Chefs Roberto Martin & Tal Ronnen

I was watching Oprah today and she had her favorite vegan chef, Tal Ronnen, preparing Gardein "Chicken" Scaloppini. Perhaps this was a repeat from earlier in the season but it's the first time I viewed it and I was rather happy to see the mainstream attention that veganism is getting. It's really something when America's top two female talk show hosts are both promoting the benefits of a plant-based diet. Ellen Degeneres is a step ahead of Oprah in this department as she has outright declared herself a full-fledged "vegan". However considering Oprah's run-in with the Texas cattlemen years ago it's hard to blame her for keeping any such declarations to herself. It certainly seems she is very much in favor of the vegan lifestyle considering the 21 day vegan fast she chose to do not so long ago. Regardless, it's quite obvious that her delight with finding a substitute for her much loved actual chicken flesh is very real as she exclaimed about the virtues of Gardein! This must be good stuff if Oprah loves it as I remember years ago she declared that she might be able to give up beef and every other kind of animal flesh but don't expect her to give up chicken! Check out Chef Tal Ronnen/The Conscious Cook's website which includes a video clip of him preparing the Gardein "Chicken" Scaloppini that he made on Oprah's show.

Below is a clip from you-tube that features Chef Roberto Martin making a veggie pot pie for Ellen. It's enough to make me run out and buy some Gardein chicken just for this recipe alone. I'm feeling a little under-inspired at the beginning of 2010 so I'm looking for some help. I've just been re-doing all my old standard favorites (and they are good) but it's time to try to bring in something new. And after seeing Dr. Oz tonight on the Joy Behar show it's obvious I need to try and focus on some more "waist-friendly" recipes. He gave a quick tip on how to tell if you need to lose weight. Take your height in inches and divide it in two. That is how many inches your waist should be max -- if not you're in trouble. I can tell you right now...I'm in trouble! So here's hoping 2010 will be the year of lots of healthy inspiration. It will be hard as anything with sugar and fat is super appealing to me but Dr. Oz made a good case for fighting the battle of the bulge so let's see how the year develops! For starters I found a great recipe for sweet potato hummus on Oprah's website under her list of 25 top superfoods -- I'm definitely interested in giving that a try and I'll report on that when I do so. All the best in 2010 and good luck to everyone else with their New Year's resolutions!