SKINNY DISH's "Stick With You Oatmeal"
1. Replace your eggs, bacon, or cold cereal with Stick With You Oatmeal, Baked Oatmeal, or warm oat bran (like cream of wheat, only better at lowering your cholesterol). Add fruit for extra fun. Make this a permanent change.
2. Mound half your plate at lunch and dinner with veggies. Cooked, raw, both, low-fat, and the same one every meal if that’s how you like it. Just get half your plate to be naturally colorful twice a day. The bigger plate, the better.
3. Start taking 1000 milligrams of essential Omega-3 fatty acids daily. I prefer the algae-derived kind (like this one) since that’s where the fish get it, but any will work. The Omega-3’s are extra good at improving your blood lipid levels and lowering your heart disease risk, and they make your skin as soft and smooth as a baby’s bottom!
4. Replace eggs in baking with ground flaxseed meal (like the one made by Bob’s Red Mill, found at most grocery stores). Flaxseeds are not only rich in Omega-3’s, but–like oats–they’re high in soluble fiber which does quite a doozy at lowering bad cholesterol. For each egg in a recipe, use 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal soaked in 3 tablespoons warm water for 5-10 minutes until a gel forms. Toss that gooey goodness into your recipe as you would an egg. You can also just ADD flaxseed meal to just about anything… smoothies, pancakes, oatmeal, oat bran, and soy yogurt.
5. Enjoy beans or lentils as your “meaty” entrée as often as possible. They’re exploding with soluble fiber, but they also have zero cholesterol and saturated fat–you won’t be adding any bad guys to your system, and you’re stocking up on good guys. A double win! Make it a goal of getting 1 CUP of cooked beans or lentils daily. Tips here, including ways to make them less farty.
Give these changes a solid try for 3 months, and then get your cholesterol levels tested again. I expect to hear glowing reports!
Delish & Healthy-ish With Jen Reilly, RD 
How freaky, how did you know?? This past Saturday I received my blood results after a physical last week, and my LDLs are high (121, so not outrageous, but does need lowering). So I do need to make some changes, thank you for the suggestions!!
Thank you for the reminder on the baked oatmeal; I’m getting two toddlers out the door each morning by myself, so I need the make-ahead breakfasts. 🙂 One question about flax seed instead of eggs in baking; our challah bread recipe calls for egg yolks only. How would you adapt recipes that call for only egg yolks or only egg whites?
Didn’t I mention that I’ve got LDL ESP?! 🙂 About the challah bread, try THIS version… it’s not a complete swap of eggs for flaxseed meal, but it looks delish! http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=31530.0 . Good luck! XOXO Jen
That already looks very similar to my recipe! 🙂 I use olive oil instead of margarine (which unfortunately adds fat, but at least it’s good fat) and either maple syrup or honey for the sweetener (honey tastes better but obviously is not vegan). Plus, for the flour I use a combination of white whole wheat plus either whole wheat or rye flour, depending on how rustic I want it to be. It was just the egg substitute that threw me, but I’ll just have to experiment and see what happens! In the comments, I liked the idea of using a bit of turmeric to make it look like there’s egg. 🙂
(I wonder why the blog posted both of my replies initially; one had vanished and I never saw it again, but now both are here? Very confusing….)
How did you know?? Just this past Saturday I received my blood work results after a physical last week, and learned my LDLs were a little high. Time to make some changes, thank you for your suggestions!!
And thank you for the reminder to do baked oatmeal; I’m responsible for getting two toddlers out the door each morning, so make-ahead breakfasts or cold cereal are a must for me. 🙂 One question about the egg substitution, though; how would you adapt a recipe that calls for only egg whites or only egg yolks? Our challah bread recipe calls for three egg yolks, and I’m not certain how to adapt.
Egg whites are often used to make meringues or angel food cake, in which flaxseed meal won’t work. But, if you google “vegan” of whatever recipe you’re looking for, you can usually find a healthier, higher fiber alternative. Enjoy!
Sadly, I do all these things, and I still have super high LDL! It’s genetic! 😦 Thanks to my dad, I’ve had high cholesterol my whole life. But I’m a vegetarian, (and I was a vegan for awhile, to see if that would help) and I haven’t been able to “fix” it with diet and exercise.
That said, I think it’s even MORE important for me to do the things you listed above, keep exercising, and keep eating as healthy as I can! 🙂
Thanks, I Heart Vegetables! Genetics certainly can carry too-strong of a weight 😦 But, luckily, these changes can help in OTHER ways besides cholesterol, so they’re good moves anyway! Thanks for your commment 🙂 XOXO Jen
So true!
I am taking 1,000 MG of Flaxseed Oil, 1,000 MG of Coconut Oil plus 80MG of Lipitor. I am trying to get off the Lipitor since I am losing my hair. This has been going on since I was on 20MG back in the beginning of the century. This does run in my family, but maybe I should try another medicine to see how that works. If it is not one medicine that does something bad to you, it is another.
Are you eating 2-4 Tbsp chia seeds daily and taking daily probiotics? Those may help too! xo Jen