Engine 2 Diet's Amazing Vegan Omelet

Today I made a delicious vegan omelet from the recipe found on page 156 of Rip Esselstyn's "The Engine 2 Diet." Rip is a Texas firefighter and son of famed cardiologist Caldwell Esselstyn, MD (a colleague of T. Colin Campbell, MD author of "The China Study.") Rip challenged his fellow firefighters to undertake a vegan diet to reduce their high cholesterol levels and to lose weight. They did, and this book was born. He's been interviewed on the Today Show. After I bought the book, I was able to transition from vegetarian to vegan.

I made the vegan omelet (the recipe makes 2 omelets) and entered it into a nutritional program I learned it was only 157 calories! It was really good. You can get all the details you need to make it by checking out the E2 book. The link above takes you to Rip's site with recipes and other good things.

First I sautéed the fresh veggies. Here's a photo of half the filling:

Below is the gorgeous finished product.

My other half came over to see what I was eating and thought my breakfast looked so good he took a taste. He's a flexatarian who avoids tofu and any faux vegan foods I eat. He ate the forkful and pronounced it "okay," saying the "egg" "didn't have any taste," to him. Believe me, that's a supreme compliment! He added that he hasn't eaten an egg in a really long time and aren't they loaded with cholesterol? The answer is yes! One egg is "67 percent fat and has over 212 milligrams of cholesterol" according to Rip's book (page 156.) That said, I sprayed some Bragg's on it myself because it was a bit bland. Next time I'll add ground black pepper and a dash of hot sauce to the base, and some Bragg's to the filling, too. Maybe some garlic. Rip suggests being creative and putting in avocado, tomatoes, pineapple or olives. I swapped out the spinach, red pepper and mushrooms for home grown Swiss chard, zucchini and tomato.