Just a quick post about my dinner tonight. I’ve been making a lot of more complicated meals for school, so for tonight I wanted something really easy to put together.
Pizza! Crust and sauce from Trader Joe’s, mushrooms, onions, peppers, seitan pepperoni and mozzarella Teese. So good. I intended to eat one fourth of the pizza for dinner and may or may not have ended up eating over half of it because it was so good. Nom nom nom nom…
When I received lavender in my CSA a while back, I had absolutely no idea what to do with it. I had heard that if you use too much culinary lavender food can taste soapy, so I set about finding a few ways to use it well.
First, I adapted the White Bean Hummus with Fresh Thyme and Basil from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. All I really changed were the herbs – I used fresh thyme, rosemary and lavender. It was a bit on the soapy side, so I probably used just a bit too much.
Next, I adapted this recipe for Peppered Lavender Beef. Really, I just stole the seasoning mix idea. I ground up black and white peppercorns, fennel seeds, thyme and lavender, rubbed it on some extra firm tofu, and baked it. I really like the method of dry rubbing and baking tofu, it gives the tofu a great texture. I served the tofu with dijon sauce, scalloped zucchini and slow roasted tomatoes. You can tell this is from over a month ago, when zucchini and tomatoes were still in season!
Lastly, and possibly most successfully, I adapted this recipe for Apple Lavender Muffins, making it vegan, whole grain and lower-fat. These muffins are moist with a large crumb, and lightly sweet and flavorful. The original recipe yielded 12 muffins, but somehow my batter was only enough for 9.
Apple Lavender Muffins
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup almond milk
1 Tbs lavender flowers
2 Tbs unsweetened applesauce
2 Tbs walnut oil or other mild-flavored oil
1 medium apple, peeled and diced (about 1 cup), divided
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Spray nine muffin tins with oil or line with muffin cups.
3. In large bowl, sift together flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in center.
4. In separate bowl, whisk together almond milk, lavender, applesauce and oil. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and stir gently just until batter is evenly moistened. Fold in 1/2 cup of the apples.
5. Fill prepared muffin tins about three-quarters full. Gently tap filled tins to release any air bubbles.
6. Sprinkle remaining diced apple over muffins. Bake until toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes our clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool muffins in pan about 10 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.
Yield: 9 muffins
Amount Per Serving
Calories 147.8
Calories From Fat (24%) 34.82
% Daily Value
Total Fat 3.95g 6%
Saturated Fat 0.39g 2%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 246.44mg 10%
Potassium 55.61mg 2%
Total Carbohydrates 26.99g 9%
Fiber 2.41g 10%
Sugar 12.72g
Protein 2.3g 5%
Get thee some lavender and make these muffins!
Geez, it’s been a long time since I posted my foods! I’ll try to keep my rambling and descriptions short, since I’ve got a lot of pictures!
8-27 CSA: corn, rosemary, pears, zucchini, cucumber & lavender
onions, figs, tomatoes, beets, squash & honeydew melon
When I got this CSA box, I was actually growing tired of snacking on fresh figs. Gasp! I’m spoiled, I know. I decided to make a poached fig salad, based on a recipe I found online that I can’t find again now! Which is a shame, cause it was really good. The fresh figs were poached in a whole bottle of port, then the wine was reduced down to a syrup. There was also a simple vinaigrette, pisatchios, shallots and faux feta cheese. The poached figs were STRONG, but good. I also had some herbed pumpkin seed crackers.
I had taken note of the Teriyaki Quinoa recipe in Eat, Drink & Be Vegan during my August cleanse but didn’t get a chance to try it then. I’m glad I tried it afterwards, because I love it! It’s so simple – just cook the quinoa and mix it with the sauce. I served the quinoa with stir-fried veggies (seasoned only with tamari and ume plum vinegar), and instead of sprinkling with sesame seeds as the recipe called for, I used some sesame gomasio that I had bought for no specific reason.
Quinoa close-up! Looks like…quinoa…
I had a huge heirloom tomato sitting around doing absolutely no good, and I decided I wanted to slice it up for a grilled cheese sandwich. There’s a big hole in the middle cause the tomato had a big, tough core that had to be cut out.
I wanted to make bread machine bread for my sandwich and…FAIL. I modified a multigrain bread machine recipe that I found online and it really didn’t rise at all. It was edible but incredibly dense. I don’t know if the recipe was bad or if it was the fact that I used the time delay feature and the ingredients sat there for hours before the machine started mixing.
The cheese in the sandwich is the Gooey Grilled Cheese from The Uncheese Cookbook, which I love. I also love pickles on grilled cheese. On the side was broccoli and cucumber with goddess dressing, and oven-baked beet chips.
I had corn and squashes left over from the CSA box, and thought they would make nice side dishes for black-eyed-pea gravy and biscuits. I have no idea where I got the gravy idea from, but it worked out.
For the biscuits, I used Happy Herbivore’s Whole Wheat Low Fat Biscuit recipe, and they turned out quite well! I rolled mine out and cut them into circles with a glass though, rather than just dropping them like the recipe calls for. That way you get the flaky sides, and they’re easy to cut in half.
Gravy close-up! The gravy turned out okay, but it was a little too acidic and the onions weren’t cooked enough, so I need to work on it a bit before I have an official recipe. For the creamed corn, I just cooked some corn kernels till tender, blended up some of them in the food processor, added it back to the pan with some soy milk and cooked a bit just to thicken. The squash and zucchini were sauteed with probably a pinch too much red pepper flakes.
9-10 CSA: lettuce, thyme, zucchini, swiss chard & grapes
tomatoes, plums, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, garlic & oranges
There’s nothing particularly special about this salad, except that it was topped with Annie’s French Dressing, which I had never seen before and like a lot.
With the abundance of tomatoes in this CSA box, I thought I ought to try my hand at making gazpacho. I’d had gazpacho before a number of times but never made it. Turns out it’s ridiculously easy to make! The blender does most of the work. I followed the recipe from Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons and it was perfect.
On the side is a slice of Bianca’s awesome Whole Wheat Beer Bread. I grew up eating beer bread, and this totally hit the spot. I added FYH cheddar and some rosemary just cause I could. I also totally screwed up and mis-read the recipe. I thought the bread only baked for 30 minutes, so I pulled it out then, let it cool, and was totally surprised that my first slice was completely raw in the middle! Then I re-read the recipe – doh! It bakes for 55 minutes. The slice on my plate up there went in the toaster oven just to finish, which is why it looks funny, and the rest of the loaf went back in the oven. Read your recipes all the way through, people!
9-24 CSA: swiss chard, lettuce, cucumber & more lettuce
beets, tomatoes, red onions, grapes & peppers. I also got a galia melon but it didn’t find its way into the picture.
Another sandwich, this time on store-bought sprouted bread. I had an avocado ready to use, and thought it would go perfectly with the CSA tomato and lettuce in a great sandwich. I was thinking along the lines of a BLT, so I sauteed tempeh then glazed it with soy sauce, maple syrup and liquid smoke. Delicious! The sandwich also had red onion jam, spicy mustard and a slice of vegan cheese. Those nuclear chips in the front there are Buffalo Chips from Food Should Taste Good. They didn’t really taste buffalo-y, but they were tangy and spicy and good. If you haven’t tried Food Should Taste Good chips yet, do so! They feel so much lighter than other chips, and their flavors are fun and imaginative.
10-8 CSA: arugula, lettuce, acorn squash, more lettuce & baby bok choy
plums, potatoes, apples, oranges, tomatoes, onions, peppers & beets
I haven’t done anything with last week’s CSA box yet, but…there it is.
Laptop lunches! I don’t have the time these days to neatly pack everything every night, but I do when I can.
9-8 pasta salad, steamed carrots, beanie weenies, cauliflower
9-10 biscuit & black-eyed pea gravy, creamed corn, spicy sauteed squash
9-15 cheddar-rosemary beer bread, gazpacho, baked beans, grapes
9-17 sesame noodles, sauteed cabbage, grapes
9-28 peppers lavender tofu, scalloped zucchini,
slow roasted tomatoes, grapes
10-1 multigrain sesame-beet pilaf, spicy daikon slaw, gf corn muffin, grapes
Bonus Jake.
And armless Jake.
It seems like I’ve got a lot of new stuff going on lately. I’ve also received some new stuff and bought some new stuff. Stuff!
Firstly, I started the Natural Chef program at Bauman College last week. Although I haven’t actually cooked anything yet, I’ve been enjoying it a lot. Our sanitation and knife skills classes are this week, and after that we can get into the kitchen.
Yesterday after class I headed into San Francisco to check out Economy Restaurant Fixtures for some supplies. They have just about everything you could need to start or run a restaurant, right down to salt and pepper shakers or menu covers. It was kind of funny to see it all lined up on shelves.
Apron, chef’s pants, knife roll, paring knife and knife covers. I’ll look so official! I also picked up some small stuff for home cooking – ramekins, a fine wire mesh strainer and large piping tips.
It was recommended to purchase a recipe management program, and I went with Living Cookbook after reading lots of reviews on Amazon. So far I’m very happy with the software, and am working on importing all of my collected loose recipes. One of the great features is having nutrition information for each recipe, like you can see at the end of this post.
I found myself with just a bit of extra money last month, so I bought some e-books that were on my wish list for a long time.
Sneak Peak and Pudge-Free Holidays by Lindsay of Happy Herbivore, and Impossible Pies and Lunchbox Bites by Hannah of Bittersweet. I haven’t made anything from any of them yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
I also ordered Swell zine from A-K of Swell Vegan, and bought The Joy of Vegan Baking as a total splurge at Rainbow Grocery yesterday. Haven’t even looked through either yet!
I don’t get over to Rainbow very often, but I happened to be in SF yesterday so I made sure to swing by to stock up on Teese and other such specialties. I wasn’t looking for creamer, but I saw this coconut milk creamer by So Delicious and figured I’d give it a try. I normally use Silk or Trader Joe’s brand soy creamer, but I’m not in love with either. I tried the coconut creamer this morning and the verdict isn’t quite in yet, but I think I’m going to like it. The flavor is pretty natural, with a little hint of coconut, and I only had to use about a Tablespoon, as opposed to the soy creamers which it seems I need to use more than one serving to achieve my preferred creaminess. I haven’t seen this coconut creamer on my side of the bay yet, so I’m hoping that Berkeley Bowl or Whole Foods will pick it up soon.
A while back, my mom asked if I wanted anything from Pampered Chef because she was going to a Pampered Chef party. I said there was nothing I needed, but made a few small suggestions. A few weeks later she sent me a big box full of stuff! It included a garlic peeler, garlic slicer, bamboo cooking tools, a stoneware baking sheet, chow chow relish, rice chips, glazed pecans and Southern Living magazine. It also included a cookbook published by my parent’s church, chock-full of good old southern recipes. My mom is the best!
Ever since hearing about the wonder of Kala Namak (black salt) on the internets and reading about it in Vegan Brunch, I’ve been looking everywhere for it. For anyone who doesn’t know about black salt, it has a sulfuric aroma and flavor, which helps to simulate egginess. I finally decided to just order it on the internet, and did so at Salt Works. This 9.5 oz jar was only $7.95, and they offered free shipping in September, so I think I scored a pretty good deal. This jar will last me a long time…
…making dishes like this! This is the tofu omelet from Vegan Brunch. I made the mushroom filling with white and shiitake mushrooms because the store was out of cremini, and substituted chard for the spinach because it’s what I had. I also added some shredded cheddar Teese inside and on top, and broiled the omelet for a few minutes at the end to melt the Teese. In the back is a roasted sweet potato hash with ketchup. I had high hopes for these omelets after reading rave reviews, and they lived up to them. It’s not exactly like a real omelet, but I think it’s the best simulation you could make without actual eggs.
This isn’t new, per say, but it’s new for this year. I caught a glimpse of Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale and had to have it! It’s my favorite pumpkin beer, although Shipyard Pumpkinhead is really good too. Gotta get it while it’s available.
And finally, a first for me: I won a blog contest! Alisa over at One Frugal Foodie hosted a contest to get rid of some cookbooks she didn’t need, and I won a copy of Nonna’s Italian Kitchen by Bryanna Clark Grogan. Score!
That’s it for today. Between going to school and working full time, I’m unfortunately not going to be able to post as often as usual, which wasn’t that often anyway. I’ll probably have some interesting things to share from school – I have to make some recipes at home and write up reports for homework. Either way, I’ll try to keep posting at least a few times a month.
Speaking of the upcoming month, it’s time for VeganMoFo! I won’t be able to participate this year, but for a full list of participants check out Kittee’s post. I will certainly be perusing the list and hopefully discovering some new blogs.
Bonus Jake pictures!
Way back in July, Dave and I headed down to Gilroy for the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival. I’d seen the festival featured on Food Network a few times – imagine Marc Summers saying “They even have garlic ice cream!”. Ever since I learned that we live within an hour’s drive of Gilroy, I have been determined to go. I actually submitted a recipe to their recipe contest (and obviously did not make it to the finals) and had planned to go on Saturday to watch the recipe contest cook-off, but when I found out that Fabio Viviani from season five of Top Chef was hosting the celebrity chef cook-off on Sunday, my mind was made up. I wanted to see Fabio in person!
Arriving at the festival, it was a little overwhelming. The festival was big, and it was HOT out that day. It wasn’t moist-Florida-hot or dry-California-hot, but a disgusting mixture of the two that had us very uncomfortable the whole day. Dave was hungry, so we headed straight for the food.
Most of the food signs looked a lot like this. Garlic this, garlic that…you can imagine. Dave opted for the crab garlic fries and said they were just okay. I wasn’t very hungry, and did I mention it was HOT? I waited on buying food.
The famous garlic ice cream! Who knew they had different flavors? Dave wanted to try this, but the line for free samples was hugely long and he wasn’t about to pay for something with that kind of grossness potential.
There wasn’t a whole lot of space in the bleachers around the cook-off stage, so we stopped by a few times just to see what was going on. Fabio is just as hilarious off camera as he was on Top Chef. He had a beer or two during the cooking time, and interacted a lot with the crowd, who was sitting close enough to talk to him without a microphone.
When there wasn’t a whole lot of action going on for him to talk about, he started giving out stage props to the audience, like watermelons and potted plants. Hilarious, I tell you!
Jamie Lauren, also from season five of Top Chef, was competing as a celebrity chef. She was very cool and collected. As cool as you could’ve been that day, I suppose. The stage and most of the bleachers were under a sun-blocking tarp, but it was still HOT under there.
Fabio hugging Jamie while the judges tasted her food. Super cute.
While we were leaving the stage area, I saw Ryan Scott from season four of Top Chef. It was like meet-the-Top-Chef-contestants-day! I wasn’t sure at the time what he was doing there – turns out he was competing, and actually won! He must’ve been on the other side of the stage with his back to us, because I totally didn’t see him cooking. He was really nice and took a picture with me, even though I was probably extremely sweaty by this point.
Just in case you wanted to see more sweaty me, here I am with Dave and one of the Christopher Ranch garlic guys that were all over the festival.
When I finally did get a bit hungry, this was the first vegan-friendly thing I could find, a spinach wrap with rice, grilled veggies, salsa and balsamic vinaigrette, ordered minus the cheese it came with. It was decent and certainly filling, but not the garlic-fest I was hoping I would taste. Walking around, the only other possible vegan option I could see was a falafel sandwich and maybe garlic fries. It was fine, really, because the food there was quite expensive and I didn’t want more than one thing anyway. We were hoping that there would be smaller portions available at lower prices, for sampling, but in true festival style, everything was overpriced.
One of the more well-known parts of the festival is probably “Gourmet Alley”, where they cook up big pans of different garlic dishes to serve two long rows of concession stands. Every once in a while the guy on the left would pour in some wine and light a huge flame. I felt bad for these guys, they probably lost half their weight in sweat that day!
On the way out I grabbed some garlic kettle corn. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds! It’s essentially kettle corn with garlic powder sprinkled on. Lots of garlic powder. The popcorn was good, but not something you want to eat a lot of, and not something you want to eat if you’re going to be within a five foot radius of another person for the next day.
All in all I had a nice time, but was very happy to get in the car and crank up the AC. I would like to go back next year now that I know what to expect, unless it’s that hot again, in which case I will just relive my experience by re-reading this post.
Here is the recipe I submitted for the contest, if you are curious or feel like making a tasty-but-complicated garlicky recipe. I wanted to go the southern root and do something they might not see from another contestant and the dish is actually very good, but I definitely went too complicated and if I submit a recipe next year I’ll tone it down. The winner this year was a Garlic Butter Cookie, which sounds disgusting in a strangely intriguing sort of way.
Garlic-Crusted Grit Cakes with Succotash Hash, Mango-Habanero Sauce & Quick Pickles
This recipe is lengthy, but steps 1-5 can be done ahead of time or the night before.
Pickles:
2 cucumbers, peeled, halved and seeded
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
Grit Cakes:
2 Tbs margarine
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups water
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup quick grits
Mango-Habanero Sauce:
1 mango, diced
1 habanero pepper, seeded and chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
Succotash Hash:
1 1/2 lb white new potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
2 Tbs canola oil
medium white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
10 oz baby lima beans, fresh or frozen and thawed
1/2 lb okra, sliced, fresh or frozen and thawed
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
3 ears corn, kernels cut off (about 2 cups of kernels)
1 tsp liquid smoke
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
2 heaping Tbs fresh basil, chopped
1 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped
2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Garlic Crust:
20 cloves garlic
1/2 + 1/8 tsp kosher salt, divided
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
6-8 Tbs + 3/4 c plain soymilk, divided
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbs paprika
Garnish:
extra fresh parsley, chopped
1. To make the quick pickles: Cut each cucumber half into three pieces lengthwise then slice these pieces thinly. Whisk the remaining pickle ingredients (rice vinegar through salt) in a medium bowl; add the cucumbers. Stir to combine, cover, and refrigerate. It is okay if some cucumbers are not completely covered by liquid.
2. To make the grit cakes: Melt the margarine in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and sauté for 1 minute, being careful it doesn’t burn. Add the water, salt and pepper, and whisk together. Turn the heat up to medium-high and bring to a boil. Slowly pour in the grits while whisking; turn the heat down to medium-low. Cook 5 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Transfer the grits to a lightly oiled, square 8-inch X 8-inch cake pan, smoothing the top. Place pan on a trivet on the middle shelf in the refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes.
3. To make the habanero-mango sauce: Place all sauce ingredients (mango through salt) in a blender and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary. Transfer to a squeeze bottle and refrigerate.
4. To make the succotash hash: Bring a shallow layer of water to a boil in a large pot with a steamer insert. Add the potatoes and turn the heat down to medium; cover the pot and steam for 10-12 minutes, just until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
5. While the potatoes are cooking, stir the pickles. The cucumbers should have released some liquid and should all be submerged.
6. Once the potatoes are done, heat the canola oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté 5 minutes, until it starts to soften. Add the garlic and minced jalapeno; sauté 1 minute. Add the lima beans and okra and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the tomatoes and reserved potatoes and continue to cook for 7 more minutes. Add the remaining succotash ingredients (corn kernels through black pepper); stir well, and cook until the mixture is heated through. Turn heat to low and keep warm, stirring occasionally.
7. Remove the grit cake from the refrigerator and gently turn it onto a clean cutting surface. Cut the cake in half one way, then in thirds the other, to make 6 rectangles. Turn each rectangle onto one side and cut through the middle, making 2 thinner rectangles. Turn this flat again and cut diagonally, to make 4 triangles. Repeat with each rectangle, wiping off the knife as needed. This will yield 24 triangular grit cakes.
8. To make the garlic crust: Mince the garlic cloves; combine with the 1/2 tsp salt on a flat surface. Use the edge of a chef’s knife to scrape the garlic and salt mixture, turning it into a paste. Add the cornmeal and baking powder; mash together well with a fork to combine. Transfer the mixture to a wide, shallow bowl and whisk in the 6 Tbs soymilk. If the mixture is too thick, add more soymilk 1 Tablespoon at a time until it is a good consistency for coating the grit cakes. Pour the remaining 3/4 cup soymilk into a wide, shallow bowl. Mix the flour and paprika together, and place on a plate.
9. Heat a lightly oiled non-stick griddle over medium-high heat. Turn the oven on warm. Dip each grit cake in the soymilk, dredge in the flour and then the garlic mixture, making sure to coat both sides well with the garlic crust. Place on the griddle and cook for about 1 minute, until the crust is golden and fragrant. Flip and cook on the other side for another minute. With a spatula, remove the grit cake to a plate in the warm oven. Repeat until all grit cakes are coated and cooked, adding more oil to the griddle as needed.
10. To serve: Drizzle habanero-mango sauce onto each of 6 plates. Mound the succotash in the middle of the plates, then lean four grit cakes on the succotash with the skinny triangle point facing up. Using a slotted spoon to drain, place a spoonful of the pickles on top of the succotash. Drizzle with more sauce if desired, and sprinkle with fresh parsley.
Serves 6.
Nutrition Facts
Amount Per Serving
Calories 652.45
Calories From Fat (15%) 98.86
% Daily Value
Total Fat 11.77g 18%
Saturated Fat 2.01g 10%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 1934.92mg 81%
Potassium 1705.41mg 49%
Total Carbohydrates 133.69g 45%
Fiber 13.69g 55%
Sugar 33.06g
Protein 17.19g 34%
(I got a new recipe program that calculates nutritional information. Neat, huh? I want to figure out a way to post it to the blog in a nifty grid, but for now text will have to do.)
I’ve been putting this post off because I knew it was going to be a monster, and also between preparing for a friend to visit, said friend’s visit, and preparing for Dave’s birthday party this weekend I’ve been a very busy girl.
Day 22
This breakfast smoothie had banana, strawberries, peanut butter, flax, cocoa, agave, coconut milk. This is probably my favorite smoothie combination, and for that reason I don’t let myself have it very often. Saturday mornings are a good excuse! I also took my multi and coQ10 and had coffee with coconut milk. After breakfast I headed to the farmers market with no particular plan in mind.
kale, spinach in the back, persian cucumbers, celery, corn and okra
blueberries in the bag, peaches, baby eggplants, carrots, shallots, zucchini (they’re yellow and light green!), multicolored potatoes and a canary melon
When I returned home I had napa cabbage salad with spicy peanut sauce and smoked tofu. I skipped my morning and afternoon snacks to keep it light in preparation for the evening’s activities – a vegan potluck housewarming party hosted by Megan and Kelly, The Sisters Vegan! I decided in advance that I was going to cheat on the cleanse a little bit (how could I resist trying everything at a vegan potluck???), so I tried to make my contributions as healthy as possible. I made my Potato & Fava Bean Salad with Miso-Mustard Dressing, except there were no favas at the farmers market so I went with lima beans instead. A good substitution, but not at all the same as favas. I didn’t get to snap a picture of the dish because I was running late.
I also wanted to make a wheat- and sugar-free dessert, so I consulted Diet, Dessert and Dogs and found a good looking recipe for Jam-Filled Turnovers. Of course, I didn’t have any sugar-free jam at home, so I made my own and it probably wasn’t quite thick enough. I also didn’t have coconut oil and couldn’t get any without driving almost an hour round trip, so I substituted canola oil and hoped for the best.
They didn’t turn out so well. I could tell when I rolled out the dough that it was much too oily and soft, but I tried to put together some cookies anyway. They were edible for sure, but not potluck party worthy, so I bagged ‘em up and left ‘em at home. I don’t think this is the recipe’s fault at all – I think it’s a good recipe and I just made bad substitutions.
Oh, did I forget to mention that while I was baking and cooking I had two vodka tonics? Yeah? Well, there it is. Again, that’s what Saturdays are for! I had a great time at Megan and Kelly’s place, their house is super-cute! Here’s my plate o’ food.
Sorry for the crazy redness, I couldn’t get my camera to take it any other way. From top left going clockwise, this is hummus and some jalapeno sauce with pita chips, a delicious bagel bite with the new Daiya cheese made by Melisser, fruit salad, pesto pasta, my potato-lima bean salad, part of a sundried tomato scone, part of a blueberry muffin, and TWO types of corn dog nuggets with an awesome spicy-sweet mustard. (Thanks for sharing wheat products with me Melisser!) This was a really great meal, and far more than I should have eaten. Now I see why people rave about those sundried tomato scones – so good! I didn’t take a picture of dessert, but if memory serves me I had a snickerdoodle, a small chocolate thing (truffle?), a brownie, and there may have been another cookie involved. This is why I shouldn’t wait almost three weeks to write blog posts. Aaaand I had a few beers at the party too.
Day 23
Sunday morning, I didn’t have anything I wanted to put in a smoothie, so I made fruit salad.
Strawberries, banana and grapes with flax meal. I also had coffee with coconut milk, a multivitamin and b complex supplement. Lunch was napa cabbage salad with spicy peanut sauce and smoked tofu, along with spirulina and (four) jam turnover cookies. Afternoon snack was a grapefruit. I was planning on leftovers for dinner, but when I went to pick Dave and a friend up from bart and he suggested that he might pay for taqueria if I took them…
…this happened. Rice, beans, salsa and chips. It’s technically cleanse friendly, except for the rice not being whole grain. It was also technically delicious. Along with dinner, I had a beer or two.
Day 24
I woke up with a raging headache Monday morning and decided to stay home from work. I don’t get migraines or anything, but I could tell this was the kind of headache that was going to stick around all day.
Luckily, I had already prepped my smoothie with spinach, banana, raspberries, chocolate hempshake, udo’s oil and coconut milk. I also took my multi and coQ10 and had blueberry green tea.
For a snack, I cut into the canary melon from my CSA. I had never had canary melon before, but apart from the bright yellow rind, I’d say it’s really similar to honeydew.
Lunch was the last of the napa cabbage salad with spicy peanut sauce and smoked tofu, as well as a probiotic, two blueberry jam turnovers and wild sweet orange tea. My afternoon snack was also what I had prepped to take to work – carrot sticks, squash slices, red bell pepper and cucumber with white bean pesto dip. Dinner was the last of the sesame tofu scramble with greens, yams, mushrooms and dulse over savory oat bran, two blueberry jam turnovers and camomile tea. I was feeling much better by the end of the night and was able to work on some food for the next day.
Day 25
I was running late for work, so no picture of the smoothie, but it had spinach, banana, strawberries, berry pomegranate hempshake, udo’s and coconut milk, and I took a multi and b complex. Morning snack was canary melon, a nectarine and black tea. Also no picture of my lunch salad, which had leaf lettuce, baby romaine, mexi-millet from Veganomicon, black beans, guacamole and salsa. There’s a picture below under Day 26 of basically the same salad. I also took a spirulina with lunch, and my afternoon snack was carrot sticks, red bell pepper and cucumber slices with white bean pesto dip.
For dinner, I made a curried stew with many of the veggies I bought at the farmers market, plus some stuff hanging around the fridge. This stew included onion, garlic, ginger, red jalapeno, curry paste, zucchini, eggplant, okra, corn, swiss chard, coconut milk, tofu and cilantro. I was really happy with how this turned out and kind of wished I had written down a recipe. After dinner I had two blueberry jam turnovers and wild sweet orange tea.
Day 26
This very tasty smoothie included spinach, banana, raspberries, vanilla rice protein, almond extract, udo’s, almond milk and agave. I really liked adding the almond and vanilla flavors, and also took my multi and coQ10. The morning snack was a peach, canary melon and black tea.
Here is a picture of the salad mentioned above – leaf lettuce, baby romaine, mexi-millet, black beans, guacamole and salsa, with bonus cilantro and green onions. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the mexi-millet, but I quite liked it. It was nice and flavorful and moist. With lunch I took a probiotic, and had almonds for an afternoon snack.
The curried stew thickened significantly sitting in the fridge overnight, but still tasted great. After dinner I had the last four blueberry jam turnovers and sugar plum spice tea.
Day 27
Thursday was a great day, if only because I was taking Friday off to hang out with our friend Mike who was visiting from Florida. This smoothie was made from spinach, banana, strawberries, chocolate hempshake, udo’s and almond milk, and I took my multi and b complex. At work, I had coffee with almond milk and more canary melon. Lunch was a similar salad to the day before, with leaf lettuce, baby romaine, mexi-millet, black beans, avocado, salsa and lime juice, and I had almonds for an afternoon snack.
After work I headed downtown to pick up Dave and Mike, who had been afternoon-bar-hopping, and went straight home to have time to prepare for our first fantasy football draft. I always get really nervous before drafts for some reason, so I cracked open a beer pretty soon after arriving home to sooth my nerves. After a few beers and what I consider a pretty good draft, I had more of the curried summer veggie stew.
Day 28
Friday morning I slept in, and we were too busy chatting and planning our day’s activities for breakfast. To introduce Mike to the taqueria experience, we went pretty soon after they opened for what would have to be considered brunch. I had chips and salsa and a taco salad (lettuce, tomatoes, rice, beans, guacamole, salsa). I took only a few nibbles of the fried tortilla taco shell. We stopped by the grocery store to pick up tailgating supplies for the Giants game, and upon returning home I had coffee with almond milk.
We left for San Francisco in the early afternoon to meet Dave’s bandmate Brendan at Anchor Brewery, where he works. He was finishing up a tour, just in time to give us a few samples and our own private tour! It was very cool to see the inner workings of Anchor.
My food at the tailgate and game weren’t nearly as interesting as the game itself. For a snack and dinner I brought a peach, a banana and leftover curried summer veggie stew. In the game I snacked on some peanut, pistachios and a few garlic fries, and of course I had a few beers.
Photo essay on the wonder that is Tim Lincecum:
I love watching Lincecum pitch, but I’ve gotta say that the kid needs a haircut!
Dave and me after the game.
Day 29
I was seriously running out of fresh fruit by Saturday morning and had no time to shop, so this smoothie included baby romaine, banana, blueberry jam leftover from making the turnovers, mango pomegranate amazing meal, udo’s and almond milk. We were leaving for the whole day, so I took all my supplements in the morning too – multi, coQ10 and probiotic, and had coffee with almond milk.
The reason we were leaving was to go to our second fantasy football draft, at Dave’s cousin’s house about an hour away in Manteca. Manteca also happens to be home to Taqueria Menteca, the sister restaurant to Taqueria Ripon, which is my second favorite place for Mexican food in the world next to Las Margaritas in Gainesville, FL. I had had enough with taco salads and just went for the burrito. However, I still tried to be good by cutting it in half and saving part for later that night. It was nice to have leftover burrito, but that didn’t stop me from grabbing some handfuls of pretzels and tortilla chips. We had some beers during the draft, and afterwards headed to a luau party also going on in town. I did the limbo, tried to hula hoop, and had two veggie spring rolls prepared by the hostess for me and the one other vegetarian there.
Day 30
We got home really late Saturday night, and I slept in far past breakfast time on Sunday. I was really, really out of fruit anyway. I skipped straight to lunch and had another mexi-millet/avocado/black bean salad, as well as my multi, b complex, spirulina and coffee with almond milk. Even though our guest was still in town, I needed to go grocery shopping to prepare for the coming week. He wanted to go shopping for souvenirs, so we headed to Berkeley and he explored Telegraph Ave while I went to Berkeley Bowl. When I picked him up we were both hungry and feeling too lazy to cook, so we picked up some Japanese food from a place just north of campus. I had inari sushi and soba noodle soup with tofu and veggies. It was quite bland, but I was hungry enough to not care much.
Conclusions
I figure I’ll report some conclusions, for anyone who might want to do a cleanse like this, or just for anyone who is curious. I gained a bit of weight the last week (I suspect it was the lack of exercise and extra beers while our friend was visiting), but overall I was still just over three pounds down which is pretty good for a month. After going back to “normal” with exercise and eating I dropped back down a bit fairly quickly.
Energy-wise, I didn’t feel any difference. This was one area I was hoping to see a difference. I get a good amount of sleep and have decent energy all the time, but I was hoping between the b complex and coQ10 supplements, healthy eating and exercise I would feel energized. Not so. I still needed my caffeine every morning and had those evenings here and there where all I wanted to do was sit on the couch.
Digestion. I thought for sure my digestion would be great on this cleanse. In reality, my digestive system was…ahem…unhappy the whole time. Soon after starting the cleanse I noticed my…ah…number two was not in a good state, and this continued through the whole month. For someone who normally does well in this area, this was a definite negative result. I also had digestion pains a few times, probably from increasing the amount of raw vegetables I ate.
The other negatives were the amount of time spent prepping food, and the amount I spent. My grocery bill was a full 30% higher than normal for the month. I’m sure this was due mostly to buying supplements and a ton of fresh, organic fruit. I felt like I spent a LOT of time prepping, especially for my daily lunch salads. I was very happy when I could go back to taking dinner leftovers for lunch.
One positive was that cutting out wheat forced me to try new grains. I tried buckwheat for the first time ever and liked it, and gave millet another shot after having it only once and not being a fan. I will keep these grains, as well as spelt flour, regulars in my diet. I was also shocked to find out how many products I was eating regularly had sugar. All types of soy yogurt, for instance, are made with sugar. So is soy creamer, and a few other products that I regularly consumed. I’m going to stay off yogurt and take a probiotic supplement every once in a while instead, but I’m going back to creamer full force. Coffee is just no good to me with “regular” milk. Creamer is a deal breaker.
One rule I will continue to stick with for weight loss purposes is alcohol on weekends only. It’s a good policy for me that keeps me from having a glass of wine on Tuesday here, a beer on Thursday here…it certainly aids in keeping my calories down. I’m also continuing to exercise four to five days a week, and have started weight training again in addition to cardio.
Overall, I’m happy I did the cleanse (even though I “cheated” more times then I would’ve liked to), if for no other reason than to prove to myself I could do it!
Day 19
My Wednesday morning smoothie had baby spinach and red chard, banana, strawberries, almond butter, chia seeds and coconut milk, and I took my multi and b complex. My morning snack was two nectarines, figs and chai tea. For lunch I had a semi-repeat of the roasted chickpea salad from the days before, except I was out of roasted chickpeas. This salad contained leaf lettuce, sliced carrot, squash, radish and persian cucumber, chickpeas and an everything-in-the-pantry balsamic vinaigrette, and I took a probiotic supplement. For an afternoon snack I had carrot sticks, green bell pepper strips and pistachios. Exciting, I know!
I’d been wanting to make some breakfast for dinner, so I turned to Vegan Brunch and picked out the Sesame Tofu Scramble with Greens and Yams.
Honestly, if you had asked me after my first reading of Vegan Brunch what the first ten recipes I would try would be, this one wouldn’t have even been close. I thought it fit best in my cleanse though since it has everything in a bowl, and I’m really glad I made this because it’s a spectacular recipe! It’s less of a tofu scramble, I’d say, and more of a delicious, Asian-inspired, make-your-tummy-super-happy kind of dish. I served it over savory oat bran which may seem like an odd choice, but the creaminess was actually a perfect texture foil to the scramble, which was soft but chunky. I should also say that I added baby shiitake mushrooms and dulse, and I’d do it again because they were the perfect complements to round out the meal. After dinner I had apple cranberry tea.
Day 20
Another fuzzy smoothie picture. After this was taken, Dave bought and installed a bunch of new lightbulbs in the kitchen and living room, which have bettered my pictures. I knew we had lightbulbs out and that I was having trouble focusing on some pictures, but hadn’t put two and two together. Doh! Anyway, this smoothie was made from baby spinach and red chard, banana, strawberries, berry pomegranate hempshake, udo’s oil and coconut milk, and I took my multi and coQ10. At work, I had two apricots, a plum and coffee with coconut milk.
Since I had made dinner the night before and didn’t have the energy to prep another whole meal, and I was out of salad fixings, I decided to buy a salad for lunch. Gasp! Luckily, there is a restaurant near my office, Smart Alec’s, who claim they are “healthy fast food” and offer a few salad options, as well as a downright decent veggie burger and air-baked fries.
Sorry for the awful photo, I forgot to bring my camera so this is from a cell phone. I chose their Sesame Tofu Salad, which is kind of funny because I had just had sesame tofu for dinner the night before, and the salad that I was supposed to bring but was too lazy to prep was an Asian-y cabbage salad. I guess I really wanted sesame and tofu! This salad had lettuce, a wee bit of red cabbage, baked tofu, crispy rice noodles and sesame dressing. The tofu was hot when they put it in the container so it wilted the lettuce a little, which I actually like. My only complaint about this salad is that it could’ve used more veggies, but overeall it was quite good.
The afternoon snack of the day was carrot sticks, cucumber slices and bell pepper strips with White Bean Pesto Dip from Versatile Vegetarian, which sounds uneventful save the fact that while I was slicing the cucumber that morning I sustained my first cooking injury! I cut my thumb. Not so bad that it needed stitches, but bad enough that it bled quite a bit and I felt a little woozy. I was kind of excited to go into cooking school next month never having cut myself (I’m sure it would’ve happened eventually, possibly AT school), but I also kind of feel like I went through some sort of rite of passage into becoming a real chef. So much so that I felt the need to document my battle scar. Click here ONLY if you’re a bit morbidly curious and don’t mind the sight of blood.
For dinner I had more sesame tofu scramble over oat bran, and I took another picture because I thought the first one from the night before was too covered in sesame seeds. For this one I mixed the seeds in first so you can actually see what it looks like. Before bed, I had camomile tea.
Day 21
I had planned to make Friday morning’s smoothie with some blackberries, but upon taking the berries out of the fridge they had gone moldy. So I went to plan B and included baby spinach and red chard, banana, frozen mango, mango pomegranate hempshake, udo’s and coconut milk. This smoothie turned out fantastically, so apart from wasting berries, I was kind of glad I couldn’t use them. I also took my multi and b complex. For a morning snack I had a pear, a plum, figs and coffee with coconut milk.
For lunch, I made Napa Cabbage Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce from Cooking Thin with Chef Kathleen and added cubed, smoked tofu. I feel this salad wasn’t named appropriately, because there’s no peanut sauce anywhere. It’s really a sesame-soy dressing over cabbage with chopped peanuts sprinkled on top. The flavors were good, but it was a whole lot of cabbage to eat at once. The recipe called for the salad to be dressed just before serving, but I feel like it may have benefitted from the cabbage sitting in the dressing, like a slaw. My afternoon snack was carrot sticks, squash slices and red bell pepper with white bean pesto dip.
On the way home from work I picked up some black cherry and citrus vodkas and diet tonic water to have some flavored vodka tonics. I had one of each, and more sesame tofu scramble over oat bran for dinner, then we spontaneously decided to go to Oakland to see a friend’s band play. I had two beers there, and when we got back home I was starving. I wanted a crunchy snack and didn’t have much in the way of cleanse-friendly snacks that weren’t nuts, so I popped some popcorn and seasoned it using Bianca’s tip (see the comments of this post). It worked! I seasoned with nutritional yeast, dried dill, salt and probably too much black pepper.
You may remember that i was disappointed to gain a bit of weight during the second week. Well, the good news is that I lost 2.5 pounds this week! Yay! That makes 4.7 pounds total in 3 weeks. Not bad, for me at least.
Onward and upward!
Day 15
I was all out of greens on Saturday morning, so my smoothie had banana, strawberries, chocolate hempshake, almond butter, chia seeds, almond milk. I also took a multi and b complex and had some coffee with almond milk. For lunch I had a repeat of the Polynesian salad, but without banana and cucumber. It was a fairly unsubstantial salad, but it was the weekend so I wasn’t too worried about getting hungry again quickly…until I went grocery shopping for an hour and a half and found myself starving at Whole Foods! I was hoping they would have a selection of juices at the coffee/smoothie/juice counter, but they only had two – wheatgrass, and a ginger refresher with honey. So I ended up getting a smoothie of banana, blueberries and pineapple coconut juice. It didn’t occur to me until after I ordered that the juice probably had sugar in it – I got a little buzz from the smoothie. Oops! When I got home I had another snack of zucchini slices and red bell pepper with black bean and orange hummus.
I had bbq sauce leftover in the fridge from my grilled Thursday dinner and had been trying to think of a way to use it other than just brushing it on something grilled. I also had a bunch of tomatoes that needed to be used before they went bad, and my mind went to bbq chili, which I served over brown rice. It’s really simple, and really tasty. Along with my chili I had a few beers. Ahhhh, the weekend.
BBQ Chili
1 Tbs canola oil
medium yellow or white onion, diced
green bell pepper, diced
jalapeno, seeded and minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 cup bbq sauce
2 cups veggie broth or water
3 cups diced fresh tomatoes or 2 cans diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 cups or 1 15 oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups or 1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
optional toppings: shredded vegan cheese
chopped green onion
diced avocado
Heat oil in a large sauce pot over medium heat. Add onion and saute 5 minutes. Add green pepper and jalapeno and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic, chili powder and cumin and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly to make sure it doesn’t burn. Add all other ingredients except toppings, raise heat to high and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium low and simmer at least 30 minutes. Ladle into bowls and top with toppings.
Serves 4.
Day 16
I didn’t have much time Sunday morning between waking up and rushing out the door to run some errands, so I just ate a peach and a banana, and took a barrage of supplements – multi, coQ10 and spirulina. I also had some coffee with almond milk.
Upon returning, I prepared this pretty salad.
It’s leaf lettuce, baby arugula and mustard greens, shredded carrot and squash, sliced radish and persian cucumber, Cheesy Roasted Chickpeas from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan and goddess dressing. I was going to make a homemade tahini dressing, but was again pressed for time. This salad came together really well! Of course, goddess dressing makes everything taste better. The shredded squash kind of looked like shredded cheese, which was fun, and it didn’t taste squash-y at all. I didn’t taste a chickpea on its own so I can’t attest to the cheesiness, but I can say that I really like their texture. They get kind of chewy, in a good way.
The reason I was in a rush was because we were heading off to Golden Gate Fields to watch the horse races. Not vegan, I know, but Dave has taken an interest in gambling on horse racing as a hobby, and none of his buddies could go so I said I would go to check it out and see how I felt about the whole thing. I actually ended up having a really good time and gambling a little, and we placed a large bet on the last race and made quite a bit of money! However, after doing some reasearch on how the horses are treated, especially the ones that don’t perform, I don’t think I’ll be going back. I’m a little torn on the issue because I really enjoyed going and it’s a nice time for me and Dave, and I’m sure that some of the horses are treated very well while they’re in racing condition, but I don’t think I can overlook some of the business practices that go on in the horse racing industry.
Oh, while we were at the track I snacked on some peanuts and had a few of their teeny dollar beers. When we got back I had more bbq chili and brown rice for dinner, and two glasses of red wine before bed.
Day 17
All stocked up on smoothie supplies for the week, this one included baby spinach and red chard, banana, blackberries, amazon acai hempshake, udo’s oil, almond milk, agave nectar. It was impossible to get a good picture of it. I also took my multi and b complex.
My morning snack was some grapes and English breakfast tea, and lunch was an exact repeat of the salad from the day before, along with a probiotic supplement. The afternoon snack of the day was carrot sticks, bell pepper strips and cucumber slices with black bean and orange hummus.
Immediately after work we went to the Coliseum to meet our friend Tom and his sister who was visiting for an A’s game. Well, she wasn’t visiting FOR the game, she was visting and we happened to go to a game. A game where the A’s shut out the Yankees! There were some Obnoxious with a Capital O Yankees fans there, although I probably shouldn’t talk because the game last night went a different way and there’s still one more in the series. Anywho, I had some peanuts and pistachios at the game, as well as some bbq chili and brown rice that I packed, topped with avocado. I also had a Diet Dr. Pepper, which is against my cleanse rules. I was determined not to have any beer, and considering I almost always have at least one beer at every game we go to, I wanted to have a different beverage in my hand so the temptation was lessened. I also wanted the souvenier cup.
Day 18
It was also impossible to get a good shot of this smoothie, which had baby spinach and red chard, banana, blueberries, a peach, vanilla rice protein, udo’s and almond milk. My smoothie-picture-taking-skills seem to be going downhill. I also took my multi and coQ10. For a morning snack I ate a pear, some figs and had darjeeling tea. I think I may have some issues with figs – I got some mad stomach pains after eating this snack, and have noticed headaches after eating a meal with figs before. I could be coincidence, but I’m kind of scared of figs now. It seems to be okay if I only have two or three at a time, so perhaps I’ll stick with that and see how it goes.
For lunch I had another exact repeat salad. Why mess with something so good? My afternoon snack was more carrot, bell pepper and cucumber with the last of the black bean and orange hummus.
My dinner was the last serving of bbq chili and brown rice, topped with avocado and green onions, which is how I had intended to eat it each time but didn’t. Avocado is always good, and the green onions really perked the chili up. Afterward while doing the dishes, I enjoyed some wild sweet orange tea.
I’m starting to have cravings for wheat, especially for a burrito or sandwich. Every time we pass a taqueria I want a burrito BADLY, but it’s nothing I can’t hold off on for another few weeks. I’m pretty sure I’m going to get a big burrito on September 1st though, maybe I just won’t eat the whole thing in one sitting!
Day 11
I started the day off with some repeats from Day 10 – the smoothie of the day was spinach, banana, mango, strawberries, udo’s oil, almond milk and amazing meal, along with a b complex and multi. My morning snack was cherries and constant comment tea. Lunch was a repeat of the Greekish salad.
For an afternoon snack, I ate some zucchini slices, carrot sticks and red bell pepper slices with the Black Bean & Orange Hummus from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. It’s an odd combination, but just like the author says, it goes together really well. You can taste the black beans, orange, garlic and almond butter without anything overpowering the rest. It’s very good!
Dinner was leftover tofu vindaloo with buckwheat and sugar plum spice tea.
Day 12
This delicious smoothie had spinach, banana, cherries, chia seeds, chocolate hempshake, almond milk, and I took my multi and coQ10. I really like using the chocolate hempshake, especially with cherries, strawberries or raspberries. My morning snack was figs, an apple, and darjeeling tea, and lunch was another Greekish salad except this time with avocado, dried oregano and fresh parsley, and a squeeze of lemon juice for dressing. The salad was so big and filling that I couldn’t even finish it and wasn’t very hungry for an afternoon snack, so I just had a small piece of canteloupe and a few strawberries at a work event. Dinner was the last of the tofu vindaloo and buckwheat, and afterward I had camomile tea.
Day 13
This green smoothie was made from spinach, half a banana, peach, kiwi, amazon acai hempshake, udo’s and almond milk, and I had my multi and b complex. I had a snack of fruit at work, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was. I also had some coffee with almond milk. I must say, soy creamer is one thing I’m definitely missing on this cleanse.
I had gotten an e-mail from VegWeb the day before, and while I don’t normally pay too much attention to their e-mails, this Polynesian Salad with Curry Dressing caught my attention because I needed a salad for the next day, I happened to have all the ingredients called for, and it just sounded good. I wasn’t too sure about bananas in a salad, but this is one fine salad. I didn’t have walnuts so I subbed pecans, and the contrast of textures and flavors in this salad definitely makes it a winner. The only small issue was that it didn’t keep me full for very long. I ate my afternoon snack of zucchini slices and carrot sticks with black bean and orange hummus earlier than I normally snack.
I had a plan for when I got home to exercise, shower, make dinner and take care of a few things on my to do list. When I got home I was in a bad mood though, and these were all the last things I wanted to do. I didn’t even have the energy to take pictures of my CSA delivery, for the first time ever. I grabbed a handful of dill pickle cashews to appease my growling tummy, went to the store with Dave, and grilled up some dinner.
This is bbq tempeh and eggplant with portobello and steamed broccoli, all over a baked potato. The bbq sauce was an on-the-fly concoction of tomato sauce, agave nectar, molasses, maple syrup, vinegar, onion and garlic powder, allspice and ground red pepper. For throwing a bunch of stuff in a bowl, it turned out pretty well – it even got all sticky on the tempeh while it grilled. I also “cheated” a little bit and had two glasses of wine on a Thursday night (I’m supposed to only have alcohol on the weekends), but at the end of the day I felt much better than I would’ve forcing myself to do things I didn’t have the energy for. Sometimes it feels good to have a plan, then completely ignore that plan and do whatever you want.
Day 14
My smoothie on Friday had half a banana, blueberries, plum, orange, vanilla rice protein, udo’s and almond milk, and I took a coQ10, multi and probiotic. It sounds like an odd flavor combination, perhaps, but it actually worked quite nicely. Orange and vanilla are a natural match, and the blueberries and plum just kind of joined the party.
We had a large event at work that I knew was going to keep me busy all day, so I didn’t bother to take any snacks because I knew I wouldn’t have time to eat them. I should’ve known that this was a silly move, because by lunchtime I was starving and the salad I brought alone wasn’t going to cut it. I ended up eating a veggie dog on a bun from Top Dog, who was catering our event, and it was pretty much entirely made of wheat. So, I cheated (again), but I had to make a decision and having food in my belly was a better choice than being out in the sun all afternoon running on just a salad. It was another Polynesian salad, by the way, and again it was very tasty.
After work Dave and I went straight to the Coliseum for the A’s game. I had brought leftovers from the night before (bbq tempeh, eggplant, portobello, baked potato and broccoli) to eat as dinner in the parking lot before we went in. I also had a few beers – the beers inside the game are EXPENSIVE so we like to have some cheap ones before we go in. Watching the game, I ate some peanuts and pistachios as a snack.
So I had a few missteps this week, but all in all I feel I did pretty well. The food prep is getting easier; I’m getting used to putting a salad together every night before work. I actually gained 0.7 pounds this week which I don’t understand since I’ve been eating well and exercising, but maybe I can make up for it next week. Until then!
Day 8
Saturday was a day of much repeated food, finishing up leftovers before cooking some more. I started the morning with a smoothie of kale, banana, strawberries, peanut butter and udo’s oil, along with my coQ10 and multivitamin. I love the cute little bubbles on top of this smoothie! I also had some chai tea to wake me up before a big grocery shopping trip. I tend to sleep in on weekends when possible, so no morning snack was required.
Upon my return from the grocery store and unloading what felt like a massive amount of groceries, I had a salad with leaf lettuce, shredded carrot, red pepper, sauteed cajun tofu and non-honey honey mustard, and brewed some cinnamony coffee then added almond milk, cause the tea just didn’t do it for me. My afternoon snack was two apricots, half a cantaloupe and some pistachios, and I also had a few beers because Dave and our friend Tom were brewing in the kitchen, and how could I NOT have beer while the whole house smelled of it? For dinner I ate the last of the brown rice ‘n’ beans jumble-aya and steamed green beans. Due to getting up later on the weekends I also tend to stay up later, and I became ravenous a few hours after dinner so I popped some no-oil-added popcorn in the microwave. I tried to stick some seasoned salt and nutritional yeast on the popcorn with a new olive oil sprayer I got, but it still didn’t work! Most of the seasoning ended up in the bottom of the bowl. Anyone have a trick for getting seasoning to stick to popcorn other than dousing it in Earth Balance?
Day 9
This nice purple smoothie contained kale, a whole container of blackberries, a peach, udo’s, almond milk, mixed berry rice protein powder and agave nectar. The taste was good, but I put in the whole packet of rice protein powder which I shouldn’t have done since it made it kind of powdery. I normally use only half a packet in each smoothie.
My lunch salad was inspired by trying to figure out what to do with the cherry tomatoes provided by my CSA. I reeeally don’t like cherry tomatoes raw, either whole or halved. There’s something about the taut nature of the skin, with the juicy inside and how they pop and all the raw tomato flavor. Blech. I remembered reading somewhere that you could slow-roast tomatoes, so I found this instructional online. With as much as the author raved about them, I figured I couldn’t lose.
before…
…and after…
…and a close up.
Boy, do these tomatoes deliver! All the weird texture that I dislike disappears and leaves a chewy, tasty little tomato. I went for simple and left out the garlic and herbs called for, spraying the baking sheet and tomatoes with olive oil and seasoning simply with a little kosher salt and fresh black pepper. These guys really don’t need a lot of help to taste good. I took the smaller ones out of the oven after 2 hours but left most of them in for 2 1/2. This will probably be what I do with any more small tomatoes I get from my CSA this summer!
To use my tasty tomatoes, I made what I am calling a Greekish salad.
This lovely plate has leaf and romaine lettuces, cucumbers, chickpeas, red onion, artichoke hearts, slow-roasted tomatoes, Sunflower Feta from Yellow Rose Recipes and an herb vinaigrette. I’m not a huge fan of this feta. The texture is feta-like and worked in the salad, but the taste alone just kind of tastes like tofu, lemon juice and sunflower seeds. I think I’d like it better with cubed tofu that marinates or brines for a longer time. Along with lunch, I took a spirulina tablet that I bought on Saturday to start taking a few times a week. My afternoon snack was a pear and half a cantaloupe.
For dinner I made Tofu Vindaloo from Vegan Planet. In the spirit of trying new grains, I cooked up some buckwheat. Good news – I like buckwheat! It has no actual relation to wheat, is ready in 15-20 minutes, and is quite good for you nutritionally. I think I overcooked the buckwheat just a tad, so I’m looking forward to trying it again soon. The vindaloo was just okay. I liked the large amount of fresh ginger and spicy kick but hoped that there would be more of a sauce. This was more like well flavored tofu and veggies with some juice in the bottom of the bowl. After dinner I had two beers, to kind of say goodbye to the weekend.
Day 10
This was a great smoothie that I couldn’t get a good picture of: spinach, banana, mango, strawberries, udo’s, almond milk and amazing meal powder (original flavor). Using spinach as my green resulted in a MUCH smoother consistency than using kale gave me. I also took coQ10 and my multi.
I was so excited about my morning snack that I took a picture while packing it up – figs and cherries. Yum! To perk me up, I drank some darjeeling tea.
For lunch I had the same exact Greekish salad as above, with some added capers and a probiotic supplement on the side. I wanted to include capers the first time but couldn’t find them in the fridge! My afternoon snack was an apple with peanut butter, and dinner was tofu vindaloo with buckwheat and chilled camomile tea. It was much, much too hot for hot tea.
Well, that’s days 8-10. I’m not hungry all the time any more, and I don’t know if it’s because I’m unwittingly eating more calories or if I’m getting used to lightening up my diet. Jessy told me she wasn’t hungry all the time after her first week on ACT, so perhaps it’s psychological! I haven’t seen any more weight loss, in fact I think I may have jumped up just a bit, but it’s only part way through the week so we shall see.
