Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Eegads!

I feel better today. Finally. I've been making some interesting meals the past couple days.

Soup: Rice noodles + tofu + not chicken boullion cubes + veggies = awesome soup.

Zatarans gumbo + Morningstar Farms chicken strips = A good way to eat gross chicken strips... the spice in the gumbo beat out the gross flavor of the chicken... It just needs beans.

... and thats all!

Thanksgiving is coming up. Michael & I are going with his mom to some... church pot luck type gathering. Trying to think up something vegan to take. Maybe lasagna!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Blech, home sick!

Woke up bright and early (4:30am) and felt realllllly yucky this morning. Threw up half an hour later and have not felt good since. I finally braved it and ate a plain rice cake since my brain was telling me I was hungry even though my stomach has been telling me "I wouldn't eat that if I were you." Really sucks. I feel like I've been "off" all month which is really unusual for me.

Anyway, the beginning of last week I found out one of my feline companions had a urinary tract infection, I've been treating her with antibiotics but my vet mentioned she might get more UTIs because she's overweight. All of my cats are a bit chunky. So I asked what I could do to help with weight loss as I've already tried feeding less food. She suggested canned pumpkin! I guess its high in fiber and makes them feel full without adding fat/calories. I mixed it in with everyone's wet catfood and it was a hit... they actually ate all of the bits of pumpkin and left the food behind.

I was pretty impressed, who would have thought?

Well... I had left over pumpkin - I had planned on saving it to feed again tomorrow but... Michael said "leave some for me." I was like "Huh? What are you going to do with it." He replied "Eat it." Now... i've eaten raw pumpkin, it tastes like squash - not a surprise since it really is one... however the concept of eating pureed pumpkin was not something I'd considered before.

I googled "easy, vegan canned pumpkin" and came up with lots of pies and stuff - but I didn't want to bake... so I looked up "easy vegan pumpkin soup" and came across a really simple recipe and thought "Why not?" By then I'd kept the rice cake down for a couple hours... fully knowing there is no guarantee it will stay there. My stomach was still turning.

I didn't read the reviews first (which were mostly negative)... I knew I was going to change the recipe since my ingredients varied a little - first it required more pumpkin than I had. Then it suggested soy milk which I don't drink - i have almond. I did purchase soy creamer on a whim because it was on clearance so I used that too. I used a lot more veggie broth and a lot less "milk" and creamer. I also used a lot less onion because onion and my stomach don't get along very well. It was surprisingly tasty however as a snack... I think it would need a protein source, maybe tofu... or it could go sweeter with some more pie-like seasonings. Still, rather excited to have found a new food I can work with.

Now I'm going back to bed to relax and pack a little.

Friday, November 19, 2010

SCORE! Daiya cheese and vegan hot cocoa from scratch!

I'm SO stoked. At a recent shopping trip to Earth Fare on the other end of town, I picked up a bag of Daiya's mozz cheese... which i've been meaning to get for awhile now after all the good reviews I've heard (short of my newly vegan friend who thinks its texture is funky). Well it sat in the fridge a day or two - hard to get motivated to make food sometimes...

Until tonight... I made another pita pizza (if you're wondering why so many pizzas - Mike & I bought two packages of pitas on clearance at Kroger... for cheap. They were hard then, they're crust and chipping now, weeks later... but they make great pizzas still!!).

First, let me say - I opened the bag and took a sniff. Didn't smell offensive. I was tempted to just toss it on the pita and toast it without trying it because ALL of the other vegan cheese I've ever had has made me want to gag. Instead I braved it and put some in my mouth... and it was ACTUALLY YUMMY! SHOCKING!

So I cut up a portobello (why is it my spell checker hates this word?) mushroom, a bit of sweet onion, and some mashed eggplant (baba ghanoush type stuff) I made yesterday... sprinkled with daiya... toasted in the toaster oven. Fabulous. So excited. I think this stuff can be used on tacos, in wraps, anywhere you would use cheese. I can FINALLY make a lasagna or eggplant "parm" and actually LIKE it. I could squeal... but instead I'll sit back and enjoy my hot chocolate... thanks to this recipe.

This is INCREDIBLY simple to make and doesn't take very much time at all. Instead of sugar I used agave syrup... and I only used 2 cups almond milk instead of the 2 1/3 to see what it would taste like... I may have used just a TINY bit more vanilla... because it poured out too quickly :P Only problem with it is that its a TINY bit too sweet, which might be due to the fact that I didn't use enough milk, next time I'll try a little less sweetener.

I have plans to use it as a coffee creamer/sweetener. We'll see how that goes!

Until next time... be healthy and don't forget to smile.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Ahh, Monday.

Its gray out with a possibility of rain. Makes me want to curl up in my blanket and snooze all day... with a bowl of warm veggie soup near by. Which is precisely what I've been doing and plan to do until I have to go to work this evening!!

I made a great huge pot of vegetable soup with zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, corn, tomatoes, and whatever else I could find to toss in. Even Michael liked it! I've been adding tofu to some bowls, rice to others and TINY little pasta stars to yet others. Tastes wonderful no matter what!

Also I made this wonderful kale recipe yesterday... it was so good... I ate it all. http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=8364.0 The only thing I changed was instead of using pico de gallo or cayenne pepper I used Franks Red Hot sauce and applied liberally. Delicious. It screamed out "Where is my corn bread?!" Maybe next time :D

Also one good thing about today is TheVeganBackpacker is doing a free giveaway of Pure Bars! W00t! Sign up here: http://veganbackpacker.com/blog/pure-bar-giveaway/

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Vegan, month 8, day 6ish.

A lot of people ask me, "Why did you go vegan?" - easy peeasy answer... and its not really the right one. I wanted to loose weight. I had a friend in college say that when she went vegan she lost a ton of weight - and I looked at her and thought "You must have looked anorexic." What I really should be saying is "I did it for the animals". Its not though.

I have been a vegetarian since April 1st 2005. I went vegan on April 3rd, 2010. Choosing to be a vegetarian was easy, I was never really a big meat eater. Also I did it for the animals. Honestly, have you SEEN what we do to meat animals? Ew. That and I was inspired by Michael's decision to go veggie because he was eating too much garbage... mainly meat lover pizza or Italian subs.

Oh light but I miss Italian subs from subway. I WILL make a vegan version one of these days and I WILL love it.

Anyway, being vegan really is very different from being vegetarian. I am still shocked every day by the things Michael can eat (being a vegetarian) that I can't. I've made him grilled cheese sandwiches and looked longingly on the melting American cheese... and once almost put a piece in my mouth before realizing "Hey, I can't eat this. Crap." I probably miss cheese the most out of everything. Even over chocolate and white sugar. The few times I've broken down and eaten cheese have been extremely disappointing. Somehow its not as tasty as I remember. Which is ok with me. Sort of.

My biggest weaknesses have mostly been burritos with cheese and sour cream as well as pizza... and I know there are vegan version... but again - finances. I should really just make my own with the tofu I have.

Got up late this morning, so I had brunch today instead of breakfast and lunch. I decided on pita pizzas. It was my first time making them and I have some tweeking to do, but I definitely will make more in the future!

The biggest problem I've had with veganism (aside from lack of funding) is that I don't eat (can't eat) a lot of garlic/onion/bell peppers - and can't eat leeks at all. Garlic just tends to be a staple of all vegans... and I know when I'm eating something that is missing something - its often garlic... because I don't know what to fill the void with.

For dinner tonight I had mini pitas stuffed with hummus, seed sprouts (alfalfa and other), kale, tomatoes, zucchini & cucumber. Heaven.

I made a Quorn Turkey roast for Michael, along with stuffing and roasted veggies we can both eat for lunch tomorrow.

Work tomorrow. Can't wait for the holidays and upcoming move to be OVER!