I'm Vegan, and no, I'm not starving

Dr. McDougall's products & Cuisinart (or Good Customer Service vs. Bad)

2012-02-02T08:58:00.001-05:00

As someone who has spent seven years working in retail and customer service, the most important trait in a company (to me) is good customer service.

As I previously mentioned, I LOVE Dr. McDougall's Pad Thai cups. Well about 2 months ago (6 weeks? I have no idea. I have no sense of time lately) I found a tiny bamboo stick in my pad thai cup! I was really sad about it and I emailed the company to let them know. Their customer service response was quick and helpful and they offered to send me some product to make up for my experience. When I mentioned that I had blogged about my love for the Pad Thai cup, they offered to send me extra!

On Monday my very friendly UPS guy delivered a large heavy box full of yummy things! I was super excited and immediately took some pictures for you guys. They sent me almost every gluten free item they have! I will review them all for you as I try them but so far I've only had more of the Pad Thai :)

Pad Thai! (Sorry for the fuzzy pic - I was excited;)

New things to try!!

Soup!!

Now for the bad. Cuisinart. In March 2009 I was excited to buy a Cuisinart Pro Classic 7 cup Food Processor. It was $100 but I figured that as a Cuisinart it would be a worthwhile long lasting investment. (ooh! I just realized I bought it 4 days after I bought my Vita-Mix) I was pretty surprised in March of last year when I saw that my blade was cracking! I emailed them and they sent me a new blade and had me send my old blade back. Fine. Good even. Well about a month ago I realized that my replacement blade was cracked and that my cup was cracked and broken!

The reply email was that the cup and blade were about $30 each to replace and they gave me the part numbers to order those items with. Why I would spend $100 on an item and then $60 to replace parts in the item is BEYOND me. They send me replacement parts or I buy a cheap replacement food processor. Or Kitchen Aid sends me one of their lovely food processors. But as it stands right now I will never buy a Cuisinart product again. Lousy customer service makes me angry.

My other great customer service experiences - to end this blog on a happy note - have been with Nalgene* and Joyce Chen. Both companies sent me replacements REALLY quickly and for free, even when I offered to pay! Good customer service is what it's all about people.

*I didn't realize that Nalgene tests on animals when I bought my bottle (almost 4 years ago!) and because of that I wouldn't buy another one (but I'd buy like a caseload of their bottles if they'd stop!) but I am abnormally attached to my red Nalgene. I'll buy a Life Factory next because I hate that Siggs aren't dishwasher safe and their customer service BPA scandal was just too much of a PITA.

Taco night!

2012-01-12T09:26:00.004-05:00

Mmm taco night. Now an almost weekly occurrence. I use Joanna's taco salad recipe for the TVP and I usually make her sour cream, but I had daiya pepperjack so I went with that this time.

MMM TACOS.

Belated - Christmas Cupcakes!

2012-01-11T09:23:00.001-05:00

Because:

1. Livi says she only likes vanilla cupcakes (she lies, she only likes frosting)
2. My husband insists food coloring makes cupcakes yummier
3. Cupcakes are yummy and great

You'll see some have chocolate frosting (for the husband) some have vanilla (for Livi) and the green spritz cookies. FOR ME. Needless to say, I went off the gluten free wagon for the holidays but except for a lick of red velvet batter the day before yesterday, I'm back to gluten free.

Lazy girl's chickpea salad recipe

2012-01-10T21:11:00.000-05:00

I go through cycles with chickpeas - sometimes I hate them, sometimes I can't live without them. I'm currently in a can't live without them phase and this is one of my favorite ways to eat them. Okay, it's my favorite way, and that's kind of gross, but here you go.

1 cup chickpeas
1 tbsp reduced fat vegenaise
1/2 tbsp yellow mustard
too much relish! (I use maybe 2-3 tbsp per cup of chickpeas?)

I put it all into a food processor and turn it on until there are no big chunks of chickpeas and I add salt and pepper to taste (I hate when people say that, I'm sorry. I shake some salt in and then top with pepper later.)

My favorite way to serve this is on a romaine leaf and topped with banana peppers. I spent YEARS thinking I hated banana peppers and when I tried them again a few months ago I loved them, so we're together now, banana peppers and I.

My first recipe! Orange Marmalade Tofu

2011-12-23T11:25:00.000-05:00

Okay. I bought some orange marmalade for the VCTOTW orange pudding cupcakes even though I don't like marmalade. The cupcakes were of course great, but that left me with a jar of marmalade I have no other uses for. I have been watching a lot of Chopped lately and I decided to make use of the marmalade for tofu!

*Please note I haven't googled to see if this resembles any other recipes, but I concocted this all on my own.

1 block tofu (I used azumaya this time because it was on sale for $.89)

1/4 cup marmalade
1 tbsp gluten free tamari
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp agave
1 tsp dried thyme

Whisk ingredients together (not including tofu, of course). I cut a previously pressed block of tofu into 16 thin slices and sprayed a cookie sheet with nonstick spray and preheated the oven to 400º. I lay the slices out on the sheet and then brushed the tops with the marinade and cooked for 20 minutes. I flipped them, rebrushed, and baked another 5 minutes until they started getting dark around the edges (I like crispy tofu).

Super yummy!

Two New Cupcakes!

2011-12-13T08:39:00.000-05:00

New to my house, that is. I got to go to a Cassandra Clare signing last week - she's a YA author who has written the awesome Mortal Instrument Series and the prequel, the Infernal Devices series. The latter is based in England so I decided to make the Earl Grey cupcakes from VCTOTW. Something bad happened (I used milk instead of yogurt - it's really hard to find vegan yogurt in this town) and they came out gummy and not good - they tasted great (I don't even like to drink Earl Grey!) though so I tried again. This time I used the cupcake recipe from Robin Robertson's 1000 Vegan Recipes but altered it a bit. I heated the milk and added 1 Earl Grey teabag and 1 Lady Grey teabag (I'd run out of Earl Grey) and then when it cooled I added the apple cider vinegar. For the frosting I used the frosting recipe in 1000 Vegan Recipes and I added some orange and lemon zest. Perfect.

(you can see the flops behind the frosted ones)

Yesterday I decided to use the last of my agave on the VCTOTW Agave Cupcakes. I used the modification in the book to make them chocolate, and when I ran out of agave I used about 2 tablespoons of brown rice syrup. I decided to make the peanut butter frosting (with molasses because I don't have malt syrup) and they combined to make what is likely the best cupcake I've ever made. So good.

2011-12-09T07:40:00.001-05:00

Three bean and tomato curry from Dreena Burton's Vive Le Vegan - this was really yummy, even if the husband and kid refused to eat it. Bah.

Here are the amazing gluten free pumpkin cookies from Manifest Vegan:

Again, those cookies are great! I added some spices - cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg - but they're great even without. I make them with one chocolate chunk on top instead of chips, just because I always have those chunks.

Potato love!

2011-12-08T07:38:00.000-05:00

As a potato fan, it was nice to find a heart shaped potato!

I've recently remembered that I used to like to take left over baked potatoes and turn them into easy homefries. Just dice cold leftover baked potato, add to pan with oil and spices of choice. Garlic powder and paprika and dried parsley are nice. Tada!

Also, I've been experimenting with my dSLR settings for better pics and prettier food porn.

Cupcakes for a Christmas Party

2011-12-07T07:37:00.000-05:00

Last night we went to a Christmas party at my husband's work where we had to bring a dessert. I used this opportunity to practice cupcakes (Red Velvet aka Crimson Velveteen from VCTOTW) and to make a kind I'd never made before (Orange Pudding filled, also from VCTOTW).

For the Crimson Velveteen I decided to make the regular buttercream instead of the suggested frosting, just because I wanted to be able to use it on the orange cuppers, in case I decided to do so. I made some swirls (I think I need a bigger star tip) and I tried making tiny star flowers.

The orange cupcakes were filled with orange pudding. The book suggested topping the cuppers with orange marmalade and chocolate ganache - I made a few that style and then topped the rest with the buttercream, to which I'd added orange juice, orange zest, and cloves.

I brought about 25 cupcakes to the party and left with one, so, victory! They weren't marked as vegan because I know marking baked goods as vegan never goes well, so I'm a secret vegan cupcake baker.

The other day I tried the jelly donut filled cuppers from V'con and I didn't like them as much, and they weren't a hit at the husband's work either. They were a tiny bit dry so I may have overcooked them - I'm so scared of gooey centered baked goods.

Miscellaneous Random Eats

2011-11-27T09:23:00.000-05:00

Here's some recent things we've eaten!

The kiddo and I got some sushi after she got a haircut the other day - she loves inari and I like a good veggie roll.

Here are some vegan gluten free ramen type noodles - they were pretty good!

Here's a bowl where I decided to plate fancy - so not the point, but whatever. There's baked tofu, brown rice, kale, black beans, and caesar chavez dressing.

And here's a collard wrap - it's got the green goddess garbanzos and sprouts and the green goddess dressing - really yummy. I'm trying to like collards as wraps more, mostly because gluten free bread is always such a disappointment and so expensive - collards, romaine, etc are less expensive, yummier, and healthier. I cut a tiny bit of the spine off of the leaf to help it roll without cracking and it worked - hurray!

And a potato shaped like a heart! :)

Thankgsiving Food!

2011-11-26T21:22:00.000-05:00

I decided a few months ago that even though I'm almost always gluten free that I was going to eat a Tofurky for Thanksgiving. I knew I probably shouldn't, but I got some gluten digestive aid pills and went for it. In any case, lunch (I prefer a Thanksgiving lunch to dinner) was tofurky, stuffing, mashed potatoes, V'con mushroom gravy, gluten free cornbread, canned cranberry jelly, cranberry relish, and pumpkin cheesecake!

Here's my plate waiting for tofurky and gravy:

Here's the tofurky:

Here are the cranberry sauces:

And the cheesecake!

I finally found it!

2011-11-23T16:32:00.001-05:00

My NC spice heaven - Nature's Own in Aberdeen NC.

Moe's

2011-11-22T11:42:00.001-05:00

Well it is kids eat free Tuesday :)

Pure Organic bar

2011-11-21T15:25:00.001-05:00

It really tastes like a brownie! Best raw chocolate bar I've had.

Super Quick Post

2011-10-26T14:23:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! Sorry for my day or so off - I wanted to post every day, but I've been super busy with Livi birthday stuff - she turns 5 TODAY!!

Let's do some recent sandwiches with those Schar gluten free rolls I'm so fond of.

This first one looks kind of gross, but I really wanted a hot dog and I finally bought some of the XGFX ones from Whole Foods but I didn't have any hot dog rolls, so . . .

Here is a nice little sandwich with some herb tofutti cream cheese (so much yummier than the plain!) and some cukes and sprouts. I wanted a bagel, but . . . sigh.

And here's Livi eating my newest silly idea to make her happy :D

Birthday Party!

2011-10-23T11:17:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the first birthday party Livi has had since she turned 1 (she'll be 5 on Wednesday!). I spent hours baking and prepping and rolling and cutting, but the food was good and she loved her party, so it was totally worth it.

Here are the cupcakes waiting to be baked:

With those I started by putting the red on the bottom, but for the very last batch I reversed that so red was on top. Here's a red one baked and cut open to show the layers:

Here are the naked cupcakes baked and hanging out:

Here is the marshmallow fondant disaster area:

The fondant was actually really easy to make and deal with. When it was sticky, I used more confectioner's sugar to roll it out (like using flour with dough). When it was cooled and hard, I microwaved it briefly.

Here is Livi fondant decorating the cake:

Finished cake (our first time with fondant!):

The inside of the cake:

Finished cupcakes (Livi did those too):

And the spread (not including hummus), including Mama Pea's banana bread and some gluten free pumpkin cookies (the ones w/o the chocolate were soy free too and they were all really yummy):

Busy with Party Prep!

2011-10-21T22:17:00.000-04:00

Super busy! Livi is having a birthday party tomorrow (at home) and I am baking up a storm! Here's one teaser pic for now - rainbow cupcakes!

I'm also making fondant for a cake! The only other party she's had was when she was 1 and her expectations were low (ha!) so I'm kind of stressing about this one.

Also making some XGFX pumpkin cookies (using soy free earth balance)!

The Inside of my Fridge!

2011-10-20T17:23:00.000-04:00

I skipped the main interior part because there's a tiny bit of unveganness going on - worse than the fridge door even. To compensate, a fuzzy picture of my pantry!

Also, I want to win a fridge full of Lightlife!! :)

Take out Tuesday (1 day late)

2011-10-19T08:34:00.000-04:00

Every Tuesday is the same thing, I admit it. It's kid's eat free day at our local Moe's, and that just makes for a great deal. I used to love their burritos but since I can't do gluten, I switched to their shell free taco salad (their taco shell is made from flour tortillas - alas). I get it with tofu and black beans and no dressing - I just get some extra salsa from the salsa bar and dump that on top. Not only is it amazing, but it's only about 295 calories . . . assuming you stay away from the chips. I can't.

Livi gets a kid burrito with rice, tofu and black beans. Yes, that's it. Sometimes she steals lettuce from my salad.

Today's MoFo Wants

2011-10-18T21:42:00.000-04:00

Hot Buttered Cider!

Orange Tempeh!

Vegan Miso Soup! (I feel like I should love miso soup so I will keep trying them until I love them.)

Pumpkin Spiced Latte. CC Katie's? LovinLivinVegan's? NashVeggie's?

Not a recipe, but I could refine my meal planning!

(This post is supposed to be takeout tuesday but my computer isn't cooperating.)

Magical Millet

2011-10-17T19:52:00.000-04:00

I've tried millet a few times and while I've always found it okay, I've never really loved it. That changed when I saw a recipe for Cheesy Millet and Kale Salad. I knew immediately I had to give it a try and I'm glad I did - it's by far the best millet recipe I've ever had.

Peer Pressure Beverages & A Fair Treat

2011-10-16T00:03:00.000-04:00

I couldn't handle the peer pressure. I went to Whole Foods to use some of the awesome coupons I won from sgcorrie (blog post on those products later!) and I saw some Mamma Chia drinks and I succumbed to the twitter mofo peer pressure.

Conclusion? So much better than expected! I'm normally not a huge chia fan and it always clumps in my drinks, but this was pretty good - the kid said she liked it too!

Prior to caving to peer pressure, we were at the NC State Fair where my husband bought me a surprise.

Yum!

XGFX Pizza and Pasta

2011-10-15T00:44:00.001-04:00

I keep forgetting to put Amanda's beautiful logo on these posts!

There.

The other day I tried the gluten free version of Amy's cheeseless pizza. While it wasn't bad, it certainly wasn't worth the $7.69 or so I paid at Whole Foods. Maybe $2, if I was desperate for food.

Another recent dinner was the lazy lasagna - (gluten-free) pasta and tofu ricotta and spaghetti sauce. Looks horrible, but it's yummy.

Indian buffet

2011-10-14T14:02:00.001-04:00

Don't tell Livi I went without her!! :)

Pumpkin Silk's purpose

2011-10-13T00:04:00.000-04:00

Every time I buy Silk Pumpkin I think "Really? That's it? Why did I buy that?" and yet I keep buying it. I, like so many people, am a sucker for all thinks pumpkin. Just ask my Pumpkin Spice k-cups! Yummy. Fall in a cup!

So this time, I decided to find it's purpose. I put some pumpkin silk in a sauce pan, grated in some nutmeg, added some ground cloves and some cinnamon and warmed it up. YUMMY.

And here's some of my italian-y tofu with broccoli and quinoa. I didn't really like it this time but I usually love it - not sure what happened!

The tofu is marinated and baked in a mix of veggie broth, tamari, thyme (I don't usually add thyme, maybe that was it), oregano, basil, and olive oil.

Car post!

2011-10-12T18:19:00.001-04:00

It's my first post from my phone! In my car!

MoFo food I want to make today

2011-10-12T08:26:00.000-04:00

Yes, really, today!

Mustard glazed brussel sprouts!

Cheesy Millet and Kale Salad!

Spiced Chai Concentrate! (I need help with my Starbucks chai latte with cinnamon dolce syrup addiction (it tastes like Christmas in a cup!))

BBQ Soy Curls leftovers

2011-10-12T08:01:00.000-04:00

Leftover cold bbq soy curls are surprisingly yummy. That being said, a bag of soy curls makes a LOT of soy curls, so I couldn't eat them all like that. What's a girl to do? I decided I wanted more pepperjack daiya quesadillas so I added some soy curls onto that!

REALLY yummy. I might go make one now and it's only 7:55am . . .

For breakfast yesterday I had what I thought was a great idea - a "milkshake" (frozen bananas and milk) made with chocolate rice milk and a touch of almond extract. It was not great and the texture was off - I blame the rice milk - I don't usually use rice milk but I figure I could stand to cut back on the soy a bit.

Speaking of soy, the only liquid soy I have to have in my life is Silk Soy Creamer (PLAIN). It doesn't curdle, it tastes great, I love it. I used to get the tiny containers at Target for $1.29 but they reorganized and now I have to get it at Harris Teeter where it ranges from $1.99-$2.29 depending on the day. Boo. And Whole Foods stopped carrying Silk? Whatever. Boo. Now, you're probably thinking I should try the coconut creamer or one of the other soy creamers - well I have tried almost all of them and I can't stand them. At this point I may just have to quit coffee. (I joke. Maybe?)

MoFo things I want to make

2011-10-11T00:01:00.004-04:00

XGFX Pizza!

No-Knead bread (for the husband and kid).

Crustless raw cheesecake bites!

Chocolate Covered Katie's fat-free banana bread!

Cheesy garlicky kale!

Smoky chickpea quinoa feta salad!

Something with my mesquite flour!

Melody's good stir-fry!

And I made some bbq soy curls!

(The picture for these has to wait - the only problem I have with my Macbook is that sometimes when I try to upload pics, my most recently imported pics aren't the ones that show up under my "last import" section - fail).

eta: Okay, here's the pic! I put them on a rice wrap - sometimes they're okay and sometimes they're gross - I actually had to throw the wrap out but I ate the rest.

Raleigh Trip

2011-10-10T10:59:00.003-04:00

On Saturday we went on a trip to Raleigh so we could go to Whole Foods and check out the playhouses on display at Cameron Village. The playhouses are being auctioned off to help fund a special all-access playground. The kiddo had seen the commercials with the playhouses and she really wanted to go so we decided to surprise her. On a food theme, here's the Pie-Rat ship :D

After that we went to the new Whole Foods on Six Forks Road and I really liked it. Here's a shot of some beans in bulk bins.

And here's the kiddo next to some of the bins so you can see how much they have.

And because I hadn't yet had lunch, I got some veggie sushi!

Speaking of sushi, I'm going to try making some quinoa sushi later!

eta! Also, I got more pepperjack daiya so I made lazy quesadillas again :)

Bad Influences: The Appliance Edition

2011-10-09T00:02:00.002-04:00

Okay, I'm talking to the new cake pop maker. Yes, I know that technically a cake pop is frosting mixed with cake and coated and all that, but I have an almost 5 year old who just doesn't care about specifics like that :)

Bad thing number one - the immediate mess to make cake balls for the kiddo.

I used the recipe for vanilla cake balls in the book that came with the machine and just substituted ener-g egg replacer for the eggs and they came out well! They were a little tough but it was the kiddo's first time with the beater and she really liked using it :)

For the coating I made a vanilla glaze (also in the book) and added a few drops of red food coloring. We had some red sugar sprinkles that a kindly PPKer sent and we used those.

Ta da! Yumminess. Bad yumminess. I have to figure out a good xgfx recipe to go with this because I have a gluten headache now. Alas. I wanted to try one just to see how they were, but we were dipping cake balls in pink glaze, so I had like 3. Or 4. Fail for me, win for the machine!

Tofu Scramble for Mofo, take 2 & Tamale Pie

2011-10-08T00:03:00.002-04:00

This mornings breakfast plan was a kale smoothie but when I found myself starving and craving scramble, I made it happen. I didn't use an exact recipe but I did use my last serving of the pre-made YRR scramble spice mixture.

I started with olive oil, garlic and onions and then added the spice mixture and then the tofu. After that I added some chopped up broccoli (I love broccoli in scrambles).

When it was all done I added some lemon juice (added from my cool new lemon reamer from Target)

and then I added gobs of nooch and tada!

For dinner I made the YRR Tamale Pie, sans extra protein source. It was feeling a little plain because of that so I added some crumbled fritos on top :D

Jackfruit Carnitas & Taco Salad

2011-10-07T00:01:00.001-04:00

The other day I decided it was finally time for me to try Melisser's jackfruit carnitas. I've been trying to use my slow cooker more lately and I had a can of jackfruit in the pantry (thanks to Erin!) so it was clearly time.

These were pretty good - I definitely liked them more than I thought I would. Unfortunately I was feeling pretty lazy so I just put them on some store bought corn tortillas with some of the YRR sour cream dressing. I think that with some more toppings and on crunchy shells I would have really liked them.

That was a few days ago but today I had the YRR taco salad for the second day in a row! I took a picture this time but I didn't have any colorful toppings, so it wasn't as interesting looking as usual, but it's always yummy!

Eat better!

2011-10-06T00:06:00.002-04:00

When I have an uninspired food day (or week or month or whatever) I love to look at pictures of yummy healthy food.

Today was one such uninspired day where I ate way too many tiny peanut chews (so wrong but so good but SO WRONG) and then I was hungry and ate my taco salad too fast so I didn't even get a picture of it. I went to look through my photobucket food album for a picture of a similar salad and decided that I would post pictures of healthy things I once made that I would like to eat again soon.

Amanda's Kitchen Sink Minestrone - my favorite minestrone EVER.

Cathe Olson's (author of The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook) bean salad. I'd like to note here that I hate most bean salads, but this one is great.

Collard wrap.

Raw taco salad.

Buckwheat crispies with fruit and seeds.

Banana blueberry vanilla smoothie.

Smooooothie.

Home made thrive bars.

And the only good raw pasta I've ever made.

Some XGFX products I like

2011-10-05T00:05:00.003-04:00

I found these Schar classic white rolls and they seem vegan and they're gluten free and they're actually the best XGFX bread product I've had so far. If anyone knows that they aren't vegan, go ahead and break my heart now, JUST DO IT. Anyway.

Last week I made Mama Pea's lunchbox tofu and mmmm sauce and I really liked them both, especially when I put them together! I was out of almonds but at the okay of Mama Pea herself, I substituted sunflower seeds in the sauce and it came out great!

Here is some of the lunchbox tofu on a schar roll with the sundried tomato dip from Veganomicon - yummy!

Another one of my favorite XGFX products is the EnviroKidz version of frosted flakes - they are so yummy and even the kiddo loves them.

I find the oddest things at my local Christmas Tree Shops, including this XGFX caramel pudding! I was surprised how good this was - I've had that almond yogurt they sell at Whole Foods and I don't like that stuff much at all.

XGFX - Mustard-y Fried Tofu and Blondies

2011-10-04T00:05:00.006-04:00

Tonight for dinner I made RayRay's mustard-y fried tofu except I did my gluten free version. This tofu is the favorite tofu of my kid, my husband and me - it is SO GOOD. I'm pretty excited that I managed to gluten free it successfully.

Here is the recipe I used - halved and xgfx'ed.

Dry Mix:
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/3 cup chickpea flour (besan)
2/3 cup brown rice flour
2 tbsp nutritional yeast

Whisk dry mix together.

Wet Mix:
1 1/2 tbsp yellow mustard
1/3 cup water (sometimes I add more if it seems too thick)

Whisk wet mix together and then add 1/3 cup of dry mix to the wet and whisk. Add 1 tbsp. baking powder to dry mix.

Dip tofu into wet mix and coat, then dip into the flour mixture to coat. Place into hot oil and fry until desired doneness (my husband likes his more done and darker brown, the kiddo and I like it a little less done).

Here is the kiddo's plate of tofu with french cut green beans and white rice.

Then while rearranging the freezer I saw the back of my Bob's Red Mill Gar-Fava flour had a recipe for blondies so I made those too. They're yummy but I don't think my stomach likes gluten free flours much more than gluten.

YRR Scramble and Corn Chowder

2011-10-03T00:01:00.005-04:00

One of my favorite (and therefore dirtiest) cookbooks is Yellow Rose Recipes by Joanna Vaught (I love it so much I bought a second copy for when I ruin my first copy). I'd tell everyone to buy a copy, but it's out of print, so if you don't have it, I'm sorry. (But I noticed that her page says publishers interested in reprinting it should contact her, so if you're a publisher or know one . . .)

I generally make the VWAV scramble but I love that Joanna has a recipe for the spice mix that allows you to have spice mix ready and waiting when the scramble urge attacks. When I make the YRR scramble, I generally add some lemon and nooch (a la the VWAV scramble). I didn't do that this time and it was still pretty good, but I've learned I really have to have lemon and nooch. And shredded carrot.

Here is the corn chowder from YRR which I love! I'm a New Englander, and a New Englander needs a chowder to love!

Drinks from my Vita-Mix

2011-10-02T11:59:00.003-04:00

I neglected my Vita-Mix for awhile, but we're back together again! Or, we were until I ran out of frozen bananas . . .

Yesterday morning was soymilk, frozen bananas, almond extract, cacao nibs and goji berries (which I don't really like, but I bought 3 bags when they were on super sale).

This one was just the soymilk, frozen bananas, and almond extract.

And some juice, before:

and after!

Green smoothies. One of these was a Kriss Carr recipe featured in Yoga Journal that involved avocado, and I have learned that despite being an avocado lover, avocados do NOT belong in smoothies. Ick.

A cantaloupe/carrot/other juice (from the Vita-Mix recipe guide).

And one of my favorites - Ocean Spray cranberry blueberry juice with a banana and frozen blueberries.

Day 2 - Bowl of cookie dough!

2011-10-01T12:48:00.001-04:00

For MoFo day 2, I present my newest addiction - Chocolate Covered Katie's bowl of cookie dough. This stuff is amazing. Seriously. It tastes just like cookie dough but it's gluten free and full of protein and fiber - it's amazing. Here it is with a side of sliced Macs. So good. Breakfast of champions!

And through the joys of MoFo, I just saw the same recipe turned into chocolate covered cookie dough bites! Yummy.

MoFo, Day 1!

2011-09-30T22:08:00.001-04:00

Okay, so it's actually 2 hours before day 1, but I have a cold incoming, and in case it's suddenly horrible tomorrow, I don't want to miss my first day!

I'll start this off with a raw vegan gluten-free parfait! This is from Ani Phyo's "Ani's Raw Food Kitchen" book - it's buckwheat crunchies, cashew coconut pudding and fresh peaches!

I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this but it was yummy and pretty filling - a success!

Pumpkins!

2011-09-29T07:48:00.003-04:00

We went to the local veggie store for lettuce the other day and found tons of pumpkins! I don't even know what some of these are, but they're cool!

And I'll be doing Vegan MoFo, of course.

A Gluten for Punishment

2011-09-27T12:47:00.003-04:00

So after months gluten free, I made the amazing Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies from VCIYCJ. I made them for the husband, but he forgot to take them to work, and I am powerless against almond extract. Alas. So after 4-5 days of gluten, I am now back to gluten free.

These are the little devils that led me astray.

I used 1/2 the called for chocolate chips (I use Baker's Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks) and the other 1/2 I subbed with Food Lion butterscotch chips. I also added a tiny bit too much salt (sea salt). The result was amazing. So good. Make them. Or don't.

And for gluten I made but didn't eat we have a lazy meal - I wrapped a gardein patty in phyllo.

Trying to eat better

2011-08-30T20:33:00.001-04:00

Despite my initial losses with weight watchers and working out (down to 133 pounds on a good day! (that's from a pregnancy high of 178 or so)) I've been at a new plateau for awhile now so I'm quitting WW (and saving $17.95/month). In it's place I'm going to resume working out and I'm going to attempt to clean up my food intake. This will be briefly interrupted tomorrow when I go to Bombay Bistro tomorrow and eat too much Indian food :) Until then, here's most of today (dinner was uninspired and not worth blogging).

Lunch was a leftover salad topped with overly pureed nicoise chickpeas from AFR.

Breakfast was a peach smoothie made with raw almond milk, frozen peaches, a banana, and that raw protein.

From yesterday I have potato salad - potatoes, reduced fat vegenaise, apple cider vinegar, dill, salt, pepper, and pickles.

Disney eats, part 2!

2011-08-29T06:57:00.001-04:00

Raglan Road made me from scratch pasta!! It was amazing.

Chef Jenny made me waffles with grilled veggies at The Mara:

Pizza from Pizza Planet!

ESPN Zone - I got the grilled veggie sandwiches on an ener-g bun. I should also say that all the fries at Disney are great (except for Pecos Bills - they weren't so good):

Whispering Canyon - edamame succotash, quinoa cakes, yummy!

Grilled veggies from Akershus - the chef was so stumped but this was one of the best meals.

Worst meal - Rainforest Cafe - a chopped salad without the chicken or cheese. Not good, made my tummy hurt.

At the Land I got this sesame tofu:

1900 Park Fare - no TJ :( The chef volunteered that he had tofu so I asked if he meant scramble and he said he guessed and made this. It wasn't great, but it hit the spot!

I think that's it!

Disney eats!

2011-08-29T06:48:00.002-04:00

Hi all! Sorry for the long absence but I was getting ready for Disney. At least I have food pictures, right?

My first meal was at Planet Hollywood and it was kind of odd so I was worried, but it all got better from there (for the most part). It was fajita veggies and guac and corn chips and basmati rice. I know, kind of odd, but at least I wasn't starving. Also, the strawberry daiquiri was awesome.

My second meal was at Cinderella's royal table and if I'd been there for the food I would have been disappointed - fruit salad with frozen Van's waffles.

Now the rest, in no particular order.

SciFi's mango tofu:

Jiko's vegan menu with the gluten crossed off:

Jiko's meal:

Jiko's dessert - rice dream and fruit:

Kona's xgfx waffles and fruit:

Sana'a's menu:

Sana'a appetizers (I had pappadums, the rest had naan) with sauce:

Sana'a meal - spicy cauliflower (with fried mint on top!), basmati rice, chickpeas with veggies:

Sana'a dessert - a trio of sorbet! Pineapple with red wine candied pineapple bits, mango with mango sauce and mangoes, and raspberry mint with raspberry sauce and raspberries:

We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge and the kiddo and I got room service! The menu showed this:

and they said they'd gluten free it and I got this awesomeness:

and the dessert was tofutti!

Cosmic Ray's had a veggie wrap and they stuck it on an ener-g roll for me - it was actually pretty good!

Pepperjack Daiya Love

2011-07-11T20:25:00.001-04:00

I finally found some pepperjack daiya and I was having one of those days (PMS/Heat related migraine, so, hell, basically) and I caved to my new cheese.

Quesadillas! Two white corn tortillas, daiya, dry calphalon pan. Yummy.

Fajitas! Portobello mushrooms with chili powder, onions, green peppers, white corn tortillas, daiya, franks.

CSA and Farmer's Market Stuff

2011-06-29T16:35:00.001-04:00

Some recent hauls:

Blackberries, close-up.

And a tea cup!

Spice Shopping

2011-06-18T21:20:00.001-04:00

We journeyed to Raleigh the other day to visit Whole Foods and Trader Joes. While we were there, we went to the Savory Spice Shop to use up a Groupon I had.

It's a really cute store in a shopping center made to look like a quaint old fashioned European village, and the lady I spoke with there was really nice! One of my favorite things about this store is that when you pick up the bulk spice you want, they bag it for you! This is especially great if you, like me, make a mess when doling out bulk goods.

Here's what I got:

Now, if anyone wants to tell me what to do with these spices, that's cool :D

Addicted: Dr. McDougall's GF Pad Thai

2011-06-11T19:56:00.000-04:00

I have a problem, and it's these.

They're $1.50 each at the Commissary and they're gluten free and vegan (clearly) and I add just a few dashes of Frank's. So yummy. Even the peanuts don't seem to bother me (and I thought they were a headache trigger).

Someone needs to save me because I can't stop buying and eating them :D

Mustard-y Fried Tofu and Tempeh Fajitas

2011-05-10T18:51:00.002-04:00

Two recent meals!

The mustard-y fried tofu is RachaelRayForever's recipe (I've asked if I can share that here, if not, you can just imagine the awesomeness) except I changed the flour from regular all purpose to 1/3 chickpea and 2/3 brown rice flour. This is the only recipe for cooked tofu that Livi likes (the husband does too) - other than that, she likes her tofu plain and sliced thin.

In case you're doing Weight Watchers (hey, by the way, I am! Between that and P90X and Chalean Extreme I'm down 17 pounds!) the tofu is 9 points a serving. That's using a block of House Extra Firm Tofu divided into 4 servings (3 slices a serving is how I do it).

And Tempeh fajitas from tonight. Tempeh marinated in 2 tbsp tamari, the juice of 1 lime, and about 1 tbsp of chili powder. I sauteed the onion and green pepper in 1 tsp of olive oil until it was fairly wilted and translucent and then I added the tempeh. I served it on corn tortillas and with some of the sour cream from Joanna's Yellow Rose Recipes (sorry, if you don't have it, you're probably SOL because she's stopped selling it, but you can sub a different sour cream sub). Super yummy! Those 2 were 6 points.

Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver Trilogy

2011-05-10T18:21:00.001-04:00

Okay, so part of the reason I haven't been blogging much lately is because of the endless amount of supernatural themed young adult literature I've been reading :D On that note, I finished Shiver last week and have been anxiously waiting for the slow readers in my local library system to return Linger. They did, I read it within 24 hours, whatever.

So as I decide I am a Stiefvater-junkie, I follow her on twitter and I check out her blog, and she has a contest running for awesome prizes, including a slightly advance copy of the 3rd in the trilogy, Forever. EXCITING. To do that, I post a video for a song partly written by one of her characters, the dreamy Sam.

If you'd like to buy the song featured in the video, you can do that here.

Also, because she inspired me to finally read the book with the pretty cover that I kept eying, I thank Anna.

Blog Roll Update

2011-05-04T21:41:00.001-04:00

Hey guys! I finally went through the list of blogs I'm following and removed the ones that aren't active any more and then I made the list on my blog reflect those changes. Woo!

I've been doing a lot of reading lately - things in the YA Supernatural genre - I'm making up for the fun books I didn't have time to read in high school, apparently :D I read Cassandra Clare's newest, "City of Fallen Angels" and the new Sookie Stackhouse, "Dead Reckoning" by Charlaine Harris and I'm trying a few others, including "Beautiful Creatures."

Here's my haul from last Saturday's farmer's market - my best haul since moving here!

Some Raw Eats

2011-04-05T20:14:00.003-04:00

Here are some raw foods I've made lately :)

Buckwheat flake cereal, apples, raisins, cinnamon, raw almond milk:

Stuffed mushrooms (Cafe Gratitude's recipe):

Raw sushi! Jicama as rice:

Potato salad (jicama - Alissa Cohen's recipe):

Sushi salad I concocted:

Raw pasta (squash) with mushrooms and tomatoes:

Some AFR and VV goodies

2011-03-28T19:56:00.001-04:00

Some recent eats!

AFR Goddess Nicoise Salad:

VV (Viva Vegan) Orange rice with kale:

VV Orange rice with kale and chimichurri tofu:

AFR falafel (I wanted it on salad but was out of lettuce - that happens a lot lately):

Another Lauren:

Trader Joe's yummy gluten free mushroom noodle soup:

Babycakes gluten free lemon tea cake:

Italian-y tofu:

Pizza!

2011-02-28T22:14:00.001-05:00

When one is gone for awhile, it's good to rejoin with pizza, I say.

The kiddo and I went to Raleigh a few weeks ago and we got some gluten free pizza from Zpizza (the crust smells odd but it was really yummy)

and a slice of vegan pizza from Whole Foods.

SO GOOD. Both of them. And now I'm hungry.

More local shopping, for comparison

2011-02-07T18:35:00.001-05:00

Mediterranean Mart (that's what it's called. Sadly, it's located next to a tanning salon called "Tan Bunz.")

$33

Blackbeans, red lentils, chickpeas, besan, guava cookie bars, sesame bar, ener-g egg replacer, golden raisins, brown rice pasta, the world's worst snack bars (see previous post).

Overview of $145 at the commissary:

Close-ups of same batch:

Junk for the husband, dog treats, tofu.

Product Review: Enjoy Life Foods Cocoa Loco Chewy Bars

2011-02-07T18:14:00.002-05:00

Today I bought these bars at the Mediterranean Mart. The picture on the box makes them look like Nana's Gluten Free cookies which are good but ridiculously high in calories. These bars are gluten free, vegan and 120 calories each so I wanted to give them a try.

Well, I opened the box and took out one of the wrappers and was a little shocked that the bar inside was less than 1/2 the size of the wrapper. I took out another bar in case I got a defective bar. Nope, same size.

I took out the bar and it was really hard - not crumbly like the Nana's cookies. I managed to break the hard little rock apart and took a bite and? Disgusting. Bitter and crumbly rocks. I thought those Clif's kids bars were gross but these take the cake (haha). $4.49, down the tubes.

This is why I don't go to Harris Teeter

2011-02-02T12:09:00.002-05:00

So normally I only get Gardein at Harris Teeter (the kid looooooves the tenders and I did too until I went gluten free - sad!) and sometimes one kind of produce that I can't get anywhere else. Well today I decided to look around a bit more and this is what I found:

That's leeks, kale, blueberries (they were BOGO but $6.99 each! So $3.50 each which isn't bad but GEEZ), lots of tiny potatoes (pee-wee potatoes and some fingerlings and some red and blue!), shallots, green onions, apples, dates, tempeh, sabra hummus, So-Yah! (see earlier post) and dried black beans (the commissary only sells black beans with ham packets - blech).

Gardein ($5.35/ea), millet, mirin, juice boxes for the kiddo, red quinoa (I can't find this anywhere else - $5.99!), kiddo haircare stuff ($8.55 each!! but I don't like putting yucky chemicals on her), brown rice spaghetti ($4.29) and tofurky.

$98!!!! NINETY EIGHT! Oy.

I miss my NH and ME stores.

Product Review! So-Yah! Gourmet Red Vindaloo Curry

2011-02-02T12:03:00.001-05:00

Today I was shopping at Harris Teeter (don't let me do that again - I bought 2 bags of stuff and spent $98! Insane.) and I saw a new product in the Tofu section.

So-Yah! Gourmet Red Vindaloo Curry. There was also a Creamy Coconut Curry but I haven't been loving on coconut things lately. It was about $3.29. It's gluten free, 150 calories for the whole thing, 4 grams of fat, 3 grams of protein, 8 grams of fiber! It only takes 90 seconds in the microwave! It smelled way too spicy (and I like some spice) but when I tasted it it was only a little spicy - pleasantly so. It's the kind of spice that grows slowly but fades away pretty quick, so that was nice.

Even the kiddo took two little bites and liked it!

This was definitely yummy but not really worth $3.29 - silly overpriced Harris Teeter.

S'mores

2011-02-01T20:45:00.001-05:00

Okay I'm not in the mood for a big post right now - I'm reading through my new copy of Clean Start by Terry Walters and finishing up on watching Battlestar Galactica (no spoilers! I'm just over 1/2 way through season 4).

So anyway, here are some pics of some s'mores I made a few days ago. The kiddo was watching Scooby Doo and Shaggy and Scooby were eating s'mores and she asked for some. She's never had them before so I made them.

And here's a pic of her taking the one and only bite she wanted. Oh well.

AFR Mac & Trees

2011-01-11T20:05:00.001-05:00

Today I made another Appetite for Reduction recipe! The highly recommended Mac and Trees! That'd be macaroni and cheesy sauce with broccoli, made with rice pasta and then chickpea flour instead of AP flour in the sauce.

Here's mine:

Here's Livi and hers - she asked me to separate it, of course :)

And pictures I took of the dried goods I have on hand, just so I could focus on what I have in the house.

Beans:

Grains:

Gluten Full

2011-01-09T10:51:00.002-05:00

Yes, I said gluten full. I made Veganomicon banana muffins for Livi again (she will eat a whole batch in 3-4 days - it's one of her favorite foods) and I couldn't resist (okay, I could have, but I didn't feel like it) so I slathered one with earth balance and ate it...and I didn't get a headache or tummy issues! So I ate another ones. Then I made her "egg noodles" (Mueller's Old Fashioned Dumplings are like vegan egg noodles!) and I wanted some. I actually really wanted them with vegan cottage cheese because my dad and I used to eat egg noodles mixed with cottage cheese, but I didn't have any. So I ate some with earth balance, salt and tons of pepper. No headache, no tummy issues. So this morning I made Joy of Vegan Baking Irish Soda Bread and so far so good!

I'm also in the process of making the cottage cheese from The Uncheese Cookbook in case I make more noodles later, or to go on top of the gluten free rice bread.

I'm back to watching the P90X Infomercial because I love infomercials and I have a plyo workout to do in a bit :D

Update: The side effects of my gluten overload! I got RIDICULOUSLY tired around 3:30pm or so. So tired that I laid down in bed, the kid red a book to me and I fell asleep for an hour or so. Oops! Also, my nose is now super runny even though I took an allergy pill this morning. But so far no migraine and no IBS flares! (knock on wood) I think I'll do a super healthy day tomorrow to make up for today :)

Stew!

2011-01-07T16:11:00.001-05:00

Okay, this isn't gluten free. But I had a bag of Gardein Beefless Tips in the freezer and I just wasn't going to throw them out and the kid hates them. So I made stew. I modified the heck out of this recipe to include using gluten free bisquick to make the biscuits - I know - I used gf flour and a gluten based product. Silly! In any case, I've never used the GF bisquick before so I don't know if I should have done something else to it, but I just added milk and herbs like the recipe said. The biscuits were edible, but not really worth eating. Otherwise the stew was good! I feel a little foggy and heavy after eating it, but that was to be expected. And I'm sleepy.

You know who needs some stew? This barbie. Check out the arms - all bone!

Here is the AFR scramble with arugula this time! Topped with the Caesar Chavez dressing again, but this time I made it with red miso - still good! (I made it with sweet white miso last time.)

Here's the biryani with eggplant chickpea curry (without the tomatoes). I didn't really love it, but I did modify it and it's possible my chickpeas were at the end of their lifespan. Livi HATED this meal - she made such a face at it.

More AFR and some goodies

2011-01-01T22:22:00.001-05:00

Okay, so I can't seem to stay awa from Appetite for Reduction.

Tonight for dinner I made the Tamarind BBQ Tempeh & Sweet Potatoes. I even gave the kid a plate and she ate most of it (didn't finish the tempeh).

Earlier in the day, I realized I had a butternut squash going bad so I made the Butternut Squash Apple soup. I'm sad I couldn't get a picture taken in daylight - it was such a pretty color!

Yesterday I made the Curried Cabbage and Peas. I love curry powder, but this had too much and was too hot for me! Isa suggested watering it down a little and resauteing and/or adding raisins. I'll try that with the leftovers!

I also made the Pear Ginger energy balls from Thrive.

Here's the bulk of the random presents I got from my buddy the pie maker!

No no, not that one! My buddy Karyn. Here's the stuff!

Also, just because I'm proud . . . look! I cleaned my fridge!

AFR Curry Scramble - Take 2 and a Salad

2010-12-31T10:25:00.001-05:00

I made the scramble wrap again today! I added carrots because I like carrots in my wraps and I didn't press the tofu this time and I crumbled instead of cubed. Also, the dressing has had 2 days to sit. It was good before and AWESOME today. I licked my plate.

I also made the Goddess Nicoise salad, though I didn't add the onions, and I didn't have any tomatoes. I also used diced larger potatoes instead of tiny ones and romaine. Oh and I used forzen french cut green beans. Despite my lack of ingredients and not liking chickpeas in their whole form lately, I loved this salad!

Currylicious and Appetite for Reduction

2010-12-29T18:59:00.001-05:00

One of my most favorite ways to prepare tofu is the Veganomicon curried tofu. My favorite way to eat it is in an ezekiel wrap with vegenaise, sriracha, shredded carrots and baby spinach. Sadly, ezekiel wraps are not gluten free, so I've been buying the Food for Life gluten free rice tortillas which aren't nearly as good but they aren't bad - better than the GF bread!

For Christmas, my dad bought me Appetite for Reduction off of my wishlist - hurray! Today I started with the curried scrambled tofu (without arugula) on a rice tortilla with some of the Caesar Chavez dressing. It's not gorgeous, but it was yummy!

I wanted to make the Goddess Nicoise salad for lunch but was too hungry so I just took more of the scrambled tofu, put it over some cold quinoa, and added some of the CC dressing.

Later I made dinner - the Cranberry-Cashew Biryani and while I was doing that, I prepped the dressing and chickpeas for the Nicoise salad for tomorrow.

Biryani:

Kiddo ate a few bites and said it was good but now she's acting like I'm trying to kill her by making her finish the tiny bowl I gave her. She's ridiculously picky lately though, so don't trust her review.

Also, as a snack today I tried the Glutino Blueberry Breakfast bars. They're decent. Not great, but really, are breakfast bars ever great?

GF Day 23 and some recent eats!

2010-12-21T18:35:00.001-05:00

So the GF thing is going well. My migraines occur much less frequently and I feel less foggy and scattered and my IBS issues seem almost entirely resolved. Wow.

Here's some food!

Another omelet - daiya, mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach - yummy!

Tempeh Scramble from Vegan Brunch! I've realized I'm note ating nearly enough tempeh so I'm trying to fix that. It's a precious commodity around here - hard to find. The overpriced HFS is frequently out but I realized Harris Teeter sells it (though only the 3 grain and the soy) for $2.49. Otherwise, to Raleigh I go.

The Veganomicon Tomato/Rice/Bean soup. Livi's eating it! Woo!

Dal soup! Because even though I want to, I can't go to the Indian Buffet every day. The first time I went there, they had a dal soup that was so good I wanted to eat only that forever. It wasn't quite as good last time, but their food is so good! Here's mine.

I'll work on specifics, but the recipe is basically:

1 cup split yellow mung beans
3 cups broth
3 cups water
2 carrots finely diced
1 tomato finely diced

That part is definite but I have to remember all the spices I used and how much of each. I used:
ground coriander
cumin seeds
fenugreek
turmeric

... and I forget what else. I used 1/2 to 1 tsp of each.

At the HFS yesterday I got me and Livi some Sweet and Sara goodies (I can't believe my lousy HFS actually sells them!). I got Livi a snowman and the rocky road bark for me - SO GOOD.

Pregan Comfort Food made Vegan!

2010-12-12T13:52:00.001-05:00

Vegan Brunch Omelet filled with sauteed mushrooms and Daiya. T.V. ate a whole (unfilled) omelet!

Tempeh Chili - I used the spices listed in Vegan Comfort food but fudged the rest by myself. When I was a fat little pregan, I used to put white rice in a bowl, cover it with hormel chili, cover the whole top with slices of American cheese, and then microwaved it. This is better in so many ways. Brown rice, chili, Galaxy Rice Cheese Slices - pepper jack!

Strawberry Macaroon from Ani's Raw Food Desserts.

Gluten Free, Day 10

2010-12-08T19:49:00.002-05:00

Today I had one heck of a migraine, but I didn't drink quite enough water and I forgot my allergy pill. So that's 2 bad (regular for me) migraines in 10 days which is so much better than I was doing before!

Today I finally gave in to my need for Veganomicon's Autumn Latkes - made of carrots, sweet potatoes and beets, I LOVE these so much. It's because of these that I learned to adore beets. Accompanying them is the horseradish dill sour cream - also yum! Tomorrow I'll be standing in front of the fridge, eating them cold.

Here's a variation on my new favorite salad - I jokingly call them The Lauren, because of Ginger is the New Pink - they remind me of her salads :D My variation is lettuce, a sliced bubbie, a crumbled sunshine burger and some tahini and balsamic vinegar. I also add some salt, pepper and a dash of cayenne.

So going GF hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

I found this at the store the other day - anyone ever had them? I'm curious.

Gluten Free Trial

2010-12-05T12:31:00.001-05:00

For awhile now I've been noticing that frequently I get a migraine after I eat some white breads and other white flour based products. I was tested for celiac well over a year ago and supposedly the test results said I wasn't (my doctor at the time, though highly recommended, wasn't actually very good) but I wasn't convinced. I've been really tired and foggy headed and headache-y lately, so I decided that a gluten free trial was in order. Today is day 7 and I had a migraine on the first day and the 2nd and 3rd day I had teeny tiny migraines that lasted less than an hour and went away without medication. Sad to say that it seems quite likely that I'll have to quit gluten. Mostly I'm okay with this, but I love good bread and tofurky roasts and so that makes me sad. But not getting as many migraines would be awesome. (Right now I'm considering eating tofurky roasts for special occasions). Additionally, since going gluten free I dropped a few pounds.

So what have I been eating? As to be expected, I did buy a bunch of GF products at the store. Van's GF Waffles, Erewhon Crispy Rice Cereal (it has honey, I know), Bob's Red Mill Chocolate Chip Cookie mix, Bob's Red Mill GF All Purpose Flour and GF Bisquick.

Here are the Bob's cookies made with Earth Balance and cornstarch as the egg replacer:

They're pretty good! I undercooked them a little because I read somewhere that they get overdone quickly. Initially they were a little moist in the center but as they cooled they became crispy around the outer edges and nicely chewy in the middle. Livi took a bite and said she didn't like them but then said she wanted some later. My head feels a little foggy right now, but I did eat 4 (the bag says it makes 24 cookies but I made 32 - 4 cookies gave me 370 calories and 14 grams of fat so I don't think I'll be doing that again!). I'm going to try freezing the rest and defrosting/microwaving 2 at a time when I feel a craving.

I also got Tal Ronnen's The Conscious Cook from the library the other day and made the potatoes and green beans with a miso dressing (no arugula). Yummy!

Some Thanksgiving food and pizza!

2010-11-25T19:01:00.003-05:00

Sorry again! I usually either don't want to post because I have a headache, or I feel good and don't want to waste time on the computer :)

Two kinds of pumpkin pie! In front is Bryanna's pumpkin pie in a pre-made graham cracker crust (what I always make) and in back is a new recipe for each:

Cranberry Sauce, the way my mom always made. Bag of cranberries (Ocean Spray - I'm a New England girl), orange, cup of sugar. Process together in the food processor.

I bought this at Trader Joe's last week

and it's really dull as is, so I bought a premixed bag of mulling spices and I made mulled cranberry cider - yums!

Also included but not pictured: Tofurky, stuffing with bread I made and fresh herbs, Veganomicon mushroom gravy, peas and mashed potatoes.

And from a few days ago, pizza with daiya mozzarella!

What to do with my treasured kale?

2010-11-21T20:04:00.001-05:00

Ever since moving to NC I have had the WORST time finding kale. In chatting with some people, I've come to realize that this is a bigger problem where I am (Fayetteville) than in other places, like the Raleigh area. The only kale I can find is curly kale at the commissary and it's usually wilted and slightly yellow and never ever organic.

My recent trip to Raleigh included Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Of course WF had the green curly kale and the red/purple curly kale and dino kale, and I got some dino kale. So what to do with my special kale? I finally decided to retry the Vegan with a Vengeance Garlicky Tahini Sauce (I've made it a few times and never really loved it but I'm not sure why because I generally like tahini so there's no reason I shouldn't like it). So my helper chef Livi helped me make the tahini sauce and I was feeling lazy this time so I left the garlic out. Then I decided to steam my kale and I don't usually steam kale - I usually saute it.

Now, I don't know if it's because it's the dino kale or because I steamed it or both, but I thought that even just the plain steamed kale was REALLY good. I dry sauted some boiled seitan and served that next to some of the kale on top of some brown rice and topped it all with the tahini sauce and it was SO GOOD.

Livi had the plain boiled seitan, rice, and she ate a good size serving of kale! Woo!

Muffins and hot dogs (The fun doesn't stop over here!)

2010-11-19T14:42:00.001-05:00

Last night I felt the need to make muffins so I decided to make some of the healthier muffins from Jae Steele's Get It Ripe. I decided on the Raisin Bran Muffins and here they are:

Even picky Livi likes them and the only other muffin she likes are the banana wheat germ muffins from Veganomicon.

For lunch I decided I wanted hot dogs (we have smart dogs). Mine ended up like this:

and Livi wanted hers like this:

I know. The girl likes things dull. I'm working on it!

Migraines, firing a lousy doctor, and my meals today

2010-11-18T17:58:00.001-05:00

Five weeks ago today I saw a neurologist who immediately put me on a generic topamax to help prevent my migraines. I had pretty much had my migraines under control but they came back and I was having about one a week. Since starting the preventative, I've had migraines 5-7 days a week (sometimes with multiple migraines a day) and on top of that I've been nauseated, my fingers and toes have been tingly, and I have been EX-FORKING-HAUSTED. This might be fine if I felt like my neuro gave a crap, but from the very beginning, I could tell she didn't, and I'm fairly certain she's never had a migraine. When I asked for a sooner follow up appointment (my original one was 3 months from the original appointment date) I was told no and to keep doing what I was doing, despite my pain. So today, in one of my fits of cranky exhaustion, I called them and I said I wanted to know how to transition off my meds and that I didn't feel like the doctor was really working with me and I didn't want to see her anymore - oh yeah I did! So I have one week to transition off my meds and then, according to one website I found, 21 hours after that for the meds to leave my system and maybe I won't be exhausted anymore. Thus making me a better mommy and blogger, woo!

So, now . . . I shall keep attempting to figure out my triggers.

Breakfast - Oatmeal, 8th continent soymilk, flax seeds, craisins, pecans. Pecans made my head foggy, I didn't finish the oatmeal. NO MORE NUTS. I threw out my remaining pecans, hazelnuts, walnuts. Will try cashews some day soon and see if they hate me too.

Lunch was one of those sandwich thins with Trader Joe's spicy hummus and a sunshine burger.

Snack was an attempt to get rid of the ever present migraine - 3/4 of a chocolate mint clif bar (Livi always wants part of my clif bar) and some iced coffee.

Around 4:30 I had some Natural Calm because sometimes that helps with the headache.

My "my dinner is mere seconds from being done" snack was a carrot with more hummus and my dinner was quinoa, gardein beefless tips and broccoli that I baked with olive oil, balsamic and salt.

That brings me to 1200 calories which explains why I am STARVING so I'm off to play candyland and find a snack :)

Yesterday's post

2010-11-18T07:58:00.001-05:00

This was going to be yesterday's post but I went to bed at 9.

Really, I went to bed at 9. I was exhausted and I went to bed at 9. Lovely! It had been super dark for hours, so it felt later.

To get back into the swing of posting slowly, I had a copy cat day.

I was at Target for some Silk Soy Creamer (they sell the tiny ones for $1.09!!! also, just for the record, the silk milk makes my stomach hurt, but their creamer is my favorite - go figure) when I saw the Morningstar Farms Sweet & Sour Chik'n for $3.34 or something and Vegan GuineaPig recently reviewed it and I had no idea what I wanted to eat, so I bought it. It turned out it was pretty good! My only complaint was that it only had 5 lil pieces of Gardein chik'n in it - sad :(

For Dinner I remembered that Katie at Don't Eat off the Sidewalk recently blogged what I call "Lazy Lasagna" - basically pasta, sauce, and tofu ricotta. I haven't had pasta in awhile so I decided to make that (Livi loves pasta, hers just had butter, of course, with plain tofu on the side). A few minutes in, I remembered I can't eat plain pasta anymore - it makes my head hurt. Add that to my migraine list - okay? Thanks. :P

Sorry for the break

2010-11-16T20:32:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the break everyone! I've had a migraine and/or sinus migraine for at least a week almost endlessly now which makes it hard to get stuff done, let alone carve out time for blogging.

I made the no knead bread from Vegan Junk Food and it turned out pretty well - not anywhere nearly as well as the picture but pretty good. And then I confirmed my suspicion that white flour almost always gives me migraines. Bummer. But Livi loved it a lot and ate most of the loaf for me so that was awesome.

I'll be back soon!

Swinging, lunch, and a snack for me

2010-11-12T14:05:00.002-05:00

Today we spent some time at a local park. When Livi was little, she was scared of swings for the longest time. Then, suddenly, she loved them. Then for well over a year and a half, she was scared of them again. Then about two weeks ago, she decided to give the big kid swings a try - and she loved them!

(Shortly after this picture was taken we realized it wasn't quite as cold as we realized.)

After the park, we made a quick stop at the store so I could get yeast and vinegar so I can make bread later. While we were there, Livi started those silly party loaves of bread. She hates seeds so I talked her out of rye at least. Here's her lunch.

And my lunch! The key to making a not very good vegan burger yummy is toppings. Here I have veganaise, ketchup, pickles, lettuce and tomato - all key to the perfect burger for me. The burger is whatever vegan Boca thing.

And here is an adaptation of Averie's protein bar. Her's are yummier, but I had to adapt for my migraine and IBS triggers (so no nut butter - sad!) and I used chocolate protein powder because that's what I had. The nutritional info is here.

My new favorite lunch salad and some dinner

2010-11-11T19:25:00.003-05:00

So of course I'm a fan of Gardein - I have been since I first discovered their stuff in the produce section at Market Basket back in New Hampshire. I used to think my favorite was their Santa Fe stuffed Chick'n, but I'm beginning to think it's the Seven Grain Crispy Tenders - mmmm. It's hard to say because my selection is limited - I'm still shocked I can find Gardein in Fayetteville, it being vegan wasteland and all, but of what I can get, it's my favorite.

So I've been having them sliced on top of a "salad" (okay, it's just lettuce, I'm out of a lot of veggies and too lazy to run to the store) with a dressing that is equal parts (1 tablespoon each) of extra virgin olive oil, yellow mustard, and agave. So good!!

For dinner I made the jerk seitan from Vegan with a Vengeance.

I knew Livi wouldn't like jerk seitan, so here's her dinner.

Two Nights of Tacos

2010-11-10T18:10:00.001-05:00

Yes, I really had tacos two nights in a row. Mmm, tacos!

Last night's tacos had gardein beefless tips in them. I sauteed them in some lime juice and chili powder (I saute most tex-mex things in lime juice and chili powder) and then I just topped them with some diced tomatoes and olives. (Sorry about the bad pics - now that I have a new camera, I'll work on the bad food porn pics, really I will!)

But Livi didn't want a taco - she didn't even want to try a taco shell. So I got her a tortilla, some seitan we made the day before, some black olives (she loves black olives - sticks them on all her fingers, of course), and some corn.

For tonight's tacos, I used a base of refried beans (canned), tofu (pressed in the tofu xpress, sauteed in lime juice and chili powder, a la Moe's - we like Moe's, though it's no Chipotle), lettuce, tomato and olives. Livi actually tried a bite of taco and liked it! But she decided she'd rather eat the tofu plain though, so she got her dinner in separates as usual.

Two Berry Yummy Smoothies

2010-11-10T18:03:00.001-05:00

Sorry about no post yesterday! I'm having dog issues that I won't share here, given that this is a food blog and I don't want to scare people away!

So yesterday I spent about 4 hours convinced I was going to go sugar free. I got over it. But breakfast was still good! A green smoothie - a frozen banana, some frozen strawberries, some spinach, water, and ground flax seed. Here it is in motion:

Today I had an awesome smoothie! I've never used any juice other than orange juice to make a smoothie but today I used Ocean Spray's no sugar added Cranberry Blueberry juice (which I LOVE). I added a banana (I believe all smoothies need a banana), blueberries, and spinach. It was really great! It may have been one of my top 3 favorite smoothies ever.

My Seitan Stand by and the Death of a Bread Machine

2010-11-08T18:52:00.002-05:00

So today was another day where I had no idea what to make for dinner. In my defense, I have been exhausted since the kid went to the hospital - partly because of stress, perhaps partly because of the topamax I've been taking to help prevent migraines, perhaps partly because I haven't been able to workout because of the hospitalization and my exhaustion. Anyway.

This afternoon I started making seitan because the kiddo asked for some yesterday - I decided on boiled (instead of steamed) so I made the Veganomicon recipe (in case you've never made boiled Seitan, Kennyboy's tutorial is how I managed to make decent seitan the first time). I have found that if I put it in the Kitchen Aid stand mixer and let it go longer, it makes the texture firmer and nicer. Also, I usually just boil mine with water, not broth - this is pretty much just because I don't want to use that much broth (it's a cheapness thing:)

So Livi's dinner was boiled seitan, steamed broccoli, raw carrots, and some pasta with soy free smart balance (it was pretty cheap at a recent excursion to Wal-Mart for Halloween goods (on a side note, it turns out Wal-Mart actually makes me physically ill)).

But for me, what to eat? The original plan for dinner had included fresh made bread - we have a bread machine and we haven't had fresh bread in awhile, so we loaded the bread machine and started it. Here's Livi watching the machine do it's thing:

A little while later, I thought I smelled something funny - a little like burning rubber - but I wasn't sure (darned allergies!). I checked the bread machine and the dough looked funny. I thought it just needed more water so I added a tiny bit and tried to restart it and then I realized - my machine, around 4-5 years old and around $80-$90, was dead. Good bye bread machine. You helped me gain too much weight while I was pregnant and I appreciated you. I'll try to make bread without a bread machine from now on.

So back to my dinner. My stand-by seitan meal is to saute it with green peppers and onions, to make a noochy cheese sauce and throw it all on top of bread and call it a cheese steak. I did that tonight, no onions, using the nacho cheese sauce from Yellow Rose Recipes.

Mofo Dinner #1

2010-11-06T18:47:00.004-04:00

Earlier today I threw some tofu in my tofu press (thanks again Lemon family! <3) with no idea what I wanted to make for dinner. I find that there are some days where I know what dinner is before lunch, but most days I find myself at dinner time with no idea. I think that this is due in large part to the complication of feeding a picky 4 year old.

*Pictures courtesy of my brand new camera! A Panasonic Lumix, because we're going to see Disney Princesses on Ice tomorrow, and you can't bring dSLRs! And I wanted a purse sized camera, so Merry Christmas to me!

So at around 5pm I took the tofu in the tofu press out of the fridge and I had this:

At that point I opened the fridge and picked out the asparagus Livi insisted we buy when we were shopping yesterday. I snapped off the ends, threw them in the colander, and rinsed.

I threw them in a pyrex dish and mixed them with some apple smoked salt and olive oil. Then I decided to bake my tofu (I say bake MY tofu because Livi likes her tofu plain - blech - so I always prepare 3/4 of the block and give her 1/4 of the block cubed). I took out another baking dish and added some braggs, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, veggie broth, and herbs (rosemary, oregano, basil). I mixed them all in the dish and then added the tofu.

I messed with my baking time a bit because of cooking the asparagus at the same time and because I got hungry, but it was cooked at 425-450º for 20 minutes or so, flipped, and then for 15 or so minutes.

Dinner! Served on top of leftover brown rice.

Fayetteville Restaurant Reviews, Part 1

2010-11-05T18:23:00.002-04:00

The Bombay Bistro
5945 Cliffdale Road
Fayetteville, NC

By far my favorite place to eat around here. They have a menu but I always just eat off the buffet. They always have white rice, flavored rice, pita bread, and some sauces (some vegan, some not). There are usually veggie pakoras and then there are 3 veggie options (which have always been vegan on my visits, and the staff is friendly and knowledgeable about what I can eat). Then there are 3 chicken options (I think the other 3 are always chicken - I don't ever look that close;)

The Fresh Cafe
212 Hay Street
Fayetteville, NC

Livi and I went here after going to the kid's museum one day. I had mediocre/high hopes going in and it definitely looked cute. There was a nice waitress and the lady behind the counter was nice too. The selection didn't wow me, but Livi saw watermelon and insisted we stay and then she headed upstairs to sit.

There were only 2 or 3 vegan or practically vegan options. I ordered a sandwich that came with artichoke spread so they substituted hummus instead. It was a cold pita, hummus, cucumber, roasted red pepper (it seemed jarred, I'm not sure if it was or not) and that was it. Here's the kiddo trying a bite:

The best part of the meal was the side potato salad - yums!

My meal, the kid's watermelon and two strawberry lemonades cost us about $16 without tip. I don't see us going back.

My favorite protein smoothie

2010-11-04T18:50:00.003-04:00

Okay, so here it is, my favorite protein smoothie. The one pictured is bigger than then one I'll give a "recipe" for, but it was way too big, so there ya go.

1 cup milk (I use soy milk for extra protein but you can use whatever you'd like)
1 banana
1 cup frozen blueberries (I use Maine blueberries, of course!)
1-2 heaping tablespoon(s) vanilla rice protein

Blend! It's really yummy.

Also, as an example of why my local health food store is ridiculous, I show you this - note the price tag, if you please:

MoFo NoFo - A Parental PSA: Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura

2010-11-04T15:56:00.004-04:00

Okay, there's really no such thing as NoFo, this is just my first post of November, and it's not a food post, so it's not a MoFo post, so it's a post about why it's not a food/MoFo post, and it's a PSA for parents.

On Saturday, October 30th, we went trick or treating. Kiddo decided she wanted to be a black cat and her costume consisted of a black velour track suit from target, a black tail, a headband with black ears, and these little gloves. The pants were a size 4/5 and were a bit too long despite the fact that most 5s fit her perfectly.

We went with some friends and we were waiting for the kids a few steps away. Livi went up the steps to trick or treat and when she turned around I saw that bad moment when I knew she was going to fall and I yelled "S**t" as she fell and landed on her face. The scene of the crime:

I ran over and picked her up and held her. My friend had a Scooby band aid and put it on her chin and I saw that Livi's mouth was bleeding. I held her for a few minutes and she ran of to go trick or treating some more, as happy as can be. Later she told me "Every day is a good day, even when you fall on your face."

The next day, Sunday, October 31st, she looked like this:

and on Monday I noticed she had some light vaginal spotting. When I called her doctor's office (the Pediatric clinic at Womack Army Medical Center) they transferred me to get me a referral to an urgent care clinic which resulted in me holding for over 10 minutes, at which point I hung up. Later in the afternoon, I just showed up at the office. As most parents know, sometimes you just want a doctor to look at your kid and tell you that they're fine. But when the nurse looked at Livi, she looked a little longer than I expected and then she ran to get a doctor and came back with a doctor and a student, at which point I realized there was something wrong. The cause of her concern? Little spots on Livi's torso which I had noticed, but which I had assumed were tiny bruises from gravel or rocks from her fall. They told me the spots were petichiae and they ran blood tests (a horrifying experience because Livi SCREAMED) at which point they found out her platelet count was 8000 (a normal count is apparently 150,000-450,000) and I was told she'd have to stay in the hospital for two days.

So that's where I've been - in the hospital with my kiddo. She actually had a pretty good time - we had a private room and they gave her special markers for drawing on the windows and they moved kitchen toys into her room to play with (she wasn't allowed to leave the room because of her low platelet count she was/is a bleed risk) and she got to watch lots of TV. She kept calling it vacation and the best day ever. That is of course except for the times when they were abusing her with needles - it took them 7 or 8 tries to get her IV in and they tied her down with that horrible papoose thing and they tried separating us to see if that made it better and I'll never ever ever forget her screams or the way her eyes pooled with tears and the way she looked at me. I pulled a mean mama bear and tried to steal her away twice and the anesthesiologist finally got the IV in good after he mentioned that his 7 year old had the same problem 3 weeks ago - I asked him how many times he stuck his kid and he said 14! I commented about that being unacceptable or horrible or something of that nature. After that, the IV was in good. Mama bear to the rescue! GRRR.

The doctor who diagnosed her said we'd get to leave Wednesday morning, that vegan meals would be no problem, and that the hospital definitely had WiFi. Translation? Mostly vegan, no WiFi, and the thread of Thursday, with a last minute reprieve to late Wednesday night. Her platelet count which started at 8000 went to 5000 then 7000 then 12000 (but they got tinier so that's bad) and then they went to 51000 big platelets (after the doc told me that if she had 50,000 or more platelets he wouldn't care how big they were, he'd send her home.

So anyway, the point of this post is that people seemed to think I was a genius for being on top of this situation and for getting her taken care of so fast - it was all coincidence! Apparently ITP - Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura - is usually preceded by a virus - and most commonly presents as bruising too easily or odd/easily bleeding. Your daily PSA! Also? She never felt sick - not once.

Here's our hospital room:

Here she is demonstrating the irony of our bed situation:

Here's baby jail - poor babies - this thing is scary!

Medical equipment for dummies?

I wondered if the butter on the dinner was vegan . . .

and then I found out what butter they use . . .

. . . all the butter is vegan! But the bread isn't.

Her cousins sent her a bear with a balloon! She was happy to have mail.

Food post later today or tomorrow morning!

P90X: Not for Weight Loss?

2010-10-23T19:59:00.000-04:00

Once again, from the Women's P90X results thread another great post, linked over from Steve Edward's blog - a post on P90X and weight loss:

I haven't been too strict with diet over the course of the program. But since I always eat decently my results are progressing just fine. For the next two weeks, however, I'm going to get a bit stricter and force the next set of results.

The P90X is a performance diet, not a weight loss diet. While you are likely to lose weight on it that is not its priimary function. This is in contrast to every other diet we offer with our programs. It's also why if you run the calorie calculations for X compared to with our other tools you'll end up with more calories. Because X is advanced we assume that anyone going into it has a higher fitness level and percentage of fat to muscle. We have a fit test, that if you can pass, means this is true. So the average person beginning X will consume at least 500 more calories a day than someone beginning our of our regular programs because their BMR should be much higher.

When I advise people beginning X I don't emphasize a weight loss plan, even if their aim is to lose weight. Paramout in X is recovery and you must eat enough to recover if you want your performance to increase. In a more de-conditioned state, as you're more likely to begin one of our entry programs, we suggest you begin with weight loss because you're not yet fit enough to incure serious breakdown from your workouts. So we severely limit calorie consumption as your fitness builds its base.

In a beginner program as your body composition changes you need to eat more to keep results coming because you have to feed your new muscle mass, even in order to keep fat loss happening. For this reason the number one piece of advise we give our longterm members is to eat more calories once they've hit that initial plateau. In X, if you undereat you'll simply never recover and your results will stagnate from the start.

The phased diet plan in X was designed for our average X customer but isn't meant to be set in stone. Here is my post on periodizational dieting. I like this plan for most people, but I ammend it for my friends, especially athletic friends who've gotten a little our of shape, like me during this round of X.

For these types I generally recommend eating anything you want during the initial stages of X. The reason is that we need to recover above all else. The chances are, also, that we'll be doing at least some other exercise. Most of us are training for sports as well the X will always have a double element, even in its initial block. We don't recommend this in our program guide--and wouldn't even necessarily recommend it for athletes. But the reality is that athletes like playing their games and are probably going to, at least to some degree, all of the time. Btw, I'm going to post on sports-specific X routines later on.

I'll always show some restraint with my diet when training but, essentially, if I am desperately hungry I'll pig out. I'm not really a habitual eater. When I'm hungry it's usually due to body breakdown. However, I don't always fuel myself properly. During the initial stages of an exercise program (unless I'm on a very tight schedule) I'll generally fuel myself with whatever I feel like eating, even if it's junk-ish. If I want pizza and beer; that's what I have. And I don't care if this causes me to gain weight initially as long as I'm recovering well enough that I can continually improve the intensity of my training.

At some point, however, bad eating becomes simply bad eating. This is when it's time to streamline. I think I'm at that point. I feel good. My training is beginning to make big leaps along with my fitness. Yesterday I did a group ride and beat my time up Emigration canyon by about 25% from a month ago. I'm recovering with what I eat but I can tell I'm eating a little more than I need. So it's time to start ditching those extra calories. To borrow a broken English term from Arnold back in his Pumping Iron days, it's time to get my diet "to a point."

When the fitness is there it's important to note the cutting calories will have a dramatic effect, and that it could be bad. You need to feed your body and over the next two weeks I'm going to border on not feeding it enough. This helps improve fat metabolism--really important for endurance events--but can lead to chronic overtraining quickly if it's pushed too far. But as far as visible results go, this is when they happen rapidly.

At which point I won't tell you what happened when I got on the scale today :P But on the up side, one of my protege's (I don't know what else to call her;) is down 6.6lbs! In 29 days! I'm so jealous/proud!

Veganizing Shakeology Recipes

2010-10-20T08:34:00.000-04:00

So last week at my local Vitamin Shoppe I bought Paradise ORAC-Energy Protein Greens. I was sitting on the floor of the store with the kiddo in front of the protein section looking for something that looked like Shakeology (which I will definitely try as soon as the vegan version comes out, and I will update you guys as soon as I hear any info on that - last I heard they were still trying to decided on a protein source for it).

So I remembered that Shakeology has a LOT of ingredients including various healthy whole grains and lots of berries, and so does the Paradise Protein and I bought it. It tastes a little...green and I had it a few times and wasn't sure I loved it. And then I heard someone refer to the Greenberry Shakeology as "Grassberry" and I figured the flavor profile was similar :) So last night I went to the Shakeology recipe page and picked out a recipe I had the ingredients for and I settled on the Key Lime Dream. I used 1 cup of kikkoman soy milk, the juice of 1 lime, 1 tablespoon of Matt Kenney's Ohgave! ($4.79 at TJ Maxx!) and a serving (two scoops) of the PP (Paradise Protein). The result? Oddly good!

(Will post picture here later - I have to get ready for my follow-up appointment with the allergist.)

This morning's breakfast? Shakeology Banana Sunshine! Orange juice, banana, PP.

The Scale is Not Your Friend!

2010-10-19T09:55:00.000-04:00

So we hear it all the time, but it's really hard to believe, isn't it? If that number isn't moving, or it's moving the wrong way, we must be doing something wrong - right? Wrong! Not to say that I don't feel the same way - even to this very day - but I'm trying to learn.

Take me, for example. Today is day 45 for me of P90X and the scale has gone down a pound or two since I started. Yep. Only a pound or two. And yet my legs, which always look nice are now solid, and my arms are much more toned (I actually got distracted by a new muscle in my arm the other day while tearing foil for Vegan Comfort Food sausages and tore off way too tiny a piece of foil - haha). When I stand in front of the mirror, I can tell from certain angles that I am thinner (tell that to my pants!) and I just touched my side more toward my back and there was definitely less of it. Also? Last night I tried on a pair of American Eagle jeans that are so lovingly worn in and sure, I had to lie down to get them buttoned and it gave me a horrible muffin top, but I got them on!! I couldn't get them on a few months ago.

So my scale? It's under the sink. Fork off, scale. I'll see you once a week, and if I don't like what you have to tell me, then I'm going to forget it happened.

More on P90X and Vegan Nutrition

2010-10-18T19:09:00.001-04:00

Don't mind me, I'm just attempting the never ending quest to read the P90X Women's thread :)

Just for fun, here's the kiddo. She's mad cause I was taking her picture.

First? I found an article on changing from the inside out.

Then I found this info. I was going to ask the member who posted it if I could post it, but it seems like she pulled it from somewhere and she seems to be inactive. She said it's from a Beachbody Nutrition Advice Staff Guru.

"Phase 1 of the diet plan is not designed to put you into ketosis--at least not for very long. It's designed to, essentially, wring the carbohydrates out of your system until you have trouble with the workouts. At this point, you begin to add them back in. In our experience this is the best way to teach people about nutrient ratios because once you do this you'll understand, by experience, why carbohydrates are important in your diet.

Unfortunately, we don't really address vegetarians and, especially, vegans. There are a few reasons for this. Primarily it's that those who take the time to eliminate meat already have an understanding of how nutrition affects the body and, two, they are far less likely to be overweight. There's also the issue of bulk of information. We would really need to write a different book.

This is always an issue when designing one program and one diet for everyone. It's impossible to cover every individual need. This is why we offer support areas, like the Message Boards. We do the best we can within the medium we work in. It's not individual consulting. But you can't get an individual to train your for 12 weeks and monitor your diet for 150 bucks either. You'll get two one-hour sessions.

One very important aspect to our phased diet plan that is often overlooked is the part that tells you only to remain in each phase for as long as it feels good. As we state, phase one might only last a few days for some people. The fitter you are, the less likely you'll be able to eat this way doing P90X.

The reason that it's important is that most people eat too much sugar. They also eat too much fatty meat, too much dairy, and not enough plants but first things first. Eating sugar and refined carbs all day long causes a pronounced effect on a person's energy levels. So eliminating this, using whatever means necessary, is the most effective first steps we've found that work for the highest percentage of people. When carbs are added back into the diet (and especially as they learn the difference between complex carbs and those encased in a fiber, like fruit and sugars) it creates an instant understand in the relationship that nutrient ratios play in one's diet.

Phase 3 of the plan is the goal. Not everyone will earn it. But this is a phase where you are eating for an active lifestyle, where your percentage of protein is much lower. If you are healthy and active that is the best way to eat. But those trying to lose weight and change poor dietary habits generally need a bit of structure in how they change their diet. This is what we've tried to provide with the diet plan.

It's not the perfect diet, but it's our best shot at one solution that will affect the highest percentage of people."

and then she said...

Hope this helps. It sure helped me to realize that it is a misconception that you can only lose fat/gain muscle with high protein/low carbs. In fact, here's another recent quote from Beachbody advice staff in answer to a forum member's question about why such a reduction of protein and increase in carbs for Phase III:

"Because you don't need it. It's just there to fill the gaps as you wring the carbs from your system [to teach you what your body needs to keep going]. Other than that, it doesn't do anything. The average person can only absorb about 30g of protein at once. People who pile on the stuff aren't really achieving anything."

Food . . . meh

2010-10-18T18:34:00.001-04:00

So it's funny that I spent I don't know how long making sure I was eating around 1200 calories a day, and now that I can eat 1800+, I frequently find myself full by around 1300 calories. Ho hum.

I saw my new neurologist the other day for my migraines, and she started me on the generic version of Topamax, and apparently one of the side effects of that is loss of appetite. I can't quite tell if my lack of appetite is because of that or if it happened right before I started the meds.

Here are a few days on sparkpeople:

10/11:

10/14:

10/16:

10/17:

And then here's today so far:

And it's about that point in the day where if I eat now, it's almost definitely going to make me sick. Ho hum!

So in regards to P90X, some of me thinks "hurray! I'm at least 500 calories under my recommended intake! I'm sure to lose weight" and part of me thinks "oh crud, I'm under my recommended calorie intake, I'm doomed!" I was in a Beachbody chat with Steve Edwards today and he had some things to say on calorie intake - I have to find the info and research it more and I'll get back to you.

eta: I'm also super tired lately - perhaps another side effect?

Heart Rates

2010-10-13T20:01:00.002-04:00

So like a good girl, I finally bought a heart rate monitor, and I now wear it when I do Kenpo, Plyometrics and Cardio.

But last night Kitteh (as opposed to Kittee) asked about what heart rate zone she should be working on. I recall having always heard that one should work out at 60-85% of their max, but being a good coach, I looked it up just to be certain.

Here's the info the Beachbody heart rate calculator gave me -

and then I found this page

So based upon the info from those pages, I say that the temperate zone (125-144 for me) is good for fat burning, but that I should be aiming for the aerobic zone (144-164 for me) for maximum calorie burning.

And on that note, I've been doing my workouts - almost all of them - at night after the kiddo goes to bed and I've been noticing my heart rate never goes above 150 at the absolute most. A few days ago I did Cardio X in the morning and it went over 150 and I felt better doing the workout. And then I thought of my friend Alison from NH. I met Alison at my old gym, and she was so cool - she just worked so hard the whole time running back and forth from treadmill to weight room endlessly. And I remember that some days Alison would say she was too tired and couldn't get in her zone. So then it hit me! When I do cardio at night I can't get into my ideal heart rate zone! So from now on, I will somehow squeeze my cardio in during the day.

I hope some of this info has been helpful! Also? If I'm totally wrong about any of this, just post and let me know!

I'M NOT MEDICALLY TRAINED. Just remember that :)

My eating habits the last few days

2010-10-13T19:45:00.004-04:00

So I somehow slacked in tracking what I've been eating the last few days.

Here is Monday:

Yesterday and today I primarily have been eating Averie's PB Oat Protein Bars (but with almond butter, because peanut butter seems to give me migraines). I've felt a little off my game eating - sometimes (what seems to be) my IBS makes me generally wary of eating, so if something sounds good I'll eat it. Also, if I have food around that isn't the healthiest (come on, I put chocolate chunks in those bars!) then I kind of eat it until it's gone (which is why I sometimes make something, eat a little bit, and throw out the rest). But the bars are almost gone, so I'll be better again :)

I tried to start today with a smoothie (banana, rice protein, flax, kale, almond milk) but it made my stomach hurt so I couldn't finish it. (I wonder if it was the Almond Breeze I had today as opposed to the Kikkoman Soy I've been having?)

Anyway. More food another day!

ETA: Just found this in the Women's P90X thread! (Shortly after I read that Tony disapproves of Clif bars, when I've been eating and LOVING the Clif Builder's Bars.)

Issue: #56, February 13, 2008
Tony's Top 10 Snacks
Tony Horton, creator of P90X®
I rotate through this list of in-between goodies all week long. I'll even use the PROBAR and the protein shake as meal substitutes. Most of the things on this list can be packed up for travel time. The bars, pretzels, nuts, and graham crackers are perfect fast foods for when you're away from home. So no more excuses! Here are my top 10 snacks.

1.My sticky bar of course (with banana, peanut butter, and granola); see below
2.Almond butter (thinly spread) on organic whole-grain toast
3.Snyder's of Hanover Organic Oat Bran Pretzels
4.PROBAR nutrition bar (original blend), 380 calories of pure joy—and 100% vegan
5.Protein shake—made with banana, half cup of frozen blueberries and strawberries, one tablespoon of flaxseed meal, two ice cubes, protein powder, and rice milk
6.Food For Life's Ezekiel 4:9 cereal with almonds mixed into 8 ounces of plain nonfat yogurt and half cup of fresh blueberries
7.Handful of raw mixed nuts
8.Mi-Del Honey Grahams (whole wheat; eight crackers are 280 calories)
9.CLIF Nectar bars—I like the cinnamon pecan (four organic ingredients and only 170 calories)
10.LARABAR snack bars (ingredients: dates, pecans, almonds; 220 calories)

Tony's Sticky Bar
1/2 medium-size banana
1/4 cup chunky peanut butter (organic minus hydrogenated oils, preferably)
1 cup unsweetened granola

Mix and mash all three ingredients into a bowl. Spoon onto a sheet of wax paper. Roll up the contents into hot dog/cigar shape. Stick in the freezer. Ready in about 90 minutes. Cut off little bites or eat the whole thing. Eat it frozen or throw it in the microwave for 10 seconds. Serves 2.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Freezing Time: 90 minutes

Nutritional Information: (per serving)

Calories: 389 Protein: 14 g Cholesterol: 0 mg
Fat Total: 17 g Saturated Fat: 4 g Carbs: 47 g

Waiting for results

2010-10-11T17:50:00.003-04:00

So here I am on day 36 of P90X Classic and although I've lost 2" from my waist and about 1 1/2" from my hips and 1/4" from my neck, I still haven't lost any pounds. This is, of course, disheartening - I had hoped (unreasonably so) to lose 2 pounds a week and be wearing smaller jeans by now. I'm not - my waist is kind of high and I wear pants at my hips, so I'm still in the same size. Normally by this point, after all t his work, I'd give up. But I'm not going to this time! Why? A few reasons.

1. That excel spreadsheet I linked to in my previous post has a cool calculator that somehow magically figures out based on the information I put in, how much fat I'm changing to muscle. I don't know if it's totally accurate - it probably isn't - but it's a good reminder that I'm converting fat to muscle and I should have patience. Increasing my muscle mass will help rev up my metabolism.

2. In the Beachbody forums there is a P90X Women's Results thread that is REALLY long that lists the amazing results women are getting. Here is some of my favorite info from that thread so far - all from a user named juleeglu who is one of my new favorite people:

Tony Horton has been heard to say himself...that during the "test phase" of this P90X Program...MANY (he says nearly ALL) of the women that participated were frustrated and wanted to QUIT in the 1st month...MAINLY, because they were not seeing ENOUGH of a change.
He begged them (as did the nutritionist) to be patient. His theory is...if we have extra weight on us, it didn't come on over night....so it will not come off over night!

Women, also, because we carry less muscle..for genetic reasons..will gain muscle first on this program..before we lose anything. Muscle weighs more, which I am sure you know....and right now (especially in the first 30-45 days) your body is adjusting to this LIFESTYLE change. So the muscle has to fight against any fat on your body...They are actually fighting for the same space. And because you are eating right..and everyday "pushing play"...one of them is going to quit the fight...and it will be the fat we have stored.

The Test Group also reported that their Greatest Changes happened between days 70-90.
With the greatest reward at day 120?? GO back and look at my pictures I posted a couple days back...there was barely a change in the 1st 30 days...my greatest change so far was definitely days 45 to now(day 65).

So the moral...hang in there...you are "CHANGING" you just cannot see it yet.

and...

The women from test Group and Pilot Group, both reported "greatest" results occur between day 60 and day 90.(with the peak of results at day 120) I personally had a Huge Change around days 48-50. I would go to bed and have lost weight while I slept. You body fights this New Change for the first month...as it takes three weeks to mentally create a habit..the body (muscle and fat) take about 5-6 weeks to respond in a large way. I had incredible results in the 1st 7 days...I took pictures on week one as well...and was inspired by the change..But the Reward kicks in for phase 3. Today is day 89 for me. DAY 89!!!!!!!!

I personally found that P90X and Tony just became part of my day...just like brushing my teeth, or having my coffee...it was just now something I did. The only question was am..mid day or..pm?? Don't get on the scale. THAT DOES NOT MATTER. This is a program that was made to Re-Shape your body and mind....and to turn you into an optimal metabolizing machine. You are re-training your body on how your life will be lived..allow the time for the adjustments. It is like going from Kindergarten to Senior yr in 90 days....it cannot happen too fast..or it WILL NOT WORK for the long run!!

I cry now when I try on my spring and summer wardrobe..that is the change that matters...All the clothes that I loved sooo much are now back on my body! I only had 10 pounds to lose and I am down 12, and I wanted my 36" hips back from the 39" they had become from 2 kids. Well, they are now at day 89: 35"!!!!!!

So breathe in and breathe out...eat smart, get sleep...and spend a hour with Tony each day.
Find new ways to do the routines...download them onto your itouch...take Yoga X outside...do Cardio on the back porch....whatever it takes.!!!!

And from Steve Edwards,

There is a structure that is designed for you to see the greatest results in the latter part of the program. Essentially, each block is designed to have an adaptation phase, followed by a growth (or mastery) phase. In between we have recovery (that are more like transition phases). Because even the transition phases are hard, you body is in a constant state of adaptation throughout the beginning of the program (varies with indivudual but this is the general plan), that is designed for you to peak late in the program.  In any program you plan for a peak. X is designed to peak late. Once you've adapted to a set routine you have a short peak period where fitness gains happen very rapidly. In a perfect world, we've set this up to happen in block three. And this is where most people make the greatest improvements.  As an example, during our initial test group there was nearly a mutiny due to lack of gains. This was because our small group (4 people) was in breakdown through the first two stages and weren't seeing great results. The all wanted us (me and Tony) to alter the schedule of the program. I drew a chart on a blackboard, showing them what was supposed to happen. Tony backed me up and the program stayed as designed. All of those people's results went nuts during block three and they stopped complaining.

So hopefully that information helps you out, motivates you, keeps you going. I'm more than 1/2 way to the 3rd part, at which point I should be in much better shape on the outside as well as the inside.

And why am I trying to lose weight? Well, this is me, 12 days before my daughter was born.

And this was me in high school, after I lost 30 pounds:

P90X Diet Info

2010-10-11T14:46:00.004-04:00

So the P90X Diet plan can be tough enough to figure out without trying to figure out how to do it vegan (I'm hoping that since they're working on a vegan formulation of Shakeology now, that more vegan friendly P90X and Beachbody stuff isn't far behind!:) and I've spent a lot of time thinking and reading. As you can see from the picture below, I've actually spent a lot of time working on "perfect" ratios of food - here is the side of my fridge - clockwise from the top left that's Jillian Michaels' diet plan, Jae Steele's plan from Get It Ripe, Dr. Fuhrman's plan from Eat to Live and the vegan food pyramid (and the Kripalu ad, cause I'd love to go to Kripalu (assuming I didn't have to be away from my awesome kiddo for more than a day, hence part of my no Kripalu for me problem!)).

Yesterday I found this youtube video on planning out your meals. Here's a picture summary of the plan:

Inspired by that, I'm trying it out today. Here's my day so far, the sticky note way!

Breakfast - 9oz of house brand firm tofu scrambled with the VwaV spices and spinach.

Lunch - smoothie! 16 oz of kikkoman unsweetened vanilla soy milk, 1 banana, 2 tbsp rice protein, 1 tbsp ground flax, 1/2 of a frozen peach.

But then sometimes I think "self, you actually do a good job most days of eating a healthy, varied diet - why not just be a good vegan and go with that?" And on that note, from this thread, I found the following info regarding P90X and being a vegan.

From Tony Horton's chef, Missy Costello.

In the vegan diet you will get your fat, carbs and proteins sometimes from the same source, so just watch the calorie intake and try to eat as clean as possible.

Here is Missy’s suggest

A.m. H2O upon waking up

Drink greens mixture about 30 minutes after waking

Breakfast: High fiber, whole grain cereal

Snack: Nuts (handful)

Lunch: Protein and green veggies

Snack: Fruit and Veggie

Dinner: Grains and Veggies

Optional: Fruit, Veggie Starch

You’ll get your protein from Quinoa, legumes, nuts, you’ll also get your healthy fats from nuts too. Don’t worry too much about how to label the food as to get in a nice, healthy variety.

Sub in legumes and nuts for proteins and green veggies for dairy.

Here's a list of what I ate yesterday from Sparkpeople.

And a picture of dinner! The empty spot on the kiddo's plate was soon filled with pasta.

And just for the heck of it, here's "appliance row"

And my door of kiddo art!

Helpful P90X Tools I've found

2010-10-10T17:02:00.001-04:00

The coolest thing I've found is this awesome excel spreadsheet. You plug in your start date and it tells you when your workouts are and calculates more things than I could possibly tell you. I'm so sorry, I have no idea who created it.

Also, I spent so long trying to find the best calculator to calculate calories burned from my kinda basic heart rate monitor, and I just realized there's one ON the Beachbody site - duh me! (As a note on the HRM, it's fine, but the strap feels like it might tear soon and I think I'd like more functions on it.)

The previously mentioned diet worksheets.

That's all I can think of right now but I'm sure they're more - I'll update this post as I think of some!

ETA: I left out the two calculators I found to change my heart rate monitor info to calories burned! I found two and I take the average of the numbers I get to determine my calories burned.

P90X - Food ramblings, part 1

2010-10-10T14:28:00.000-04:00

I've been going around a bit working on my diet (I only use the word diet to refer to what I eat, not with the goal of weight loss, but just as it is) to fit with the P90X nutrition guide and at the same time, of course, to veganize it, and to be careful of anything that might trigger my migraines or IBS - it's a little on the complex side.

My P90X coach, BeFit4U, aka Karen, gave me a useful link for printouts to use to track what you're eating if you're following the P90X nutrition guide. They're certainly a good idea - I have been writing down what I eat almost every single day for 3+ years in a tiny notebook and that by itself clearly isn't getting me anywhere.

My friend, the lovely Luciana, aka designed to be kind or dtbk, has been reading The Thrive Diet (which I would love to do, if any of my local libraries would carry it) and summarized some great info for me:

Brendan recommends, by volume 45% greens and fibrous vegetables, 20% pseudograins, seeds, legumes, 20% fruit, 10% nuts, cold-pressed oils, and avocado, and 5% whole grains and starchy vegetables.

Also, the recovery shake used by non-vegan P90Xers is a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein (which I'm still working on - I get a little thrown given that phase 2 of the diet is supposed to be equal ratios of carbs:protein overall).

So that's it for random information for this post. I started doubles today (I'm staring phase 2 week 2 today - I didn't realize I could start doubles until last night) so I did Cardio X this morning and I'll do Chest/Shoulders/Triceps and Ab Ripper tonight.

Breakfast was a green smoothie - 1 banana, 1 cup spinach, 1 cup kikkoman soy milk, 1 tbsp ground flax, 2 tbsp nutribiotic rice protein (it's yummy, actually) and 1/2 of a frozen peach. Okay, breakfast was actually a cup of coffee with silk creamer and sugar - I admit it :) Then I did Cardio X, then I had my smoothie.

I also had 1/2 of a Chocolate Mint Clif Builder's bar for a snack and then lunch was some Kashi Go Lean Crisp Toasted Berry Crumble (a double serving - I was pretty hungry - this morning's workout burned 404 calories!) and a cup of the kikkoman soy milk. In case you're curious - and I bet you are - that's 69g of protein so far today and 995 calories. I have no idea what dinner is yet.

Super Lazy Tofu

2010-10-10T08:40:00.000-04:00

My new magical lazy/easy tofu is helped along by the fact that some of my awesome friends bought me a Tofu XPress!

For my super lazy tofu, I press the tofu for as long as possible (I usually use House brand Extra Firm Tofu which is $1.21 at the commissary (sometimes $.98!!)), 30 minutes to overnight or a little longer. Then I cut it into the thinnest slices I can cut and I dry saute them in my non stick Calphalon (thanks again Dad!).Once they brown up a little on one side I flip them and let them brown up on the second side. Once that is done, I add a tiny splash of braggs, sometimes I add a tiny bit of olive oil, and then I sprinkle one of those salt-free seasonings on top and flip them again for a little bit. This way the tofu is crisp and flavorful - yum!

The kiddo won't eat it this way yet - she still prefers her tofu plain - blech.

I bought out all the kale from the farmer's market!

2010-10-06T19:00:00.001-04:00

That sounds crazy and impressive and rash, doesn't it? But the farmer's market was 3 tents and this is the extent of the kale:

A big thanks to Hale Family Farm for bringing it for me!

Review: Sam Mills Corn Pasta & Mary's Gone Crackers Sticks and Twigs

2010-10-02T17:30:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting here crunching on some Mary's Gone Crackers brand Sticks and Twigs, the sea salt flavor. They're gluten free and have amaranth, millet, quinoa and more. It's odd because some of them have a great flavor, and others taste slightly off - almost fishy. I've had the curry flavored ones before and I think they were better.

For dinner we had Sam Mills 100% Corn Pasta. I keep trying various kinds of gluten free pasta, and quite frankly, the only pasta I really like is regular white pasta. The first time I made this, I followed the directions and cooked it for exactly 9 minutes. Afterwards, I realized that the middle was still really al dente. I didn't like it at all but the kiddo, who also only likes white pasta, seemed to enjoy it. Today I cooked it for 13 minutes and it was better, but I still didn't like it. It's not bad, and it doesn't bother me too much that it tastes like corn, but I won't buy it again.

Food disappointments aside, it didn't go above 75º here today, and all the windows are open and there's a great breeze. Hurray!

The Best of Feeding Tiny Vegans, part 2

2010-10-01T18:36:00.003-04:00

March 21, 2009 - Loves Silk Key Lime Yogurt! So do I.

Monday, April 27, 2009 - T.V. stress!

Wow, this feeding tiny vegans thing is stressful! She loves to ask for things to eat, and because she used to eat what she asked for, all the time, I usually still give her what she asks for in the hope she'll eat it. And she frequently doesn't these days. So she asks for yogurt, I give her yogurt, she ignores it, I put it in a resealable container, and then she refuses to believe whatever is in this reuseable container is edible. Blargh!

Today we had some diluted fruit punch, chocolate silk, watermelon, black olives, strawberries, grapes, brown rice, a bite of tortilla with tvp taco mix, 2 bites of a sunbutter and jelly sandwich cut with our nifty new sandwich cutter:

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 - Pizza

UGH! Our bellies are full, very full, of pizza!

The dough was made in the bread machine, the marinara was scratch from Yellow Rose Recipes by Joanna Vaught, the veggies (mushrooms, red onions, spinach) were sauteed, the fyh mozz MELTED!! I don't know if it matters, but this time I put the cheese on top of the veggies, and I had her help me put the cheese on. And she kept eating and eating!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009 - Bagels

Okay. So T.V. has always been relatively fond of bagels, but we usually just have them with some earth balance or vegan smart balance. But the closest bagel place to us (there aren't a lot) - The Bagel Caboose - has vegan tofu cream cheese! Plain, veggie, and cinnamon raisin! Their bagels kinda suck - they don't even make them there - but the spread . . . mmm! So a bagel with some tofu veggie and some tomato goes over really well.

Grilled Teese and Tomato

So in a PPK arranged swap, I was paired up with Karyn (who just happened to be someone I actually already liked!). She was fabulously awesome enough to send me, in addition to a gazillion other cool things, Teese and Sheese!

So the other day, I made a grilled teese and tomato and a grilled tofutti slice and tomato. And the tofutti was okay but the teese was awesome. So awesome that T.V. ate 3/4 of a sandwich!! She has NEVER eaten that much sandwich. Victory!

Thursday, July 9, 2009 - More YRR Sucesses!

So I busted out my personally signed copy of Yellow Rose Recipes by the amazing Joanna Vaught yesterday and made Green-Wa. And today I made scrambled tofu. And T.V. ate some of each! A wonder.

Oh, what's that? You're wondering what the heck green-wa is? It's quinoa with an awesome green tinge, brought about by scallions, (blended!) spinach and peas. Veggies, calcium, protein! Rock on. ROCK ON. I used parsley instead of the required cilantro cause that's what I had. Which was dumb, cause I hate parsley and love cilantro. But it was still good!!

Yes, I hate parsley. And yes, I love cilantro. Cilantro haters confuse me.

What's next from YRR? Cajun tofu, tofu marsala, black bean and sweet potato burritos. Not necessarily in that order.

Thanks again, Joanna!

Thursday, March 25, 2010 - Missy Chase Lapine's "The Sneaky Chef"

Hi! Sorry it's been so long - I've been having toddler feeding issues with not enough success. I realize that's kinda the point of this blog, so I'll be better :)

Yesterday at the library I got out Missy Chase Lapine's "The Sneaky Chef." Now, I had hoped way back when that I wouldn't need these sort of sneaky tricks - hoping that as a 99%+ vegan kid, T.V. would be naturally inclined to love everything I feed her. HA! Anyway, I was just thumbing through the book, and I'm pretty excited to try a few recipes. It's true, it's not vegan, so I'll be working with the more easily veganizable recipes. First up? Health-by-Chocolate Cookies featuring a flour blend that includes white flour, whole wheat flour and wheat germ, and purple puree which includes spinach and blueberries; and Cheesy Animal Crackers that include the flour blend and chickpeas! I think we'll make the crackers today and the cookies tomorrow.

So why am I so interested in sneaking these things into T.V.? Her two favorite foods right now are butter sandwiches (I can get whole wheat into her unless her dad is around - he doesn't eat whole wheat) and pasta. White pasta only. With butter, not sauce. The best I can do for squeezing in healthier stuff is to add butter (smart balance organic) and sea salt and pepper and nooch and garlic powder and some miso.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - Sneaky Unbelievable Chocolate Chip Cookies

Unbelievable? I think so! They're in the oven now, but the batter - wow! So what's in these cookies? Most amazingly - white beans!! Now, I know - I have always shuddered at beans in sweet things - like the oh so popular black bean brownies - but really - they don't taste beany! T.V. and I sampled a tiny bit of the dough and it was good! Also inside: whole wheat flour, spelt flour (I'm out of white), wheat germ, oats, and flax seed (my egg substitute). I'm not going to calculate nutritional info, but if I can get T.V. to eat beans, I'm psyched. The true test? To see if the husband eats them! >:D

Friday, June 25, 2010 - Popchips!

At Target the other day, I was scouring the back aisles (that's where they put clearance stuff - the back aisles in every section) when I saw a bag of multigrain popchips! marked down to $1.38! We'd tried the original before and it was a big hit, so I grabbed a bag. I opened them in the car after turning on the air conditioner (it's been over 100º with the heat index lately - here I'll mention that New Englanders do NOT belong this far south) and T.V. and I began scarfing them down - they're good!

The ingredients: whole grains (steel cut oats, wheat, brown rice, rye, triticale, barley, buckwheat, quinoa), whole grain flours (corn, brown rice, oat, oat bran, corn bran, barley, rye, buckwheat, millet), safflower oil and/or sunflower oils, sesame seeds, sea salt.

And I say again - they're so good! Love. A bit concerned that the multigrain flavor was on clearance and that it's not shown on the site . . .