Ringing in the New Year with Whole Foods: Part 2....

Well, I haven’t been very good at keeping y’all updated on what I’ve been eating this January, and I haven’t even been very good at making sure to take pictures of everything. I’ve had a lot of projects lately keeping me busy and in less then a month my husband and I will be in Europe so blogging hasn’t exactly been my top priority of late.

I have however eaten some really awesome stuff lately, and I’ve even taken pictures of some of it to share with you. So I’ll keep the words to a minimum and let the pictures do the talking!

Onion and Herb Socca 

Roasted Sweet Potato Salsa 

A couple of times for lunch I made this delicious Onion and Herb Socca from Tess Masters book “The Blender Girl” I haven’t made much out of this book so far, but what I have has been delicious and this socca is no exception. I love Socca, and it paired absolutely beautifully with the Roasted Sweet Potato Salsa from Martha Stewart’s book “Meatless” this is really delicious, and hearty yet light salsa made with roasted sweet potatoes, avocado, tomato, lime, onion, olive oil, cilantro and salt. So good!

Salsa and Socca 

Other delicious lunches have included the Maple Dijon Brussels Sprouts from Judith Wignall’s book “Raw and Simple” this is a really simple dish of shredded sprouts, cranberries, pecans and a tasty maple Dijon dressing. My husband and I also really enjoyed Judith’s Cauliflower Couscous also from “Raw and Simple” This is Cauliflower diced up to look like grains of couscous, then chopped tomatoes, olives, parsley, mint, olive oil, red onion, lemon juice, garlic, salt, cumin and paprika are folded into it. This tasted amazingly like a cooked tabbouleh. So fantastic!

Maple Dijon Brussels Sprouts 

Cauliflower Couscous 

A few nights for dinner we had the delicious Creole White Beans from Kathy Hester’s book “The Great Vegan Bean Book” This is really simple dish of white beans, simmered with onion, bell pepper and creole spices. This dish was so creamy, and so flavorful despite the short ingredient list. I just loved it served over a bed of brown rice.  Yum!

Creole White Beans 

Other dinners have included the Dinosaur Kale and White Bean Caesar Salad from Gena Hamshaw’s book “Going Raw” though I neglected to take a picture of this fantastic, flavorful salad. We also really enjoyed her Raw Carrot Falafel which was mind-blowingly awesome! Seriously! I had my eye on this recipe for a while but always felt intimidated by it. I thought it was going to be complicated, but really it’s not, it just takes a bit of advanced planning. You have to be take the dehydration time into consideration and you need carrot pulp left over from juicing. So the day before I made this I made carrot juice and saved the pulp and then this came together super easy in the early afternoon and was ready in time for dinner. There’s a Tangy Tahini sauce that goes with it and Gena suggests serving it on a salad though we decided to roll the falafel’s into lettuce leaves and eat them burrito style. I can not stress enough just how incredible this dish was! If you own “Going Raw” you need to make it!

Raw Carrot Falafel

Also to accompany the falafel I made Gena’s Curried Sweet Potato Hummus which was just as mind-blowing! Such a great subtle curry flavor, and a smooth creamy finish from the blended sweet potato.

Curried Sweet Potato Hummus 

We also had Gena’s Raw Pad Thai which was also amazing. I’m a big fan of Pad Thai and I was really craving noodles. However since I was doing mostly raw during January I didn’t want to cave and eat wheat noodles - kelp noodles to the rescue! This recipe is really simple and comes together quick, it’s just kelp noodles, carrot, red cabbage, zucchini, cilantro and I added some green onion. The sauce is almond butter, tamarind, sesame oil, tamari, maple syrup, ginger, and water. So easy, and you feel so clean afterwards!

Raw Pad Thai 

Lastly from Gena’s book we had the Heat-Free Lentil Walnut tacos. This was another really easy dish. I cooked the lentils a day ahead of time and then it came together so fast. All you do is throw lentils, walnuts, salt, sun-dried tomatoes, and spices into your food processor and make a ‘meat’ then you fill up some lettuce leaves and serve with corn, avocado, and your favorite salsa. Now, I’ll be honest, these are not my favorite raw ‘nut-meat’ taco, but they were damn good and they seriously won over my husband who I’m sure you know by now is an avid nut hater. So that’s saying something.

Heat-Free Lentil Walnut Tacos 

Now, breakfast. I didn’t take too many breakfast pictures for one simple reason. I’ve mostly been eating the same kind of raw cereal I mentioned last time. Or smoothies. Sometimes I make that avocado scramble I talked about last time, or I just eat an avocado on it’s own, or with some fruit.

But I did try a few new things, such as this Strawberry Mylkshake from Emily Von Euw’s book “100 Best Juices, Smoothies, and Healthy Snacks.” this was really creamy and flavorful and the perfect sweet, decadent but healthy wake-up.

Strawberry Mylkshake

My favorite breakfast smoothie though is the flavor-packed Happy Monkey smoothie from “Raw and Simple” it’s got Cacao powder, Cacao Nibs, Coconut, Coconut Milk, Banana and Almond Butter. OMG heaven in a glass!

Happy Monkey

One morning I was especially famished and so I decided to try something really ‘out-there.’ I made the Buckwheat Oat Biscuits from Amber Shea Crawley’s book “Practically Raw” unfortunately I forgot to plan this ahead of time and so I didn’t have the time to make it in the dehydrator. Instead I used the bake option in the directions and baked these little biscuits in the oven. I did however top them with the mind-blowing delicious Maple Miso Butter that she suggests. Man, that maple miso butter is worth the price of the book alone, trust me! I also served these with a bit of Tarragon Plum Jam and an extra drizzle of maple syrup.

Buckwheat Oat Biscuits &
Maple Miso Butter 

Oh, and I nearly forgot, we also had some tasty desserts, mostly from “Going Raw” the only one I had the foresight to photograph though was this tasty Raw Blueberry Ginger Ice Cream. I served it up with an extra drizzle of maple syrup and a few cacao nips and sesame seeds. Damn, raw ice cream I so good!

Raw Blueberry Ginger Ice Cream 

So that’s about it. Now that we’re in February I’m still going with the whole foods thing. Limiting - but not completely excluding gluten and sugar - I’ve added a bit of coffee back in, maybe a couple of cups per week, but I’ve been using coconut milk and coconut sugar to sweeten it, and when I have coffee out I try to take it as plain as possible. I feel pretty good, and I’ve really been enjoying trying all these new dishes. It’s a lot of fun to utilize cook books I don’t always get around to!

Ringing In The New Year With Whole Foods....

Republic Of Tea
Double Green Matcha Tea

Wow, I can’t believe I’ve been MIA for so long! I didn’t mean to be, but I guess the holiday’s really wiped me out. I’m so glad they’re over and that a new year has begun. We gorged and gorged over the holidays and by the time January 1st came around I was feeling sick and gross and craving nothing but whole foods. The past couple of years I’ve used January as a sort of cleanse month, and I’m doing the same thing again this year. I had planned to post each day about what I was eating, and how I was feeling, or at least every other day like the past couple years but I haven’t done a very good job of that obviously. Sometimes I just forget to take photos, and often I just can’t be bothered to write about what I’m eating but hopefully now after my little break I’ll get back into the swing of things.

So what have I been eating/doing exactly? Well, I’m not following a particular diet or cleanse - even though there are plenty of them out there - I’m just doing my own thing. I’ve gotten back into juicing and I’m following a mostly raw diet, that incorporates some cooked food. Usually the ‘cooked’ food is store-bought coconut milk, or a legume, or some steamed vegetables at dinner. Stuff like that. Over the past month I’ve been avoiding alcohol, coffee - though I’m allowing caffeinated tea - refined sugar - I use a little bit of maple syrup or agave but keep it limited - gluten - except for last night - processed foods, and limited grains. I’ve been sticking with whole foods, mostly fruits and vegetables, lots of vegetables, lots of salads, and I have to say I feel pretty darn good. Light, and clean, my insides feel very clean indeed, and I feel very positive about it.

Like I said I haven’t been a very dutiful blogger, I haven’t taken photos of everything I’ve eaten over the past couple of weeks but I’ve taken a few. So here is an example of the kind of stuff I’ve been consuming.

Most days I start with a fresh juice, usually grapefruit/orange which as many of you probably know from last year is my favorite combination. Other days it’s a green juice, or a mixed veggie/fruit juice. The other day it was Apple, Lime, Cucumber and that was pretty good though a bit tart.

For a solid meal at breakfast time I’ve really only been eating 1 of 2 things. I either have this delicious raw Morning Scramble from Judita Wignall’s awesome book “Raw & Simple” Or I have a bowl of Cherry Hemp Muesli also from “Raw & Simple.” both are amazing, and like my new favorite breakfast options!

Morning Scramble 

The Scramble is so flavorful and actually tastes like eggs which amazes me because the ingredients are so simple. It’s just a mashed avocado with turmeric, and black salt, topped with diced tomato, and marinated veggies. The marinated veg is spinach, onion, and shiitake mushrooms and they’re simply marinated for 10 minutes in Tamari and Olive Oil. SO GOOD! And surprisingly filling.

The Muesli is also very simple, containing dried cherries, dates, almonds, vanilla, oats, and hemp seeds. Sometimes I also throw in some sesame seeds, flaxseed, and then top it off with blueberries and coconut milk. Today I also threw in a bit of cacao nibs. This stuff is delicious and really hits the spot.

Cherry Hemp Muesli 

Before I got hooked on this muesli I was eating the Power Muesli from the book “Chia” by Lauri Boone. This is also a seriously delicious muesli containing oats, cranberries, goldenberries, hemp seeds, chia seeds, and sunflower seeds. I topped this one with coconut milk and blueberries as well though always neglected to take a picture of it.

Of course, there have been a few days where I wasn’t in the mood for a solid breakfast and on those days I mostly relied on smoothies. Particularly smoothies from “Raw & Simple” My favorites were the Happy Monkey - which is homemade cashew milk, frozen banana, coconut, cacao nibs, cacao powder, and almond butter. I’d sweeten it up with a bit of vanilla stevia. I also loved the Cherry Cacao Smoothie - which was frozen cherries, coconut mana, cashew milk, cacao nibs, vanilla and sea salt, I also sweetened this with a bit of vanilla stevia.

A few days called for something lighter still and so I made the Indian Spiced Orange drink from “Raw and Simple” which is an easy mix of fresh squeezed OJ, Homemade Cashew Milk, and Garam Masala. Strange, but tasty! Or I’d make the Milk and Honey Refresher - which is a whole grapefruit, homemade almond milk, and honey, or in my case I used Vegan Bee-Free Honey. YUM!

Milk and Honey Refresher 

Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures of most of this stuff.

Often I’m not hungry enough for a real lunch and so I just have juice, some raw veggies, a simple garden salad with vinaigrette, seasoned chickpeas, or leftovers from the night previous. A few days I was hungrier then others and so I enjoyed the Pizza Style Chickpea Flatbread from Heather Crosby’s awesome book “Yum Universe” it’s your typical Chickpea Socca, topped with tomato sauce - I had some leftover from when I made Pizza on New Years, and then I added steamed kale and sauteed onions, along with a little leftover cheese cause also from New Years. So tasty. A couple of times I enjoyed another delicious lunch from “Yum Universe’ the wonderful Chickpea, Tarragon and Cranberry Salad Sandwich. Although instead of having it on bread I either ate a coop on it’s own, or I ate it on lettuce leaves, with a side of Radish and Fennel Chips also from “Yum Universe” Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of any of that either. Yesterday’s lunch was lettuce leaves filled with Cumin Spiked Pinto Bean Dip from the “Thug Kitchen” cookbook and topped with diced raw tomato, corn and Sriracha - so good!

Rainbow Ribbon Veggie Alfredo 

Dinners have also been relatively simple, I’ve really been enjoying the “Yum Universe” cook book and so most of our dinners have come from there. For example we enjoyed the Traditional Coleslaw One evening which might just rank as one of my favorite coleslaws ever. One night we had the Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Kale and Miso Dijon Dressing, along with Simple Sauteed Snap Peas both of which were out of this world in terms of flavor!  One night it was the Snap Pea and Radish Salad with Ginger Miso Dressing which I absolutely loved. Another night ti was Baby Kale Salad with Blueberries and Chinese Spiced Pecans which was also incredible!  Several nights we had the Rainbow Ribbon Veggie Alfredo which is a vegetable noodle dish that can be made either raw or cooked. I did half and half on it, leaving the zucchini and carrots raw, but steaming the bell pepper, kale and broccoli. This was so freaking good!!!

Carrot-Ginger-Coconut Soup

A couple of nights we had the Carrot-Ginger-Coconut Soup from “Raw & Simple” which was very tasty. I normally don’t like raw soups because I hate the texture and I don’t like cold soup but I let this run a little long in the Vitamix so it was warm then added diced avocado and cilantro for texture and it was fantastic. Last night we had the Yellow Split Pea Lettuce Wraps from “Thug Kitchen” which were fantastic. Kind of an Asian style dish of cooked yellow split peas, mixed with shredded carrot and green onion, seasoned with rice vinegar and tamari. The dipping sauce is more tamari, rice vinegar, a little agave and garlic. So good!

Yellow Split Pea Lettuce Wraps 

I’ve mostly been avoiding dessert but sometimes I need a little something before I head off to work at Midnight and so I’ve been enjoying various types of Chia Pudding. I’ve made vanilla chia pudding, acai berry chia pudding, banana chia pudding, chocolate chia pudding, cardamom raisin chia pudding the list goes on. All of them are sweetened with either dates, or stevia, occasionally a little maple syrup or Bee-Free Honey.

I’ll try to be more diligent about capturing my food from now on. But I think this gives a nice overview.

January Cleanse Part 5...

I’m gearing up to go on vacation again, and so things have been kind of hectic around here. Lots of running around to get last minute things done, and lots of pressure to ger work on my final project for school squared away before I leave. Not to mention work, and all the regular duties of life. So this past week was slightly more slack in terms of the cleanse - meaning, we had some dessert, we ate a burrito from Chipotle, and I allowed myself another latte while I was bathing suit shopping Monday. All in all the week went pretty well, although despite originally wanting to continue the cleanse up until the day we left, I decided to end the cleanse Sunday. I’ll continue to eat healthfully until we leave, but I won’t be posting about it because A) I haven’t got the time, and B) We need to use up all the food we have in the fridge so the meals won’t be all that exciting. Probably a lot of salad, ha.

So in part 4 I left off on Friday. The next day started the same with a 12oz green juice, and then instead of a smoothie I decided to go for something a little different. I was really in the mood for cereal for some reason and my husband had just picked up a bag of unsweetened, rice puffs. The only ingredient is rice! They’re kind of bland to be honest, but I also kind of love that, call me crazy. To the puffs I added 1 tbsp of chia seeds, 2 tbsp of ground flax, some dried cranberries, and some dried golden raisins, then I topped it off with plain almond milk. Super delicious and surprisingly filling.

Lunch was a mixed green salad that I threw together with some of that artichoke aioli for dressing.

Dinner was leftover Chickpea and Root Veggie Tagine from Crazy Sexy Kitchen.

Sunday breakfast was the same, juice, and rice puffs cereal. Salad for lunch. Dinner was an entirely new dish though, and it was super amazing. Right now I’m doing some recipe testing for Richa of Vegan Richa and so for dinner I made her Simple Mung Dal Tadka. This dal was so flavorul despite it being very simple and we enjoyed it so much. I really loved the flavor of the mustard seeds and the asafetida.

Monday we spent a good hour or so juicing in the morning. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of our creations. I made the grapefruit/orange mix again, but this time I also added some apple and ginger and it was simply divine. Then I made some very green juice of celery, cucumber, kale, collards, lemon, lime, and spirulina. Then I made some beet juice. One batch had beets, oranges, carrots, and ginger. The other hand beets, apple, ginger, tomato, and lemon. Both excellent and perhaps my favorite mixes after the grapefruit/orange. Over the course of the week I just rotated these juices in the morning. Then followed the same pattern for the rest of the day, rice puffs cereal, salad or leftovers for lunch. Dinners were always new.

Except Monday while we were out we decided to grab an impromptu Sushi Lunch at a place called MoonSun Sushi. We’d never been there before but we were driving by and it just looked so inviting. We ordered green tea, hot plum saki, miso soup and then Avocado rolls, cucumber rolls, shiitake mushroom rolls and vegetable tempura rolls. It was delicious, and really hit the spot. We enjoyed our self so much, and enjoyed the atmosphere of MoonSun Sushi so much that we’re thinking of making Monday Sushi Lunch a regular thing.

Monday we enjoyed the Coconut Cauliflower Curry with Mustard Greens and Spinach from Wild About Greens by Nava Atlas. I was super excited to try this because I don’t know of a lot of recipes that utilize mustard greens. Overall though I thought the dish was just so-so, I felt it was missing something but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Still I really applaud the use of mustard greens, a seriously under utilized green!

Tuesday for dinner I made the Indian Chickpea Blinis with Cashew Coconut Chutney from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. These little chickpea pancakes were delicious! And the chutney was to die for. The picture I’ll admit looks a little brown, but don’t let that fool you. This is probably one of the best things I’ve made out of CSK, I’m sure I’ll be making this regularly now.

Wednesday night for dinner we had the simple yet wonderfully flavored Asian Noodles with Black Vinaigrette from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. This is like a Soba noodle salad full of delicious raw veggies like cabbage, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, snow peas, carrots, sprouts and I added green onions. The vinaigrette was a basic Asian style dressing with sesame, rice vinegar and agave. Very tasty!

Also on Wednesday I just couldn’t help myself. I wanted dessert, and so I made the Black Eyed Pea-nut Butter Pie from Kathy Hester’s wonderful book The Great Vegan Bean Book. This pie sounded so unique I had to give it a shot, and so I picked up some frozen whole wheat pie crusts - didn’t feel like making my own - and whipped this together in now time. It’s super simple, all it is is black eyed peas, peanut butter, agave, almond milk and chocolate chips. It’s practically guilt-free and so I didn’t feel to bad about enjoying this throughout the week. At less then 200 calories per slice how can you go wrong?

Since my husband doesn’t like peanut butter I decided to make him a treat as well, and so I also whipped up a batch of Kathy Hester’s Double Chocolate Devil’s Food Cookies also from The Great Vegan Bean Book these were super cakey, and super moist, and the fun part is that they’re made with black beans! I also used date sugar in place of the regular sugar called for and added a few drops of stevia for added sweetness. I think in the end they turned out phenomenal and again, practically guilt-free. It’s nice to be able to enjoy a ‘decadent’ dessert without having to feel too badly about it. Most of these my husband ate in no time at all, but I did sample a few over the week. How could I not?

Thursday’s dinner was another dish that I was testing for Richa. It’s Cauliflower, Carrots and Peas in a Coconut Poppy Seed Curry. This was amazing, My husband nearly devoured the entire pot. It had such great flavor and such a great aroma, we just adored it. I served it with a side of some jasmine rice I’ve had in the pantry for way to long. I jazzed it up a bit with some cumin seeds and garlic and it was really a perfect accompaniment to the curry.

Friday was the night we ate Chipotle. I was tired, and stressed, didn’t feel that great and didn’t feel all that much like cooking. Plus I just really, really wanted a burrito you know? So my wonderful husband picked us up some dinner, we got the new Tofu Sofritos Burrito and I’m not gonna lie, it was delicious!

Saturday I made dinner. A new dish also from Kathy Hester’s book The Great Vegan Bean Book. Another curry - I know, we ate a lot of curry this week, so sue me, - I have actually had my eye on this particular dish since I first purchased the book, but for some reason or other I just never got around to making it. The Kalpana’s Black Eyed Pea Curry was really worth the wait though. I loved the flavors a bit tangy, a bit spicy, everything you could want in a curry. I was kind of burnt out on rice though and so instead I steamed kale to serve with it, and it was a great way to enjoy this yummy curry.

Sunday nights dinner was pretty basic. It was just a big bowl or rice, steamed sweet potatoes, steamed kale, red cabbage, avocado, green onions and yellow bell pepper dressed in an Asian Ginger Sesame sauce. Very tasty, and exactly the kind of thing I enjoy eating, only I was kind of in a rush when I got home from work and forgot to take a photo.

So that wraps it up. The cleanse has been fun, I’ve felt really good eating so clean over the past month, and I’ve really enjoyed sharing it all with you. I didn’t loose weight as most people do on cleanses but I think that has more to do with the fact that I hardly exercised at all this month. The best feeling for me is just the satisfaction of knowing Im doing something good, and you know, I didn’t miss sugar as much as I thought I would. I allowed a little here and there on the cleanse but it’s nowhere near the amount I’m used to consuming and somehow it ended up being a perfect amount. I think I’ll continue the juicing trend when I get back from vacation because I really enjoyed that a lot, and I definitely need to incorporate more big salads into my daily routine, I loved that about the past month. So many salads. I also really love the idea of finding new ways to satisfy sweet cravings and I think I’ll probably make Kathy Hester’s desserts more frequently rather then go for the bad stuff.

So I hope you enjoyed this experiment as much as I did.

January Cleanse Part 4...

I really love everything I’ve been eating this month. I love clean meals, and whole foods prepared simply, but I also love decadence, and I have a bit of a sweet tooth, so this week was kind of weird for me. I feel entirely satisfied by everything I’m eating but my brain keeps day-dreaming about things like pizza and dessert. Unfortunately I had a few ‘slips’ this week but in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t all that bad.

Monday started off the same as all the other days, water and a orange/grapefruit juice. - Definitely a favorite combo of mine. I followed that up with this Luscious Fruit and Flax Smoothie that I talked about earlier this week. Seriously it’s so good! And that actually kept me going right until dinner. Monday was kind of busy for us, we were out and about and so there wasn’t a lot of time to stop and make lunch, plus we ate dinner earlier then normal so it kind of worked out.

Fruit and Flax Smoothie 

For dinner I made these delicious Black Bean and Roasted Sweet Potato Burgers from Kris Carr’s “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” they’re full of black beans, sweet potato, onion, brown rice, garlic, cumin, chili powder, tamari, and cornmeal, and they are amazing! No lie, I could probably eat these everyday. Instead of eating them on a burger bun with all the fixin’s though I opted for a healthier approach and served them atop a green salad that had romaine, spinach, diced tomato, green onion, and avocado. The greens were lightly dressed in the leftover Organic Green Garlic Dressing I bought the night before.

Black Bean Sweet Potato Burgers 

On a salad 

Monday night I was also feeling something of a sweet craving. After being so good all month I really just wanted something that felt decadent, but I didn’t want to fall completely off the wagon and so I made these Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies from Kathy Hester’s book “The Great Vegan Bean Book” Now. I know what you’re thinking, “Chickpeas in a cookie?” it sounds wrong, and maybe even a little bit disgusting but they are AMAZING! Even my husband loved them and he’s skeptical always skeptical about beans. What’s really great about these cookies is that they’re simple and not all that terrible for you. There are only 81 calories per cookie, and they’re made with whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, chickpeas, non-dairy milk, vanilla extract, sugar, and chocolate chips. I only used ½ Cup of sugar instead of the recommended 1 cup so they were even better! The cookies are also suppose to have chopped pecans which I love, but my husband doesn’t like nuts and so I opted to leave those out. I was truly amazed at how moist and fluffy these cookies were, and I’m super excited to try some of Kathy’s other beany desserts. Of course I probably ate one or two more then I should have but I also started going back to the gym Monday - FINALLY - so I think it works itself out.

Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Throughout this cleanse I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not going to be very realistic for me to train my body/tastebuds to not want sugar or sweets ever, but I think re-training myself to be satisfied with only a little - rather then gorge myself on a lot - is doable for the long term.

Tuesday I stared with a green juice and then another Fruit and Flax smoothie. For lunch I made a big green salad. It was kind of like a coleslaw only it was full of collard greens, green cabbage, shredded carrots, green onions, sunflower seeds and cranberries. As a dressing I made Kris Carr’s Artichoke Cashew Aioli which is made with cashews, water, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, agave, garlic, salt, artichokes, tarragon, parsley, shallot and lemon zest. I thinned it out with a bit of water so it was more like a dressing and it tasted amazing over my salad.

Collard Green Cabbage Salad
With Cashew Artichoke Aioli

Dinner was left over Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burgers atop another salad. The salad was basically the same this time except it had corn instead of avocado and was dressed with chipotle olive oil and pineapple vinegar. Delicious!

Wednesday started off with another green juice, but instead of following it up with a smoothie I decided to have some home-made cereal. I felt like something chewable, and I wanted something fiber-rich and filling. So I made my favorite cereal. It’s a bowl of rolled oats, flax seed, chia seed, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, raisins, fresh banana and almond milk with a few drops of vanilla stevia. I also added in some fresh diced pineapple since I had some. It’s so good, and kept me full all day.

Home-made Cereal 

Dinner was new, and it was kind of a feast. First we had Zucchini Carpaccio from Kris Carr’s “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” which is raw thin sliced zucchini drizzled with olive oil and garnished with parsley, sea salt and black pepper. Super simple and yet so flavorful.

Zucchini Carpaccio

With it we had the Sauteed Chard from CSK which was super simple too. Just chard, garlic, shallot, tamari, olive oil, and nutritional yeast.

Sauteed Chard 

I also made the Pastrami-Spiced Carrots with White Bean Sauerkraut Puree from CSK which was AMAZING! Truly the standout dish, I mean this may be my new favorite recipe for carrots. All you do is rub them in a little olive oil, then some Montreal Steak Seasoning - Quebec Beef Seasoning in my case - and roast them for about 25 minutes until they’re tender but still crisp. Then you pari them with a deliciously flavored white bean puree. Kind of like a hummus but it’s got that tangy umami flavor thanks to Dijon Mustard and Sauerkraut. What an inventive way to use kraut by the way, I never would have thought about it!

Pastrami-Spiced Carrots 

White Bean Sauerkraut Dip

Lastly we had the Polenta Squares with Marinara from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s book “The 30 Day Vegan Challenge” I like polenta well enough, but I’d never had these fried - or you can grill them - polenta squares before. Since I was really craving fries I thought why not go for a healthier option, and it was magical.

Polenta Squares with Marinara 

Later for dessert I had 1 square of Endangered Species Dark Chocolate. Just one square! Do you know what an accomplishment that is for me?

Thursday was pretty much the same as Wednesday except I started with orange/grapefruit juice. I had the same cereal and that kept me full all day.

For Dinner I was feeling like noodles and so I decided to make the Double Mushroom Jap Chae from Terry Hope Romero’s “Vegan Eats World” Her recipe is pretty simple and still tastes really traditional. It uses Sweet potato noodles, sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, brown sugar, gochuchang, shiitake mushrooms, black cloud mushrooms, bok choy, onion, carrot, green onion, and sesame seeds. Only I didn’t have shiitake or black cloud mushrooms and so I subbed in Woodear Mushrooms and Chinese Black Fungus. I also didn’t have bok choy but she says you can sub in spinach if you prefer so that’s what I did. I also took her suggestion and added some diced baked tofu. The end result was incredible, and so satisfying.

Double Mushroom Jap Chae

Friday began the same again. Orange/Grapefruit Juice, and a small glass of green juice as well. I had a small bowl of cereal, and then in late afternoon I had some leftover polenta squares with marinara and the remainder of the Pastrami-Spiced Carrots and white bean sauerkraut dip.

Around six I grabbed a Suja Mango-Feugo Juice which was incredible.

And when I got home from work that night I enjoyed a nice steaming bowl of this delicious Chickpea and Root Vegetable Tagine from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. It’s got chickpeas, carrots, sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, lemon, raisins and olives. Along with red pepper flakes, turmeric, cumin and cinnamon. It was suppose to be green olives but I didn’t have any and so I used kalamata instead. I served it with couscous and it made a wonderful hearty meal for a cold winter night.

Chickpea and Root Vegetable Tagine 

Overall Aside from a few cravings I felt pretty good. Good energy level, felt pretty accomplished, was in a positive mood etc... but the biggest thing was I started back at the gym. Weights, and swimming how I missed thee! Due to schedule conflicts I only got to go 3 nights out of the week, but 2 nights I did some exercise - light weights, sit ups, pushups - at home, and now that I’m no longer sick I started walking again. Each day I went out for a thirty minute walk in the afternoon. Though I’d like to have gone longer I think 30 minutes in this arctic temperature is about as much as my dog can handle.

Until next time.