Plant Docs

06/02/2026

Here is a dessert you can Indulge in but not feel guilty about! From Chef AJ‘s cookbook, Sweet Indulgence, every recipe is made without sugar, flour, oil, eggs, or any other gradient that is inflammatory or will make you sick. Quite the opposite! Every ingredient is a gift for your body full of antioxidants and nourishing for your body.

This delicious, frozen dessert called mint chocolate mousse tart, is decadent and refreshing with the mint. Topped with raspberries and fresh mint it’s quite an impressive presentation. I love how creamy the filling is on top of the crunchy crust.

This is a recipe that’s way easier to make than you think and when cut into 1 inch slices, I served over 20. I also used a 10 inch spring for Pam instead of the 9 inch and it worked perfectly!

05/31/2026

A home herb and vegetable garden gives the gifts of fresh nutrient dense produce, some good outdoor movement, time in nature, and the joy of seeing a seed grow into a food producing mature plant.

I have so much fun in this little garden. The herb garden outside my kitchen is all about convenience. Having the herbs right outside my door means I will try to incorporate them with each meal. These tasty leafy plants, including the thyme and oregano are full of antioxidants, are heart healthy, and have anti-cancer properties.

In my vegetable garden I have six 3‘ x 3‘ raised beds where I experiment with different varieties, most which I purchase in the seedling form at the Providence Southside community land trust annual sale. I also have a variety of seeds that I either start indoors or straight in the garden.

I highly recommend starting an asparagus bed if you plan on staying in your home for a while. Once you plant it, it requires very little work except weeding and some addition of compost on a yearly basis. It will reward you with a spring bounty of asparagus for 10 to 15 or even 20 years to come!

I’ve already made ground horseradish as a condiment from the horseradish roots, but I have a feeling I’ll never need the amount that I’m growing. Same is true of the Jerusalem artichokes. I can only really eat them in small quantities so I’m sure I’ve overdone it with this bed.

But there’s nothing like fresh homegrown tomatoes, in all different varieties. My favorite are the sungold cherry tomatoes, which are super sweet orange round cherry tomatoes. I also love the sweet 100 red cherry tomato variety.

I’m growing these long Asian cucumbers, which have very small seeds and are very crisp that can be eaten fresh or pickled. And I’m really excited about the purple potatoes that I’m growing from seed potatoes.

So that’s the update in late May. I’ll do another video in mud-summer so you can see how it changes.

05/29/2026

05/28/2026

DON”T MISS! Food for Life: The Power of Your Plate - virtual cooking class and more!

On June 4th starting at 6 pm EST, this class will cover the basics for starting a healthy low-fat diet optimal for weight management. Attendees will be empowered with the practical skills needed to begin a journey to better health with tips on healthy food substitutions and meal planning.

Featured recipes include: Green Monster Smoothie, Braised Kale, Quick Black Bean Chili
https://plantdocs.com/food-for-life

05/25/2026

Dinner at my 95 year-old mom‘s house! My brother and I are visiting and we requested her famous mushroom barley soup:) recipe below!

I do credit much of her longevity to a lifelong habit and love of cooking from scratch. For the most part, she eats whole foods that are plant-based but she also has several other attributes common to the blue zones.

This woman keeps busy! She’s always changing a load of laundry, doing a puzzle, coloring, running off to the store to get some more groceries, volunteering at a consignment shop, or having lunch with friends. She chats with her friends and family every day on the phone, staying part of a friendly and inclusive community.

Eat well. Stay well.

Mushroom Barley Soup

1 onion diced
2 stalks celery, slices
2 carrots, any color, slices
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups mushrooms, sliced
6 cups veggie or mushroom broth
1/2 cup red or white wine
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp tamari
2/3 cup barley
salt and pepper to taste

Start by dry sautéing the onions x 5 min- add veggie or mushroom broth if needed. Add in the celery, carrot and garlic and saute another 5 min.. Then add in the mushrooms and saute another 5-10 min. Add the wine and spices and let reduce by half, then add in the rest of the ingredients cook until the barley is tender. Remove bay leaves before serving!

05/24/2026

Plant Docs culminated their winter-spring season of quick and easy dinners with a “Roll with it! Sushi and spring rolls made simple”, cooking class. Over zoom, it was so fun to see everyone making spring rolls and sushi in their own kitchen using these simple tips and techniques.

We loaded them with fresh ingredients included raw and steam vegetables, buckwheat noodles, or medium grain, sushi, brown rice, and delicious dipping sauces.

You might think sushi and spring rolls are too complicated, but the cool thing is there is really no recipe. You just choose the filling you want aiming to include a whole grain like buckwheat noodles, a great protein source like the smoky tofu we used or you could use smashed edamame, and a rainbow of vegetables.

Plant Docs will offer two more food for life classes led by Dr. Limke in June, if you missed this and you want to cook some more with us!

Our quick and easy free classes will resume in September and be held monthly. Sign up early so you’re not disappointed.

05/23/2026

We savored a scrumptious dining experience last night . Chef Pete (flying solo) curated a 5-course tasting “Full Circle” menu that’s out of this world - as always!! Thank you for a delicious evening! 🌙

05/21/2026

Plant Docs is so excited to be partnering with Brown University’s internal medicine residents to educate on culinary medicine. This is the intersection where food and health can either collide or synergize.

Learning the important connection between the food choices we make and health outcomes is critically important for doctors and training. Making healthy food choices is the number one modifiable risk factor to improve the health of Americans by preventing the most common, chronic disease diseases, including heart disease - the number one killer, obesity affecting over 42% of American adults, type two diabetes which affects one and 10 Americans, but also dementia, Alzheimer’s, mood disorders, and autoimmune diseases.

Eating a healthy whole food primarily plant-based meals feeds the body the fuel that it needs to boost our immune system and stay healthy.

In this course we cover food is medicine as it relates to pain and inflammation, heart disease, gastrointestinal disorders, oncology, and diabetes.

During this hands-on cooking session where the topic was cooking with anti-cancer foods, Dr. Doreen Wiggins, a breast cancer surgeon, and Plant Doc Sandra Musial MD, lead the cooking of this delicious tofu stroganoff along with a lively discussion on applying lifestyle medicine concepts to real practice as a physician.

-Cancer

05/19/2026

Choosing what to eat is a complex matter. And in protozoa- with a very limited number of neurons, their survival depends upon their reflex to seek nutrients and avoid toxins.

In humans, making healthy food choices can be challenging. The decision is not primarily influenced by seeking nutrients, but other reward centers in our brain that may seek immediate gratification from short-term gains like foods rich in salt, sugar, and fat - rather than long-term life-giving antioxidants.

The food industry has capitalized on this by providing all kinds of ready to eat convenience foods that are poor in nutrients that lead to inflammation in the body and the development of chronic diseases, like hypertension, heart, disease, type two diabetes, and obesity.

Step number one is having an awareness about what influences our own brain and body to seek certain foods. Judd Brewer’s book, Unwinding Anxiety, talks about the intricate relationship between mindfulness and anxiety. Making healthy food choices includes education about food quality and mindfulness about the complexity of food choices.

05/16/2026

There’s nothing I love more than throwing together a delicious lunch from a bunch of dinner leftovers :-) This lunch was a combination of the leftovers from our green goddess dinner, some collard greens I had sautéed, spaghetti squash, farro, beluga lentils, enjoyed with the leftover green goddess dressing.

It still follows that anybean, anygreen, anygrain concept for a balanced meal, but it also included over 12 different plant foods!! So great for your gut :-)