying that. What type of popsicle is it? How did you make those?
[00:39:41] Lizette Ortiz: So that’s the cucumber and chile popsicles I made. So you can see that there are chunks of cucumber. So when I blended, I didn’t use a blender. I used a food processor instead. OK, just press it a couple of times so that there are still chunks of cucumber. Because the great thing about the Mexican popsicles, the traditional way they make them is they’re usually chunks of fruit or whatever the popsicle is. So I love that. And so I made sure to keep some pieces of cucumber in there.
[00:40:10] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: And can you go through and teach us how did you make this? I mean, tell us what it is or what that is, OK? There’s another picture here.
[00:40:16] Lizette Ortiz: Can you go to the next one?
[00:40:17] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: I think I’m going to go to the next one. I got to see how it happens there. Yeah, there you go.
[00:40:22] Lizette Ortiz: Yes! Those are the ingredients. So you have one cucumber, two limes. I put one tablespoon of tajin in the back of the container with a red lid is just chili powder, just regular Mexican chili powder. And then that la canto monk fruit sweetener golden is the one that’s supposed to be kind of like brown sugar.
[00:40:40] Kenna Vaughn: OK, so you like the golden better when making popsicles?
[00:40:42] Lizette Ortiz: I like the regular one, but I happen to have that. But yeah, that’s one variety they have; any Monk fruit sweetener will work for that. Just no sugar. And so if you can see there like that whole cucumber alone has, what, 35 calories?
[00:41:00] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Yeah, maybe.
[00:41:02] Lizette Ortiz: So if you put all of that and divided it up between the ten popsicles, that means each one of those delicious, decadent, sweet, and amazing popsicles…
[00:41:11] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: That’s what I’m talking about.
[00:41:13] Lizette Ortiz: Those calories are like nothing. I can eat all of these and still be OK. Yeah. Well, I don’t know about the chile and the lime, though, but I don’t think that’s a good idea to eat ten all at once.
[00:41:25] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: We are about compromise here.
[00:41:28] Kenna Vaughn: Yeah.
[00:41:30] Lizette Ortiz: So if you like it like, I love those popsicles, but when they’re loaded with sugar, it’s just not a viable snack for me in the summer. But if I’m making them myself and they’re lean, and they’re adding water and vegetables to my diet and vitamin C from those limes, then why the heck not? Yeah, like, so make your own popsicles, people.
[00:41:51] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Yeah. So tell us a bit about what types of popsicles that you do?
[00:41:58] Lizette Ortiz: OK, so I just made some. They’re not super low sugar because I took the lazy route for several reasons that I’ll explain, but I made some pineapple popsicles. I made them with; I made them lazy because I bought the pineapple concentrate, OK, and I like added water. So it has sugar. It’s like the regular fruit juice, but it’s pasteurized because, as Kenna said, your food sensitivities change throughout life, and I have become sensitive to pineapple. So it’s a bummer, but you can still eat it if it’s cooked because it destroys the enzymes, right, causing problems, and so if it’s pasteurized, it’s cooked right. So the juices, any juices or canned pineapples and things are OK. So I bought that, and I didn’t want to deal with it, and I used that for my popsicles. But if you have natural pineapple chunks blended with some water, fill up your little popsicle containers; you got your paleta. That’s right, and there is that.
[00:43:05] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: I don’t want to take over this whole thing, but I bumped into your page and found many different cool things.
[00:43:11] Lizette Ortiz: You know what, how about you pick a picture?
[00:43:13] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know what I did, and what I found is that I have a favorite. I’ll show it to you, OK? And I’m surprised because I think everybody in the world has this as one of their specialties. Like, you know, to me, there isn’t a week that should not have a taco night. So, yeah, take a look at that. And when you see that on there, you can see that looks good. Tell me about this because that’s got a lot of cruciferous vegetables on there. And to me, tell us.
[00:43:45] Lizette Ortiz: Yes, there’s always a lot going on in my salads. There are always…
[00:43:50] Lizette Ortiz: At least…
[00:43:51] Lizette Ortiz: Seven ingredients in my salad. OK, so this one has, you know, your basic lettuce. I don’t use the iceberg because it doesn’t have a lot of nutritional value. So I usually stick to something greener, either Greenleaf or a red leaf, which is what’s on there. Also, as Dr. Jimenez noted, broccoli, cruciferous vegetables. We got some broccoli in there. I cut it small. Someone once told me that it was hardcore to eat broccoli raw. So I guess if you don’t like it raw, steam it before you throw it in there.
[00:44:23] Kenna Vaughn: I think it’s perfectly fine.
[00:44:24] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know what? I don’t look at it just for me. I look it for my bugs. I got to make my bugs happy. My bugs have to be fed. They know they don’t want meat. They want some crunchy stuff, and they want to break it down. Yeah.
[00:44:34] Lizette Ortiz: So there are mushrooms, I think. Yes, tomatoes. And then basically the vegetables are vegetables, and I toss them with a little bit of lime and salt to give them flavor. And then the meat is just lean. I think it was like ninety-ten or ninety-five ten lean beef. You can use eighty-five and then drain the extra fat if you want. And then basically just the meat has onions, garlic, the celery and then your beef. Red bell peppers, celery will give your taco salad all the flavor in the world.
[00:45:10] Kenna Vaughn: I would have never thought to put that in other stuff. Yeah, that’s good. Yeah, now I can see. Exactly.
[00:45:19] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Yeah, I’ve never thought of celery in a taco. I mean, but you know, celery makes a big difference.
[00:45:24] Lizette Ortiz: Exactly, and that’s what gives food flavor. This is why eating healthy doesn’t have to be boring. You guys like this are super lean. It’s super healthy. But it’s very flavorful because that meat has garlic. It has onion. It has celery; it has cilantro. It has cumin, salt, and pepper. It has many things in it like, why would you even need a dressing on that? Yeah, don’t you already have that?
[00:45:48] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: We look at this plate over here. What’s this one about? This is all that looks like Oriental. Is that oriental?
[00:45:53] Lizette Ortiz: It’s not. There is an oriental dish in there.
[00:45:56] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: What is this? Tell me a bit of this plate because that looks good.
[00:46:01] Lizette Ortiz: Oh, I know what it is. This is a vegan day meal.
[00:46:08] Kenna Vaughn: OK, so first, can you tell us more about your schedule with eating when you say Vegan Day? Just explain that a little bit.
[00:46:17] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah, and taco, right?
[00:46:18] Kenna Vaughn: Yeah. So go ahead and explain that substitutions.
[00:46:22] Lizette Ortiz: So variety is the spice of life. As we all know, and so good diet is a varied diet, although you will notice a lot of ingredients repeat in my diet, at the same time, I have a lot of different ingredients all the time. That said, I like to rotate what I eat, depending on what I’ve done. Like we were talking about if we didn’t work out or anything like, Oh, you know, and we don’t need to eat our steak today, right? Or we’ve been eating a lot of fish and chicken and things. So it’s like, OK, vegan date. We always have one vegan day a week. Usually, yeah, at least a vegetarian day where we will eat some, maybe some products, like maybe eggs like Volvo Lacto vegetarian, but usually we do a meatless day at least once or twice a week. We go meatless completely just for variety and for a little bacteria, you know, like our tiny microbes, they love the veggies, the fiber, and stuff like that. So I do. We do chicken, fish, pork, beef and vegan or vegetarian and a variety. Just skip it every day.
[00:47:31] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: When we look at this plate, we here’s another substitution that you have here, and that’s a unique one. What’s this one about? Yeah, that looks like a dessert.
[00:47:39] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah, it does look like a dessert, and it tastes like a dessert, but it is what I suggest to my clients who are used to eating, for example, oatmeal every morning. OK. And when we’re trying to get rid of those grains, at least for the first portion of their program, I lived on this every morning for years. I get bored quickly with food, OK? And I’m not one to eat the same thing every day, but I can eat this every day and not get tired of it. It’s Greek yogurt with your choice of fruit, really, but strawberries are always good, any sort of berries and then some crushed almonds. And I put a little bit of honey, just raw honey less than a tablespoon.
[00:48:21] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: I favored the agave. I was kind. I was looking at it like I was like, the use a little agave on there.
[00:48:26] Lizette Ortiz: I do honey.
[00:48:28] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Oh, it’s OK.
[00:48:30] Kenna Vaughn: Well, even just the crushed almonds is great because so many people go for the granola that you can get, and it’s full of sugar, and they don’t realize that. So does even by making your granola or by just using, like you said, crushed almonds is so much better for you.
[00:48:48] Lizette Ortiz: That’s how I started to feel. Exactly. That’s what I started because I used to do fruit and yogurt with granola until I found that granola is not healthy, you guys. It’s not healthy, but I’m eating it. Oh, I didn’t know that it was loaded with sugar and things. Oh, can you show the wings?
[00:49:03] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Oh yes.
[00:49:05] Lizette Ortiz: Ooh.
[00:49:05] Kenna Vaughn: Oh yeah, we can talk about that.
[00:49:06] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know what? That looks so different that I want to know what that’s about.
[00:49:11] Lizette Ortiz: Yes. OK, so this is Taco Tuesday. So again, tacos usually a lot of times, they fried the tortilla. I warm them up on the fire. The inside is fish, so they’re fish tacos. A lot of places. I don’t know if it’s just California or they do it here. I had never seen it until I went to California, but they fried the breaded and fried the fish before putting it in the tortilla, for whatever reason, which don’t do that. OK, don’t do that. But so what I do instead is I just again celery, onion, garlic, OK, in a pan with just a touch of oil, if you need it. If you have a nonstick pan, you won’t even need it, and then throw the fish in there until it breaks up. It’s nice and cooked. Has a flavor. You put your seasonings in, then that’s it. You serve it with your warmed-up fire tortillas, not fried tortillas. There’s hardly any oil in there. There’s no fat in there. And then the cactus on the side. This one is warm. So this one’s also sautéed the onions and then your cactus until they get that pretty color like a nice, bright green. And then after that, you can add the cilantro and the tomatoes since they cook a little faster. And that’s it. You just cook them until they’re nice and bright, and they have a good texture that you like, which could be anything you could eat them raw if you want it or, you know, if you want them al dente or nice and soft, you can do that, too. So there you do have carbs, but it’s only the four tortillas. If we talk about calories, it’s only 200, but corn is a whole grain. So if this is your meal for the day and there’s no reason why this is not healthy for you.
[00:50:56] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You know, as I was looking through your diets, I was trying to think of those plates you’ve shared with us; they’re very nice. What do you do in like lifestyles, like how you’ve prepared the food? What do you do in terms of presentation, and how do you set it up for dinner so that you can relax and enjoy it? Because that’s part of also the experience of eating, because not only is eating, we’re running, but what you do is prepare a place to eat, obviously at the dining room. But how do you set up the environment for that? Because we got some more plates here. But I want to also talk about like when you sit down because that looks like I would have eaten that plate way before it hit the table. It’s just like I would have just done it. So how do you kind of control yourself to make sure that you have the experience?
[00:51:47] Lizette Ortiz: The best recommendation for eating, like you’re saying, is being mindful of what you’re eating and like sitting next to or in front of your family, your person and talking and observing your food and chewing carefully. I’m going to be ultimately 100 percent honest with you guys. We always watch something when we’re eating, so I’m always watching T.V. I mean, it’s on the T.V., but who watches T.V. and everything is streaming. But together, yes, either anime or some T.V. show that we’re following or something. And so we always sit down. We set our little spot, play our show, and eat. And it’s just, I mean, it’s a ritual.
[00:52:26] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: It’s cool; it’s a cool ritual. I see another plate here that is just so amazing. I don’t even know what it is, but it’s got a lot going on.
[00:52:34] Lizette Ortiz: OK, so this one was my response to a breakfast dish with no bread. Because when you think breakfast, you think eggs and toast and bacon, eggs and bacon, there has to be toast, eggs, and bacon. There has to be something else. So if you see here, there are eggs, and well, there are eggs under the bacon. And then there is the bacon which was grilled, cooked, and then patted to take the excess oil off, chopped up. But that is served on top of sauteed vegetables, and the vegetables are a mix of, I think, that one’s just cabbage and squash, the Mexican squash, and a little bit of celery. I always had that for flavor. And there are; I believe this one had a few potatoes. Yeah, I see little bits of potato in there. You can always skip the potatoes again if you’re limiting your starches or if you just don’t do well with potatoes, you can replace them with more veggies. I’ve also made this with broccoli instead of sweet potatoes. Oh, and the regular potatoes.
[00:53:34] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: That’s the magical stuff.
[00:53:35] Lizette Ortiz: Yeah, so that you can make this exact dish. But instead of all the vegetables there at the bottom, I would slice to sweet potatoes flat and put them on top of that.
[00:53:44] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: What is it called? We need a name for it.
[00:53:48] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Maybe next time,
[00:53:50] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Something Ortiz, I don’t know, but it’s good.
[00:53:53] Lizette Ortiz: It’s probably eggs and bacon.
[00:53:54] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: OK, there you go.
[00:53:55] Lizette Ortiz: Healthy eggs and bacon.
[00:53:56] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: That looks amazing. I mean, I love the way that looks. We’re going to go over one more here. Let’s see. We got here. Let’s see what the computer gives us.
[00:54:07] Lizette Ortiz: This is a good one. All right. So I love pizza because who doesn’t love pizza? It’s delicious. Oh good, I’m glad this came up because we talked about it earlier. So another food that I was raised on as a kid was homemade pizza. My mom used to make pizza like my mom’s family’s originally from Italy. So we have a family pizza dough recipe. And so she used to make it. It was freakin delicious. But then when I found out about nutrition, it’s like, Oh, this is just flour and lard like literal lard. Because of the area of Italy that my family’s from, they use lard instead of olive oil. What part is that from? It’s the south part.
[00:54:49] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Some Italian people are really upset right now.
[00:54:52] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: We need some city too. I know the rock, the boot, the heel, which part is it?
[00:55:00] Lizette Ortiz: It’s between north and south. I worked in an Italian restaurant for a while in L.A., and that’s the only reason I know because talking to one of these Italian ladies, we were talking about our family’s pizza recipes. And she’s like, Oh, your family uses lard. They must be from the south of Italy, actually no, the Northern part of Italy because the south uses olive oil and the north uses lard like, Oh, I didn’t know that. So now I know. But anyway, so I love pizza. But flour is terrible, especially the white flour you use to make pizza. And so I make, you know, like pizza toast. That’s another quick way of making pizza. But again, toast is usually white bread. Terrible process. So instead, I use eggplant. You can make an eggplant pizza. I know I’m a genius.
[00:55:48] Lizette Ortiz: There are pizza recipes.
[00:55:49] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Lizette Ortiz, the genius. So we’re going to make sure we can index that. Lizette Ortiz…
[00:55:55] Kenna Vaughn: The genius
[00:55:56] Lizette Ortiz: Like Wylie Coyote…
[00:55:59] Lizette Ortiz: And all that.
[00:56:01] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: We need it. We need a cartoon now. The genius, the cooking genius.
[00:56:07] Lizette Ortiz: So you can make a pizza and Kenna and I, we’re talking about it before, and you can get your eggplant and make it into a crust and bake it. And then it’s too long. I don’t want to spend that much time, so I just cut my eggplants in slices and grill them, you know, either on a big pan or a griddle. And then, while that’s happening, I make my pizza sauce, which I honestly make with canned tomato sauce. I get something that doesn’t have a lot of additives in it. Something is just tomato and salt. And then, I make my sauce add oregano to add basil. Garlic, of course. And then, once the eggplants are ready, they’re grilled on both sides. I put the sauce, whatever toppings, cheese, cover them or how or maybe bake them for five minutes or whatever you need to do just to melt the cheese a little bit. Again, if you look at this picture, these are Hawaiian, but I don’t do ham for Hawaiian. I do bacon in for a Hawaiian. So I got some nitrate-free, thick-cut bacon, mostly meat in less fat, right? And then some pineapples. Since they’re cooked, I can eat them, so I have them up. Put that on top and then grill them and you these. We were able to eat by hand because I baked them a little longer, so they dried out. But sometimes, you might have to eat them with a fork, but it still tastes like pizza, and it’s amazing. And then all you would have to do because I mean, the eggplant is a vegetable, so you already have a lot of vegetables there, but you can also just put a little salad on the side, which is always an excellent addition to anything.
[00:57:37] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Wow, Lizette, I would like to tell you that we have learned a whole lot today regarding your specific meals. Let me ask you in terms of you creating these ultimate designs. When you did all this, you mentioned the nutritional components. Before I go into that, I want to ask you precisely when you said something about nitrates. What did you mean by that in the nitrates? Avoid the meats with nitrates.
[00:58:03] Lizette Ortiz: OK, technically, they still have nitrates. Even when they say they’re nitrate-free, they just don’t use the same nitrates. So basically added to foods to cure them. So just, you know, to keep them fresh, especially hams, cold cuts, deli meats, they usually have to add these minerals. And because nitrates are like the minerals added in there, it’s too much sodium. So especially for people with like heart conditions, they need to stay away from nitrates. Yes. So especially for them, I like to stay away just because it’s extra stuff you don’t need.
[00:58:47] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: You look at the ingredients that you’ll be able to see.
[00:58:50] Lizette Ortiz: You can see that many packages will say nitrate-free, no nitrates. OK, so just look for that. And if you read the ingredients, they’ll say nitrogen noted it. So if it doesn’t say that you’re good, you usually can just cure meats with salt and vinegar. So you don’t need all that other stuff.
[00:59:05] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Well, is that we have gone through a whole lot of things today, and one of the things that we’ve noticed today is that in the process of teaching us these nutritional dynamics, first of all, I want to thank you, OK, because this is the way like we only have like four plates and I know people are watching. I can see the number of people watching and the comments. They love the food. So one of the things is is that we want you to come back in and share with us some more stuff and different topics. So I look forward to it. Today’s been a really exciting thing for us. I know Kenna has got some ideas for her husband.
[00:59:42] Kenna Vaughn: He will love them.
[00:59:43] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Yeah, I got to tell you something on the side note, you know, my mom, she’s an older Colombian lady, and she’ll look as square at the young ladies of today and say, You know what? You want to keep your man happy. You better learn some skills, and you may be all educated.
[01:00:00] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Your lawyer, you know, is career-oriented, but you need to have some skills and right because I’ve got to tell you the way to a lot of people’s heart is their bellies. And if you take care of them and you make sure that they don’t have atherosclerotic disease in the future, the way you’re you’re tending to your family, the way that most moms and most families tend to their families are. So it’s critical to be able to assess and dynamically change. So our topic today was substitutions, so we need to adapt. And you’ve given us some fantastic topics. So I don’t know what we’re going to call you, but we’re going to call you the genie, the magician, the kitchen magician for the substitution magician guru. Yeah, substitution guru. All right. Because I’ll tell you why, one of the things is that as we look at this stuff, we want to bring El Paso the knowledge you have because they’re going to love this stuff, and they’re going to be able to reach it out for you. So once again, tell us the website to find it so we can find it.
[01:01:01] Lizette Ortiz: Yes. Thank you. I hope people get a lot of ideas from this, like even definitely, even if you don’t do exactly what I talked about, like if it gives you ideas for, Oh, I’m going to try this with this other thing like, please do. You can find my website to find recipes and pictures and everything for all these things. DIY mind-body upgrade, dot com one word, or you can follow me. And this shows up at some point later in the video is at Coach underscore Lizette on Instagram, and I share a lot of my recipes and my workouts and tips on there.
[01:01:39] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: I saw your Instagram page. It’s amazing.
[01:01:41] Lizette Ortiz: Thank you. Yeah, so follow. Even if you follow there, there’s a link to my website on Instagram. So just follow at Coach underscore Lizette, and you can get a link to everything. Everything’s linked there. You just follow me on Instagram. You can get access to all these and ask me questions like if you have any questions or if anyone has any ideas for, you know what? I love this, and I know it’s terrible for me. What’s an idea for a substitution I would love to? And it’s a challenge here, you know, like I take it as a challenge, and it’s fun for me to come up with healthy versions of things. So let me know.
[01:02:14] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: Thank you so much. Kenna Lee Vaughn, I want to end with you a little bit here. Tell me a bit of what you learned on this whole process here today.
[01:02:20] Kenna Vaughn: Well, I like what we talked about; I’ve done that eggplant pizza before too. I think that it’s delicious because I love pizza. It’s the downfall. So the eggplant one is great, and my one-year-old, unfortunately, loves pizza. So it’s good to have substitutions, especially as a mom just ready in your back pocket and ones that don’t take forever because the last thing I want is a starving toddler. But the celery. I have not thought about putting celery in a lot of our dishes, and I love crunchy food, so that’s something I will be giving a try.
[01:02:57] Dr. Alex Jimenez DC*: I’ll tell you what and what I loved about this particular setup was that you were very considerate in terms of our bugs. I’m a big one about the bugs. I got it and the fiber and all the good, the pro, and the pre and the post-biotics to make our bodies healthy and work as they should. I want to thank you again, guys, and we look forward to the next rendition. We sometimes get a little kind of crazy clinical, but today we decided to bring it home because it is the answer from the kitchen to your genes. And when you have the power of cooking food that affects your family’s genetics or through epigenetic changes and the changes that we get into clinical in this process, you make a difference in your future generations. So it’s not so obvious, but for those who know that we influence our future generations by what we eat, so goodwill and God bless. And again, we’re coming to you from the push fitness center and looking forward to the next connection by guys.
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The information herein on this entire blog site is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified healthcare professional or licensed physician and is not medical advice. We encourage you to make healthcare decisions based on your research and partnership with a qualified healthcare professional.
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Our information scope is limited to Chiropractic, musculoskeletal, physical medicines, wellness, contributing etiological viscerosomatic disturbances within clinical presentations, associated somatovisceral reflex clinical dynamics, subluxation complexes, sensitive health issues, and/or functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions.
We provide and present clinical collaboration with specialists from various disciplines. Each specialist is governed by their professional scope of practice and their jurisdiction of licensure. We use functional health & wellness protocols to treat and support care for the injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system.
Our videos, posts, topics, subjects, and insights cover clinical matters, issues, and topics that relate to and directly or indirectly support our clinical scope of practice.*
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Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, RN*, CCST, IFMCP*, CIFM*, ATN*
email: coach@elpasofunctionalmedicine.com
Licensed as a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) in Texas & New Mexico*
Texas DC License # TX5807, New Mexico DC License # NM-DC2182
Licensed as a Registered Nurse (RN*) in Florida
Florida License RN License # RN9617241 (Control No. 3558029)
Compact Status: Multi-State License: Authorized to Practice in 40 States*
Graduate with Honors: ICHS: MSN-FNP (Family Nurse Practitioner Program)
Degree Granted. Masters in Family Practice MSN Diploma (Cum Laude)
Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, MSN-FNP, RN* CIFM*, IFMCP*, ATN*, CCST
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