Vegan French Toast Casserole: A Very Merry Christmas Breakfast with Shane Martin of Shane & Simple

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I’m just your average, ordinary guy who makes plant-based cooking casual, easy, and delicious. I don’t use fancy equipment and I don’t use fancy “chef speak” I’m a normal dude who loves to cook and eat good food that happens to be completely plant-based.

The recipes I share with you were never made for this blog, the blog was made for the recipes. I’m passionate about sharing things that have changed my life. Everything you see on Shane & Simple is what I make in my own kitchen for my wife and my five kids – I’m pretty passionate about them as well.

You’re NOT going to find any recipes showing you how to cook things like chocolate balsamic glazed beets with wild shiitake mushrooms in some kind of fancy rhubarb and strawberry glaze. My mission is to create recipes that are straight-up easy, delicious, practical, plant-based, and vegan.

Many call themselves “recipe developers”, but I prefer to call myself a “recipe adaptor.” I don’t make vegan food – I make food vegan. I’m a guy who takes the complicated and makes it easy, healthy and accessible.

Healthy food shouldn’t suck or be complicated! I use ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen or can get at the grocery store. From there, it’s just a few simple steps and BOOM! There are tons of food blogs out there with much fancier recipes with fancier names, using fancier ingredients, cooking on fancier equipment and that’s cool. But, that ain’t me. Shane & Simple is a food blog for “the rest of us.”

You can find all of my amazing recipes at: shaneandsimple.com

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I’m just your average, ordinary guy who makes plant-based cooking casual, easy, and delicious. I don’t use fancy equipment and I don’t use fancy “chef speak” I’m a normal dude who loves to cook and eat good food that happens to be completely plant-based.

The recipes I share with you were never made for this blog, the blog was made for the recipes. I’m passionate about sharing things that have changed my life. Everything you see on Shane & Simple is what I make in my own kitchen for my wife and my five kids – I’m pretty passionate about them as well.

You’re NOT going to find any recipes showing you how to cook things like chocolate balsamic glazed beets with wild shiitake mushrooms in some kind of fancy rhubarb and strawberry glaze. My mission is to create recipes that are straight-up easy, delicious, practical, plant-based, and vegan.

Many call themselves “recipe developers”, but I prefer to call myself a “recipe adaptor.” I don’t make vegan food – I make food vegan. I’m a guy who takes the complicated and makes it easy, healthy and accessible.

Healthy food shouldn’t suck or be complicated! I use ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen or can get at the grocery store. From there, it’s just a few simple steps and BOOM! There are tons of food blogs out there with much fancier recipes with fancier names, using fancier ingredients, cooking on fancier equipment and that’s cool. But, that ain’t me. Shane & Simple is a food blog for “the rest of us.”

You can find all of my amazing recipes at: https://shaneandsimple.com/

Merry Christmas everybody happy holidays and welcome to Chef AJ live I’m your host Chef AJ and this is where I introduce you to amazing people like you who are doing great things in the world that I think you should know about well back by popular demand today my guest is

Shane Martin from Shane and simple and he is kind enough to take a little bit of time away from his family to create their very Merry Christmas breakfast which is a vegan french toast casserole please pleas welcome Shane back to the show it’s so good to see you again

You’re just a lot of fun H that’s what they tell me did you yeah you have a great personality really you are just you’re just a lot of fun I mean do do your kids like you uh yes they do um we get they do I

Think when they when we moved back to Mississippi and we homeschooled while we were in Charlotte and then our younger ones went to school and they would come home and after they were in school with all their friends and they would realize that because my wife is a freelance

Graphic designer and um but they would come home and when their friends found out like we their dad’s a blogger and the mom’s a graphic designer and we don’t dress like their parents and we don’t act like their parents and so I feel like yeah they they kind of we’re

Not as uncool as they probably thought we are originally so it’s like yeah we have a good time I think you know our occupations allow that so it’s but it’s I don’t know I think you and I talked about this the last time

It’s I like to have fun and I like to I mean there’s a time to be serious when you need to but it’s I don’t know Life’s Too Short you know and it’s like I want to do things that are fun I want to act fun and especially since we’ve been in

Renovation house hell for two years you know you gota so well I I think fun is my favorite favorite thing in the whole world and and whenever I’m you know when I go to a movie or a play or just be I mean fun people are the funnest people

To hang around oh I still love going to go-kart tracks and water slides and that roller coasters I mean I I love that stuff that’s not just for kids you know so you’re you’re the fun dad I try to be is it hard to discipline when you’re the fun dad uh no

I mean you you know I I feel like we strike a good balance in the home I mean like there’s a I think there’s a difference what we’ve tried to teach our kids there’s a difference in fun and foolishness those are two different things you know so we it’s very easy to

Discipline for foolishness you know if there’s harmless fun and you know I can turn it off pretty quick but I mean if you live close I would invite you to every party because I do these things called well I haven’t done them up here because none of my friends up

Here want to play games but when I mean games like you know fun games you know you would be great well I bet it’s you know I see you with Esther all the time I I met you know I did the uh with with Melissa Sherlock the uh conference out

In Omaha and I met Esther out there and got to spend time with her and be I I can’t imagine her not being fun no she’s really really fun we we she actually came over for um my husband’s birthday recently and he didn’t want any gifts it

Was just it was right before Christmas and so we played you know that game where everybody brings a white elephant gift and you yes so yeah we played that that was a lot of fun and I if I had known that I was gonna like you so much

I was invited to Melissa’s event and actually I couldn’t make it but man that would we could have really had some fun hanging out there yeah you need to talk to Melissa about how that went everybody I didn’t realize I love Melissa and she reminds me of my wife she’s very type a

Organized and structured Ed and when we got on and did our live thing together I am anything but I’m a Loose Cannon and I didn’t think she realized how much and so I mean it was I was all over the place just busting her groove and it was

But everybody thought it was planned and so but yeah it was fun she was there was definitely a yin and yang Vibe going on but I could imagine if you and I ganged up on her and did a oh that would just be like we we could do like an Iron Chef

Well you’re you know like if I like if I was a talent Booker you’re the kind of like you know I I like the loose cannons you know because I can tell you this you’re never boring no no I’ve never been accused of that who’s how are these thumbs up

Happening on my screen who’s doing that that’s so cool I don’t know I mean and are you is this going live right now yeah we’re live on YouTube Facebook and Twitter and and I keep seeing like these little bubbles with thumbs up who’s doing that it’s amazing that it’s

Happening but I’ve never seen it I don’t know maybe it’s uh on Facebook um it’s mostly a YouTube show that also streams on Facebook but anyway guys if you know tell me in the chat how you’re doing that it’s like magical anyway so thank you for taking time away from your

Family yes by the way those pictures you posted on Facebook they were all making Christmas cookies and they look like tral crinkle cookies and yes how did you do that vegan if it was vegan I imagine no it was everything was so you know we kind of have our couple times a year

Where we kind of drift away from the wfpb just and usually it’s around Christmas because Andrea and the kids um like the sugar cookie traditional sugar cookies and the crinkles and things like that and so um they um she just repl my wife is great at replacing and figuring

That stuff out she’s she’s a baker like she she’s very good at baking and and so I just happened to stumble in that night and everybody was around the island doing the cookies and and they were pretty phenomenal to be honest as a matter of fact I was up late last night

We had people over and then after everybody kind of left I was like kind of jonesing for one because I only had one while we had people here and I was like I was finishing up something for this morning and I found where she hit

Them so but yeah I think she just she’ll replace like she’ll use like the um some of that country crop plant butter in place of dairy and it just it works and but like we we were it was so funny cuz after I took those pictures I didn’t

Actually have one of the finished product and I was just taking the pictures that everybody originally saw and then they started cooking in the oven and she goes oh y’all y’all got to see this and so then I had to get a picture to add afterwards yeah but yeah

We we love making those and so every Christmas and then like last night even before people got here um I was I made all the appetizers for our little Christmas Eve Gathering last night and they were still at the table decorating the cookies and the traditional like Christmas type sugar cookies so it’s

It’s kind of an annual thing and so we just it it was kind of sad because our oldest ELO right after Thanksgiving got married and she moved to San Antonio like a week after they got married because she married a married her College sweetheart they he’s a just

Finished Flight Training in the Air Force but they’re coming in this afternoon so so we had four of our five kids at home so we’re we’re moving into that phase now but it was it was good to see everybody around the island laughing cooking food and just hanging out nice

The true Spirit of Christmas yeah and you’re getting the true I’ve not showered or we sleep late on Christmas it’s like a little after 10 here and decided I would put pants on this morning before I came on live so I think that YouTube prefers that yeah so family

Show nice so is this what you’re going to serve them I’m assuming some of them maybe are still sleeping and when they wake up and you’re going to serve this we’re going to do like a late brunch early lunch so yeah we’ll do this and uh

So I I put one together last night so I can kind of because it takes about an hour to cook so so I could kind of you know do the whole Magic of Television kind of thing so after we put this together I’m actually going to put it in

The oven so we’ll have double later so but yeah we this is what we do every Christmas it’s it’s it was you know it’s real interesting because I don’t know I I mean food is nostalgic for me it’s it’s represented moments in my life of

You know a lot of good memories and you know especially when I went plant-based and got healthy and lost all my weight um but the French Toast Casserole uh was one that um the the my memory on Facebook was when my wife and I decided to pursue the

Blog fulltime back in uh 2019 and then January 2020 just went full in with it um she posted a picture of the French Toast Casserole it was that year I developed that and she just said this picture holds a lot of memories and you know talking about seeing me become a food

Photographer or and just it was a new chapter in our lives so we’ve been making this for several years now so it’s kind of our standard Christmas morning breakfast and yeah so it’s um it holds a lot of memories but it’s just I was I don’t know if you could hear me

I’ve got the one I just took out of the oven I was picking the crust off of it well what’s interesting is you have a book coming out next year about bread and I’m curious like is there a special bread that you recommend for this casserole yeah so um I tell people

Usually like a really hearty if you live near a bakery like a whole loaf like a really nice whole grain crusty loaf is really good and I usually cut it up I usually will take it out the loaf and let it sit out overnight and then I’ll cut it the next

Day and then let it sit out again like to get crunchy and stale and I mean it’s just these little bread Cube I’ll cut it into bread Cubes but like the Hardy whole greens I really like and if you can’t find that I tell people like sourdough works really

Well um I don’t like the soft breads so like you know the Italian Lo like now a good french bread um works really good but you know the uh because once it soaks and Cooks it just you know has that crusty Edge and soft Center so but

But if I can find and oddly enough because I don’t have a bakery where I live here out in the middle of BF but um we um Walmart had these nice whole wheat loaves like in their Bakery so I bought four of them the other night and let a

Couple sit out so but the I I like the whole greens just because they get a little firmer and then when you’re soaking it you know that doesn’t disintegrate I would not use like Dave’s Killer Bread or thin slices because it’ll just turn to Mush it won’t work so

You need something Hardy yes very Hardy so like a good country whole green Hardy bread is is was what i is what I use so cool well let’s see how you do this all right so you know with french toast you got to eliminate the eggs if we’re going

To keep it vegan and healthy and everything so what we’re going to do first is make the custard part of it and um you know it’s I always tell people this recipe yes it is a whole food plant-based recipe but it’s kind of like Dr McDougall says it’s like a Christmas

Special occasion so don’t make every day a Christmas and special occasion you know but if you’re wanting something everybody’s going to love I mean we get vegans non-vegans that absolutely love this recipe so what I’m using for the custard part is uh the mor new silken tofu it comes in the boxes

And I like the extra firm because you know silk and tofu kind of has that consistency of a boiled egg white you know it’s real it does it’s not like regular tofu so so I use that and so I put that in my Vitamix and let’s see um

I like one and a half cups of um unsweetened almond milk now I like to use unsweetened vanilla almond milk because I really love and I put vanilla in it but I kind of love the um that depth that vanilla adds so I’ll use unsweetened vanilla almond milk but you

Can use plain you can use oat milk it’s just almond I love do you have a brand you like CU I like vanilla better too even in do you do you have an Aldi where you are we do I don’t think I’ve been to it

Do they have a good oh we so we so one they’re or we buy their organic because it has B12 in it and it’s it’s it’s just less expensive than anywhere else and we have been buying Aldi’s almond milk for years just because we think it’s the

Best but we buy the organic brand but my wife the reason we stuck with oddly enough is um she has this milk frother and so every afternoon she makes her her afternoon cup of coffee the um we stuck with Aldi because it was the only almond

Milk that we could find that when she put it in her fro that foamed up and got thick and it doesn’t have a ton of ingredients in it so we love the Aldi brand so we live about 25 minutes from the nearest Aldi but when it’s time to

Make a milk run we go and buy six or eight jugs of it so but yeah so Aldi is my favorite that’s what we use do you have Sam’s Club by you we do are you a member yes okay so somebody introduced me to their vanilla almond milk and it’s

The best I’ve tasted so that’s what I’ve been using you talking about Sam’s brand yeah the members mark their vanilla almond milk it’s really it’s really cheap but it’s so good and okay love it I’m looking if there’s an Aldi near me and yeah there’s one but it’s in Sacramento

So but I’m GNA definitely try it okay well I didn’t know I mean I didn’t realize that Sam’s had their own brand so so you try it and then compare it do you know do but but don’t look at the label have somebody give you a little

Bit of each and see do a blind taste test okay okay for sure we will nice okay so we’ve got the almond milk and the tofu the next uh thing we’re going to add is Arrow root powder or a root starch about a tablespoon of that and

That is as it Cooks it’s the thickening agent so that’s what’s going to create that custardy when it gets with the tofu and so it’ll kind of thicken and it holds kind of binds everything together if you don’t have a root powder you can use corn

Starch um we got that and then we’re going to add to sweeten it uh we’re going to use um maple syrup and this is kind of on a preference I’ve got a half a cup in the recipe but you know you can adjust to that and I just poured in there and

Didn’t even think to measure so I think I put a half a cup in there so I that’s terrible I hardly measure anymore so but that’s a half a cup is what’s in the recipe um and then like I said I love vanilla so we’re going to do two

Tablespoon two teaspoons of pure vanilla extract and then for the flavoring I used to use cinnamon but I love pumpkin pie spice so that’s what I use to kind of to flavor the Custard with so we do a tablespoon of that and that is really and then I do

Like a pinch of like sea salt just to kind of all set the sweetness just just a little bit it’s like an eighth of a teaspoon so then I hope we can hope this doesn’t deafen anyone but then you just blend it up yeah I think the uh the the the zoom

Mute that does anybody know how those thumbs up were appearing please let me know in the chat I I got into the um I don’t know where they’re coming from because I’m I’m online I’m switching back and forth watching it live and it must be coming from YouTube or something

I wait hello hello no it’s not coming from me hello who’s doing that it’s crazy hey Shane I like what you said about like not really measuring and it drives me crazy when I post something on social media and they want the recipe and I don’t know the recipe you know what I

Mean yeah yeah and it’s funny because I get all these comments um and I tell people with cooking it’s like with baking yeah you want to follow measurements you know when you’re baking cookies or breads you know is it where they say cooking is an art baking is a science kind of thing

So yes you want your measurements but when you’re adding seasonings and flavors and things like that like people will go hey I don’t really like the garlic powder in this what do I need to do and I’m like leave it out you know it’s not essential to the success of the

Recipe so um but yeah so I’ve gotten to where I can kind of eyeball things but unless I’m baking or something I’m just throwing stuff in and going and I can kind of gauge you know what I need so all right so I’m going to tell you what

What I’m going to blend that just for a few more seconds just to make sure we’re good and I think we’re good so now all we’re going to do is I’ve got just a standard baking dish and then you just throw your crusty bread in there hey I’ll tell you a little secret

Had a little mishap last night so I had my bread sitting on the washing machine in the baking sheet to dry out even more and the washing machine went on the spin cycle and I heard a slam and my bread was all over the floor that’s funny so I haven’t told

Anybody so I figure the heat will cook all the dirt off or something they’re probably not watching anyway you know no they’re in there watching Christmas movies and so all right and then so and then all we’re going to do is just you can come in Macy you want to meet Chef

AJ meet Chef AJ you’re we’re everybody’s big fans of you this is my daughter oh my God nice to meet you Merry Christmas she said Merry Christmas so cute so they’re starting to wake up they they are they’re getting so let’s see then all we’re going to do is just cover

It and and that’s the best thing about this recipe I mean it’s just you can’t mess it up I mean you’re just and then I just like to take a spoon and make sure everything is coated now normally what I would do is um it’s a great recipe to make a head

Because you can put it in the fridge overnight and let everything soak but if you don’t have that time you don’t have to I mean you can just bake it right away which is what we’re going to do today and the biggest difference I’ve noticed is like if you

Let it sit overnight you get kind of a bread pudding type of French Toast Casserole where everything has had time to soak and soften if you do this you definitely get more of the crustiness on top with the crunchy but we’re actually going to make a crunchy uh nutty topping

To go on top of it and so um for that we’re going to use um half a cup of oat flour now you can use I like almond flour the best because it bakes up really crunchy but I ran out of almond flour but you can use whole wheat flour

You can use oat flour so I’m using that and then I’ve got half a cup of walnuts and then we’re going to use just a/4 cup of maple syrup just enough to bind everything together and where’s my spoon I lost my spoon there’s my spoon so this

The maple syrup is like it’s a really dry crumbly kind of topping but that’s what crust up really well so I’ll kind of show you so once you get that mixed together you just got you’ve got like this dough and so you just kind of drop it on there in

Clumps and it creates when it bakes up it creates this really nice crunchy that’s what I was peeling off the one before we went on I love the crust on this thing and it’s simple it’s just a little flour maple syrup and and you can use walnuts or pecans but that’s

It okay I got to wash my hands real quick because I’m all sticky now but well we can just lick that’s half the fun yep okay have you ever tried using date syrup and place of maple syrup I do I’m out of it and you know they did you know they sell

It at Walmart yes they sell a lot of good things at Walmart matter of fact I pretty much buy most and if not about 90% of what I use at Walmart because even here Walmart has come a long way but yeah they had date syrup they got nutritional yeast there

Now I know reduced balic vinegar yeah yeah and even the one here sells some of the Wicked kitchen stuff with Chad and Derek Sarno like their like their little oilfree meals like their soups and stuff so okay that’s it and now we’re going in the

Oven so this needs to cook for about 50 minutes to an hour and that’s it so we’ve got the French toast C casserole we’ve got the crunchy topping on the French French Toast Casserole but to really take this mug over the edge and blow everybody’s mind I make a um a sweet

Cream kind of drizzle to go on top of it when it comes out of the oven and it is phenomenal so I don’t clean the custard I don’t clean my blender out because I’m like it’s all going together anyway so for the sweet cream it’s a coconut cream icing so I’ve

Got um uh let’s see I’ve got one cup of unsalted cashews just raw cashews and I’ve got half a cup of unsweetened just plain shredded coconut just and that’s going to go in there and uh let’s see half a cup again of the unsweetened almond milk

Um A4 cup of maple or date syrup I was going to tell you the date syrup on the recipe I actually like better when I have it because it’s thicker so when it cooks and caramelizes it just it it just it’s it’s definitely a different texture so I like

That and we’ve got the juice of a lemon and then a little more vanilla so let’s see me push my stuff down and we’re just going to blend and turn it into an icing almost there almost there almost there Hold we’re there and this is let me get a spoon I want to show you this this is phenomenal and I mean you’ve just got this awesome creamy whoops there’s my camera that looks like the kind of frosting you’d find on a Cinnabon oh it’s so good I mean it’s

Just it’s just good I don’t know what else to say it’s just good yeah I mean that’s exactly what it is is because by the time you put it on the French Toast Casserole so through the magic of Television we just put our french toast casserole and look what

Happens it comes out in a smaller pan already done in just a few minutes so that’s amazing is’t it it’s crazy can your oven do that no like shrink the pans and and then all we’re going to do is we’re just going to I mean you could be all nice and neat

But I mean you know I have a little squirt bottle I like to make designs and stuff but but that’s it it just like that frosting looks like Cinnabon frosting you know it it tastes like Cinnabon Frost I mean look I get cashews you don’t need to sit and need a pound a

Day but when I first went plant-based and I think it was one of the Forks Over Knives recipes where they did like this frosting with macadamia nuts I mean cashews are miracle workers I mean what you can do with them I mean it just like last night I

Made a buffalo chicken dip I made a spinach and artichoke dip and nobody knew that it wasn’t Dairy I mean it was it was crazy and there I mean and there was no oils in any of that stuff so on your blog you have a version with mixed

Berries yes so I did that for Easter that was my Easter French Toast Casserole um I’m G to pull that up because I don’t want to tell you the wrong thing but that’s our spring we do that in the spring for like Mother’s day that will be like Mother’s Day breakfast but

We’ll do that one and there’s a there’s it’s um let me see yeah I think there’s strawberries and raspberries um let me see that looked really good as well as an altern yeah I just yeah and oh yeah because I use just a bag of fro so strawberries blueberries and raspberries

And so the the simple the great thing about it is that it it just uses the frozen so you don’t have to sit there and slice and you can use fresh but again with the whole Shane and simple thing is trying to encourage people to like show them that even making these

Dishes that you probably saw your grandparents making like they’re super simple to put together and so just buy a bag of frozen fruit or whatever the mixed berries but yeah it’s a this one has I think has flax seed and um the custard doesn’t this one doesn’t use

Toof in it it does use like air root flour or tapioca starch to thicken it up and um but it’s still delicious so we do that in our spring that’s our spring French Toast Casserole so it’s it’s not quite as heavy as this one because

There’s no tofu in it but but yeah and then what we’ll usually do is serve this um on the website I’ve got it was I would say it’s the first recipe that I developed just like from the ground up and didn’t adapt from any that I can remember I just sit around

When I was learning how Food Works and like black seed and oats and things like that I really miss the taste of um the savoriness of things like sausages and things not not the texture so much but just the flavor I love Savory like a lot

Of people have a sweet tooth I’m a Savory person but the and so I remember talking to someone and they were telling me how they made their veggie burgers and they was talking about if you take the flax and you let it sit it hard and

It will firm up and so I took chia seeds and and just basically looked at what people use to to seasoned sausage and so I put all these seasonings together and then for my base I took oats flax seed and chia seeds and mixed it with um

Veggie broth and when I did all the seasonings it was crazy you let it sit for a few minutes and it firms up into a big dough ball so we made sausage patties out of them so that’s kind of become our sausage so we’ll typically serve like

Um and you can roll it up put it in the freezer for the next day and slice it just stick it in a pan and friends of mine that aren’t vegan they’ve had them they go these are awesome they taste they call them meat cookies because they’re not as chewy like regular

Sausage but they’re going oh man it’s like I’m eating sausage cookies I mean that’s what they cookies do you have a lot of vegan friends in Mississippi no not at all so nobody saw your over 100 pound weight loss and thought hey this might be a

Good idea idea just to try it they a lot of them saw it a lot of them reached out said oh my word what are you doing and when you tell them you went plant-based or you cut out meat and dairy they immediately go I’m not doing

That you know um well why do you think that is I mean is it that delicious is it addictive like I mean I could I why is it so hard for people you think to you know I don’t I don’t know I think I think people feel like my take is one

It’s very it’s embedded in the culture here you know so it’s like I said you know growing up in Mississippi like we use porks and everything you know we grew up eating green beans there was a slab of bacon in it so pork is like a

Seasoning here but and then milk is huge and I I I I think and and I get this I mean for me it was some of the same thing I think people feel like they’re going to miss out on something so I’m never going to be able to eat a

Hamburger again I’m never going to be able to you know eat the steak and the baked potato again and while I tell people it’s like well nobody’s putting a gun to your head and telling you you can’t do that you’re making a choice not

To do it but I I don’t know I I tell people for me when I got far enough into it and realized how good I felt the the desire for those things eventually kind of lessen I guess so I do know so I do get that there’s

This I don’t know if not a learning curve but you know willpower kind of thing you got to push through but I I think for most people here it’s this one how can I do it because they all think this is for the well heill Elite or that’s just what it’s it’s interesting

That that’s still the the thought like only you know wealthy people eat all this healthy food and I’m like dude beans and the sweet potato capital of the world is 45 minutes up the road from here you know so we don’t think in terms like that and I think people get a lot

Of bad information I still run into people all the time going well the carbs are just you know I can’t do the carbs and I’m like carbs are not your enemy you know it’s when people say you know and I don’t like to use the word fat but

Like when people that are overweight say carbs make me fat and they’re not eating any carbs I want to say well then why are you overweight if you’re not eating carbs do you understand what I’m saying I had a problem and he was morbidly obese he said I

Can’t eat carbs they make me fat soon as my brother say said but you already are fat and you’re not eating carbs so it doesn’t make sense to me yeah I was in a right before we moved back from Charlotte I was in a little coffee shop

I used to go work and this lady was meeting another lady and you know she I heard her over talking about how she had gotten on a diet and was trying to get in Better Health and she was I mean she was and she she herself was telling the

Lady I’m medic obese like it’s a danger to my health and so the lady she was meeting with says oh great so what are you doing she goes well you know I’m on the whole paleo and keto thing is she and so this coffee shop I’m sitting

There having like a a bagel with oats on it and some oatmeal that morning and she goes well I can’t have any of this because it’s all the carbs and that’s what’s you know making me heavy and unhealthy and she goes well what do you

Eat she goes well I you know so for this morning I had three sausages and two eggs and you know and I’m like I’m the same way it’s like when you say it’s the carbs that are making you unhealthy you’re not eating any carbs it’s like

You think that one piece of bread that you had because you had a craving is what made everything go haywi you know so yeah it doesn’t it doesn’t resonate with me me anymore and so it’s just it’s it’s hard to figure out but that being said what’s

Crazy is people are like people around here were go oh you need to let Shane cook for you and I’m like y’all could cook like this I mean it’s not and and it’s crazy when I cook it they they enjoy it and they eat it like when I

Make meatloaves out of oats and lentils they’re like well this tastes like meatloaf I’m like well that’s kind of the point and and I do tell people it’s like don’t go into this looking at a veggie burger and expecting the same texture or anything like you know it’s

It’s you know it’s it’s not going to be like that but enjoy the flavors enjoy you know the way you’re feel so I’m it’s it blows me away that and people like to joke with me you know and but um I will say that a real good

Friend of mine when I moved back he’s a doctor here about 20 minutes up the road a doctor Richmond mccardy and he’s plant-based and he treats a lot of his patients with diet and he has seen the results like with uh cancer patients and heart patients and one of his big stor

Was he he’ll before he and I ever met he was using my website as kind of a prescription like hey this guy has really good healthy recipes go here you know it’s it’s going to help you transition and one of his he reached out to me a couple of months after we moved

Back to Mississippi from North Carolina and he said I’ve been following you for years I use your website and he goes one of my patients told me you were living in Mississippi now and he said I don’t think he’s correct on that he goes I’m in Tupelo Mississippi and I was like so

I reach out and I say yeah man I’m actually here so we hooked up started hanging out and starting to work on some stuff together but I mean so there is a plant-based doctor in this part of Mississippi this is incredible can you hook me up with him he’s got to come on

The show he’s like probably the only one right um in this area that I can find yeah and and and rich is awesome he’s super honest he’s just knows his stuff and please introduce me that’s a story right there the only doctor in the bacon have you heard are you guys you know

Both of you should go you ever heard about that help conference you know with Dr Columbus batist in Huntsville Alabama no how did I missed that okay well you’ve heard of like the plantrician project right you’ve heard of like Scot sto right because they actually they actually served as I was

Mentioning to you before we logged on they served some of your recipes there for breakfast I think it might have been one of your French toast recipes so they’re going into the Deep South basically and it it’s it’s this would be like perfect place for you to go or

Present and and your doctor friend as well check it out the help conference it’s uh let me get you the date for that uh March 24 through 26 in h Huntsville Marriott at the Space and Rocket Center uh designed to explore the critical relationship between social determinant

Of Health disparities and the role of evidence-based lifestyle medicine is is a critical and underutilized Tool in addressing Health disparities and reversing chronic disease and disease burden Trend anyway because you know that’s the Deep South too right Huntsville Alabama yeah I mean Huntsville is hour and 20 minutes from

Here I think you got to go we gotta so what’s what’s the name of the conference again I’m gonna I’m gonna I’m gonna email you the link it’s called The Help conference help HP stands for Health Equity and lifestyle project they’re partnering with the plant project um Dr

Batist has talked he has a regular slot on my show and he’s been talking about it several times and Dr Eric Wall it sounds like amazing but the fact that you know that uh that the only doctor you guys should like really hook up and do something major you know like I don’t

Know like you make the food he does you know I I could I could see a whole business model with that well I I will tell you just to kind of float this out there to you he and I have been talking together and storming together he’s

Always had a dream to do a cookb book but not that look like a textbook or a medical textbook and so we’re actually uh brainstorming right now about how it would look the layout and basically what he wants to do is just you know have the medical evidence in the science and then

The recipes would correlate to the certain areas of the body like heart disease cholesterol and things like that so I would develop the recipes and and um so yeah we’re actually working together on a couple of things that we feel like just are I don’t want to say

Necessarily as unique as they are we we kind of the Shane and simple thing kind of came about when I needed something I could follow you know like I feel like if I can understand it most people can understand it but and that’s the thing I

Love about rich is that you know he’s one of these doctors that will call out the Health Care system and he he will tell you his goal and he tells his patients my goal is to never see you again that’s what I want and he means it

I mean that’s and that’s what I love about him I mean he’s and you know and he’ll tell patients I can write you a prescription but I would rather not see you again and here’s how you can do that so okay you please I don’t care that it’s Christmas introduce me today he

Doesn’t answer he doesn’t answer I I will I will absolutely do that you’ve lost 100 pounds now right is it is it 100 how long has it been since you’ve lost that 100 pounds uh wow um let’s see I went this like two weeks when I started two weeks

Before my 40th birthday so it’s been over 10 years now right at 10 do you know that like okay here’s another thing you to do you need to get in the National weight control registry oh wow okay it’s not a big deal they follow people like us that have

Lost I I forget what the number is a certain amount I I don’t might even be less than 5050 that and and they follow us for years and they they they track us and they you know data to see like what what things we have in common and you

Know there’s a lot actually like can I ask do you still exercise do you exercise daily yeah I mean I you know I try to do something every day um you know um whether it’s like in specific scheduled workout at the gym or something uh but try to do something

Every day but also like you know with with work the last year has been so sporadic you know kind of again last year and a half working on the house because we’ve actually since we moved back had to move out into a rental and then mve back you know a lot of the

Exercise came from after working working on the house and Hauling boards and crap and stuff like that but um but I also tell people like you know have the goal to do something every day and if something happens in life happens you you know don’t freak out don’t beat

Yourself up you know so it’s um but yeah the goal is to do something every day whether it’s I walk with my wife or you know run around the block or something um it’s um the the accessibility to good gyms and stuff is still a little harder

Here um and I’m a very communal guy I get bored very easily and so when I was in Charlotte many kids so you’d have somebody to play with that’s it like just like my wife told me the other night she said act your age at your age and I said okay

Well you get out of my fort you can’t come back anymore so it was well I put two links in the chat if you want to click out about the health conference and how to join the National W registry because 10 years is a long time do you know that most people that

Lose weight through a great deal of hardship effort suffering gain it all back within two years and off and more yeah I mean I remember um and and I mean for a long time I remember before I went plant-based I mean I could lose weight very easily

Where I was counting fat Gs or even doing like uh the Atkins diet but I also gained it back twice as fast as I lost it too and it’s and I you know what I’m actually uh a guy here I know started doing the whole intermittent fasting and

Eating in a very short window and he was I wouldn’t say he was obese but he was you know definitely overweight and lost a ton of weight and I’ve noticed it started to come back again and he’s one of these guys you can’t tell anything and he goes well you know you know

Intermittent fasting is good for some and then the whole food plant-based thing with no oil that works for others I’m like no it works for everyone and when people say oh that dries me crazy when say when people say this diet doesn’t work you know or they’ve TR no

This is what drives me crazy I’ve tried everything and they’ll go um have you read my book no have you read the McDougall program for maximum weight less no have you done the McDougall program no have you gone to True North you haven’t tried everything yeah and

And you know and I do get people like even on the Shane and simple page that go hey I’ve been plant-based for a while and it’s hard to lose weight and I I will say I do think for some people it’s harder than others but at the at the

Same time it’s like you said I think for some people depending on how their body reacts you know it it you’re you may have to take other um extremes that some other people wouldn’t you know and and I think that’s why you know I look at McDougall and I

Think looking at his thing for maximum weight law and and and I think a lot of people too it’s like I think you said you cut out sugar completely didn’t you for a while well that’s the one I haven’t had knowingly had sugar for over 20 years and but I feel though for

People that are trying to lose weight it’s really the fat and the oil that’s more important sure you know right you know I just I I think that it’s really interesting because you said you’re a Savory guy I always thought I was a sugar addict and I probably was for 43

Years but now this is the weirdest thing like last night after dinner we were like a little bit hungry should we have dessert you know what I had for dessert chips and salsa like I rather and I’ve been doing it’s crazy so I I don’t seem to like desserts much anymore even

Though a pastry chef with a dessert cookbook coming out but um but but here’s the thing yeah I mean I just I just don’t eat sugar and you know because I feel like I just don’t you know I guess I got a new book coming out

Oh wow but I feel like for weight loss sugar is not the problem because look at Dr Walter kentner he fed his patients white rice sugar and fruit juice and they reverse diabetes I feel fat and the oil that’s the problem but also like I feel like you don’t need to eat sugar

Anymore because any re recipe anybody makes with white sugar or brown sugar you can use date Sugar you can use date paste you can use dat so that’s that’s the other reason it’s like I feel I think it actually tastes better I love the taste of dates I I just find that

They’re great in desserts so I feel like there’s really not a need to eat sugar but the sugar and the fat that’s the dangerous combination you know Sugar by itself how many people go to Twizzler Anonymous you know I mean it’s not it’s the sugar with the fat that’s the

Problem right yeah that’s a great Point yeah I mean but I do think like kind of your point it’s like know your weaknesses know where you’re most vulnerable and and I I don’t buy into oh just eat as much as you want and then you know the body will like yes you can

Nobody’s going to get obese eating spinach and strawberries you know that’s but you know like me being a Savory guy again I struggle when I see nuts in the house or you know like just you know and you say well only had half a handful but

If you walk by five or six times a day and have five or six half a handfuls it’s like wait a minute why am I feeling bloated and you know like and so one of the things my wife encouraged me to do early on because I’m not like I said I’m

Not I’m a very I’m your typical creative and people go well what’s that like and I’m go well imagine your web browser having 3,000 tabs open at one time that’s a you know and that’s how I operate so it’s hard for me to be quiet sit still and journal and do things like

That but like I do I tell people like if you can um like make a note of what you’re eating during the day and then go back and look at it every time you put something in your mouth make a note and then you go back because I will

Guarantee you for me it was the same way you will you will have eaten things you don’t remember yeah go oh wow write it down you’re accountable then they I’ve read that people that write their food down lose 50% more weight than people that don’t yes and I believe it I I

Absolutely believe that yeah it’s funny that you mentioned that I literally counted I have 25 tabs open right now I don’t I don’t know why I it’s just it’s crazy that I do that is it I know I I mean I get it I mean it’s to oh sorry I

Don’t know what happened okay sorry about that that is so do you weigh yourself every day or at all or so how often I don’t I mean I go by how I feel and feel with the clothes get tight then okay let’s go check and see where we’re

At but I I mean I think for some people it’s good it’s another accountability thing um but I don’t really see the PO for me I mean maybe some people would disagree but I mean it’s like I don’t see the point like I feel good things fit good it’s

Like they they still fit the way they did six years ago seven years ago eight years ago so it’s you know it’s so that’s did do you ever worry that you could gain all or some of your weight back back well sure I do I think that’s

What I think there’s you know I think it’s good to have that what I call Healthy fears or concerns like don’t live in that and afraid to touch food because you’re afraid it’s all going to come back but I do think it’s like it’s good there was a a song I can’t remember

But I just remember the lyric and it stuck with me and it’s the lyric just said it was the song was about being grateful or something and it just said um the lyrics said there’s no one more thankful to sit at the table than the one who best remembers hunger’s pain and

So I think like for me that just means there’s no one more thankful to remember like people who have been extremely unhealthy or dealt with sicknesses or you know just not good moments in their lives you know it’s kind of like you talk about people that journal lose

50% lose weight 50% faster or 50% more weight or something like that I think it’s the same way of remembering where you came from and that at any moment you have the ability to go back like you’re not barred from that it’s not like when Cortez burned the ships and the guys

Couldn’t escape the island you know it’s like I think it’s like the first thing I did was throw away all my old clothes I didn’t keep them I didn’t I I took them to Goodwill and donated them got rid of them so in a sense that was burning the

Ships but I think in some way there needs to be this recollection of where you came from and remembering that at any time it’s easy to go back and so I don’t I wouldn’t say I sit around worrying about it but I do thinkware it’s like it’s a it’s like over here

Like kind of yeah I mean anytime you drive by I mean I heard rip Esson talk about this one time like when they were talking to him about barbecue and he goes yeah he said there’s a moment where I smell it and it takes me back to a

Memory but that’s where it ends and has to end and I tell people it’s like the the those our desires were you know we’re these beings that are built on emotion and desires and passion and so there are some things that are not going to appe to us but like smelling

French fries or barbecue or a Smokehouse I I mean yeah it takes me back and you know the smells but I also remember how I looked and what I felt like when I ate that you know and so that’s kind of where it ends I’ll enjoy the aroma and

Then I go okay that’s enough I got to move on you know so I think the longer you’re away from it the easier it is like same thing with smoking oh I you know it was it was interesting it’s funny that you say that because one time

Um when we were living in North Carolina I was with two of my kids and we were in Whole Foods and we walked around the perimeter of the store from the produce section and I started feeling nauseous and like kind of like I I told and like one of my daughters said daddy

You don’t look well and I said I don’t know and then I realized I had walked by the seafood and the meat department and I could smell the raw meat and it was making me nauseous and so so then when I look at it I’m like yeah when it’s

Uncooked it’s just not that appealing anymore and then being being that sensitive to it because I’d been off at this time you know like seven eight years and so so moved away everything was fine but yeah I think you’re right it’s like getting away from smoking it’s

Like the more you’re away from it your body well I think it’s like when you cleanse your pallet you know on I mean when we first started eating a Whole Food’s diet when we were removing salt and oil and all that everything was just Bland like it wasn’t pleasurable like food did not

Taste good but then it was like after about three or four weeks my and the way my wife says it it’s just like we made um that sweet potato lasagna that we had the engine to cookbook that’s where I started with everything and and and I tell everybody it was like

One of the recipes I found for dessert was one of your recipes it was a um it was like a chocolate pie with date nut crust or something that had peanut butter you know what I’m talking about yeah nice I can’t remember if that was

In Rip’s book or we but we had made the lasagna and then we made that we found that and I remember him specifically saying Chef AJ whip this up and this was the dessert or something and so we made that for dessert and then we made that

Raise the roof lasagna and I remember that night it was like a switch had flipped and this had been close to a month and my wife said she’ asked me did you put something like and I’m like no I didn’t change anything and we tell people you you

Power through you let your pallet cleanse like that pie was sweet the the lasagna was Savory and she would say it was at that moment that Foods became electric and bright it wasn’t anesthetized with all the salt oil and everything else that’s a beautiful story because it just shows

That if people will stick with it this can happen for them too and and water fasting actually makes it happen quicker for people that are in a hurry to neuro adapt you know yeah I’ve I you you recently did that didn’t you I I I crashed I couldn’t day four I know but

But but even then I remember like you are so grateful at even if you only fast for like you know a couple of days whatever you have after the fast you’re just so grateful and every like the first thing was the broth I mean we’re

Talking broth and it was like oh my God this is the best thing and then the second thing was some juice oh my God this is the best thing the third thing was everything you eat after the fast and then the steam zucchini like you say it’s electric it’s orgasmic and it it

Really it’s it’s an amazing experience if people can do it you know I yeah I had a friend that did like a water fast and he said the way he broke his fast was you know because they tell you don’t go back into eating a ton of food you

Got to ease your way back in but he said he broke his fast with watermelon yeah that’s a lot of times what they do at true north and it it’s it’s amazing oh he said he said I thought I was in he said it was like living in the game

Candy Land he said that’s how good that watermelon was that’s how good food can be for everyone if they stop their taste buds with so much sugar fat and salt and this is a day that they’re going to do it speaking of which what else are you

Going to be having today other than the vegan french toast casserole so uh probably so every Christmas we we kind of live on finger foods for the day I love finger foods love appetizers so what we’re going to do when we hop off here uh we will do U the French Toast

Casserole probably do like a tofu scramble to go with it like an eggy kind of thing and then some of the sausages and we’ll just hang out and then we’ll wait on my daughter and her husband to get here this evening around 4: or 5 and then we’ll do our Christmas

Together and then we’ll probably pull out all the appetizers that I made last night and and some of the uh meat the veggie meatballs and things like that like black bean meatballs and we will probably just sit around and nibble and hang out and so Christmas is usually for

Us we started doing this thing years ago and we did it out of um I know you asked about food but I always like to tell this story because it’s one of those moments that I feel like it helps us keep things in perspective so probably

About 13 14 years ago I was in a really terrible job situation and it was the first Christmas and we just basically didn’t have any money and you know we had four kids and they were all young at the time and we had decided we used to

Watch that movie seventh heaven I don’t know if you remember that movie or that show yeah yeah about the pastor and all the kids and everything and they had their Christmas episode on and their Christmas tradition on the show was where that they all Drew each other’s

Names cuz they were such a large and that’s the only gift you got for someone and the gift could be something you had or that you made but it was to represent the person whose name you drew like really think about the person and so my wife and I on a whim

That year said look you know the kids are young they’ll get into doing something like that and we just said the one rule is we cannot direct the kids on what they get whatever they pick out for the the person that so we had two little ones were a little older than being

Toddlers and then our two oldest who were like seven and eight so we all drew names all six of just six the six of us at the time and Andre and I would split the kids up take them and say hey what do you think about whoever’s name you

Drew and my young my daughter Macy that you just met she was like four and she had Dr Drew my name the first Christmas and I had Andrea’s old College car was a Honda Civic and I used to deliver pizzas in it in between gigs and so it smelled like pizzas in pine

Trees the fresheners and um and I left the window rolled down one night and it rained and the seat was all moldy so it smelled like pizza mold and pine trees and my daughter Macy had drawn my name and because we really didn’t have any money

We said that the gift had to be $20 or less so our whole Christmas between our whole family was $80 uh no like $100 with the six of us or whatever unless somebody made something but Andrea took Macy and a couple other kids and she came back and

She said Macy knew exactly what she wanted to get you and she came back and when I opened my gift it the first Christmas we did this he had picked me out an air freshener at Walmart to go that Clips in and a seat cover and I tell everybody and I’ll get

Emotional talking about it but it just really go beautiful beautiful and so so we did that a couple years and then when we kind of got back on our feet and the kidss were two or three years older we said hey we’re back on our feet a little

Better if y’all want to go back doing regular Christmas and the kids said no we love drawing names so we’ve been doing that for 15 years and so every Thanksgiving we put our names in a pot we draw names and I’ve got some of the

Like my son when I was into the blog he drew my name we were luning Charlotte he learned how to carve wood and he carved me a soup spoon and you know and so so Christmas has become a very almost it’s very relaxing how I

Think it should be and so you know and then what we do on Christmas is we all gather and the person gives the gift and says hey they don’t say what they got but they say hey um I got this gift for you because it reminds me of this what I

See in you and so then we always get an ornament for that person that represents them and so and like one my wife loves the color green and so like one year one of our kids had her name and bought her a pickle ornament just because it was

Green you know and so the stories and the gifts I mean it just and so to kind of relate that to the food Christmas is just a very simple time for us you know so and it takes us about two hours to go through all the gift giving so it’s not

Like one and done and and then we just kind of nibble and hang out watch Christmas movies like It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story and so it really is a time of where we’re just kind of hanging out and even the food is

Simple so I know that’s a long way to get what you ask like what we eat but it’s like the the the French Toast Casserole is usually the big meal of the day and then the rest of the day it’s we might make cookies again or we’re nibbling on the leftovers from Christmas

Eve and just you know hanging out so well this is the true meaning of Christmas well I I want to be in your family I never have well well you know what you have an open invitation anytime that just sounds like such a great thing hey what’s over your right shoulder is

That like a cake or something I keep looking at that my right this right here no a little bit more to keep going it’s like it’s it’s glass or right here yeah what is that oh that is the that is the nativity scene underg glass on a cake

Stand I I was wondering I go that’s such unusual cake what what kind of cake is that okay it’s not I thought it was no it’s not edible it was out of the shot because I had everything on the bar here and so yeah it’s the nativity scene

Underg glass well I I literally could spend all day with you and your family but I want to let you go I so appreciate you taking the time on the holiday but I want you to come back as soon as possible or when your book comes out and

Also either and maybe come on with your doctor friend or he can come on by himself but you have to introduce me to Dr Rich I’m going to introduce you to Dr Rich today and so if he can be a vegan in the South so can you that’s right

That is right hey thank you so much I just want to tell you it’s always a pleasure hanging out with you is I learn so much and it’s so much fun yeah it’s fun to be with another fun person ex absolutely you get me somebody who gets

Me well Merry Christmas Shane and to the whole Martin family Merry Christmas Chef thank you again have a great day thanks and thanks all of you for watching another episode of Chef AJ live please come back in about six hours for the Christmas hangout where you can ask me anything take care