Our 8 Year Anniversary...

The 25th of August was me and my Husband’s anniversary, and though our celebration was pretty low key this year we did start the day off right with a delicious breakfast. I didn’t go all out this year as I tend to do some years because I didn’t get home from work until 8am and then we had a little overnight getaway planned. I chose three simple - yet tasty - dishes from my new copy of Mastering the Art of Vegan Cooking by Annie and Dan Shannon (of Betty Goes Vegan fame)

A combination of something savory and something sweet sounded just right to me and so I started with the Cinnamon Peach Skillet Rolls. Yes, these are exactly what they sound like, Cinnamon Rolls filled with sliced peaches with a peach glaze. Oh my god! I don’t know why I don’t make Cinnamon Rolls more often! They are a bit time consuming but always so worth the effort. Unfortunately my cast iron skillet wasn’t near big enough to accommodate the rolls and so I ended up just baking them in a glass dish, but that’s okay, they were amazing regardless. We each ate 2 right out of the gate, and they didn’t survive longer then a second day, that’s how fantastic these were.

For the ‘main’ course I made the Tofu a la Goldenrod which is a simple plain seasoned tofu scramble served over toast and drenched in a milk based gravy. It probably sounds weird, and if you’re like me you might even think that sounds slightly disgusting, but trust me, it was soooo good! The only reason I even made it was because it was simple and I thought I could at least utilize the tofu scramble even if I wasn’t interested in drenching it in gravy but I’m really glad I took the chance on this dish as it was super filling, and so unexpectedly wonderful. I loved the flavor combo of the tofu, the toast, and the savory gravy.

As a side I made the Roasted Red Flannel Hash, which is a standard Hash of potatoes and beets baked in the oven with red onion and some spices, there’s even kale thrown in there for good measure. This was pretty good too, though I thought it could use a bit more salt, but that’s me.

It was a fantastic way to start our anniversary, and the perfect opportunity to try out some new and interesting recipes.

Vegan Mofo is Here Again!

I can’t believe my last post was in May. I haven’t been a very good blogger lately. I always want to post, but, the truth is that when I started this blog I had a very empty plate, and these days my plate is pretty full. I hate the “I don’t have time” excuse when other people use it, but I don’t really have a lot of ‘extra’ time these days, or at least, I don’t want to spend what limited extra time I have cooking or blogging. I still do cook of course, but what I mean is that I don’t really cook that many things worth blogging about. I make a lot of the same meals, or just cook things from cook books and while that’s fine once in a while, I originally intended this blog to be one of creative original recipes, not a blog of other peoples recipes. So, even when I have the time I haven’t really got the creativity or the drive to do it, for that I feel bad because I know a lot of people enjoy the blog, but until I find a way to balance blogging with everything else in my life sporadic posting will be the norm.

Having said that, I did decide at the last minute to participate in Vegan Mofo. It’s really one of my favorite events and I have so much fun doing it. I was really bummed last year about not being able to participate but we were in Ecuador and Peru for most of September and I just wasn’t able to blog. This year we will be going away at the end of September again - Road Trip of the Pacific Northwest - but from September 1st to the 20th I’ll be posting. I normally do two posts per day during Vegan Mofo, but this year due to my own limitations I will only be posting once per day for a total of 20 posts. As for a theme, I haven’t fully decided on one yet. But I’m kicking around two ideas in my head.

Either I’ll do my usual ‘cooking the books’ theme in which I cook recipes from cook books I don’t often use, but with an emphasis on Fall or Harvest Flavors - since fall is nearing.

Or I’ll veganize recipes that originate in countries to which I have traveled.

So stay tuned for all the Mofo Madness beginning September 1st

January Cleanse Part 3...

Wild Mushroom and Minted Brussels Pho Show

Last Tuesday began much the same as any other day I’ve had on this cleanse. A glass of water, a bottle of Immune Me Juice, and a little later on a bowl of oatmeal. Since I was rather busy on Tuesday and we had a ton of leftovers I decided that Tuesday night would be a ‘leftovers’ night. I ate the leftover Coconut Red Lentil Soup, My husband ate the left over Crazy Sexy Chili, and we each had a nice bowl of Garlic and Greens Soup since there wasn’t much left of either of the other two.

Garlic and Greens Soup

Wild Mushroom/Brussels Pho

Wednesday brought a new day and a new dinner. The morning was the same, juice, and then a green smoothie of spinach, banana, wheatgrass, water, and stevia. Which I forgot to photograph. I ate the last bowl of Garlic and Greens Soup for lunch and then dinner was this luscious and delicious Wild Mushroom Ginger, and Minted Brussels Pho Show from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. I’d been dying to make this soup ever since I got the book but somehow I just never got around to it. I have to say it doesn’t exactly taste like a traditional pho - one of my favorite ever soups - but it is damn delicious. There are so many mushrooms in it - portobello, shiitake, maitake, and button! It has baby corn, water chestnuts, mint, onion, bok choy, anise, lime, soy sauce and brussels sprouts. I love the idea of using brussels sprouts in this soup. I love them, and I think they’re a really under utilized vegetable. Everyone always roasts them, which is great and all, but it’s nice to have a little sprout creativity once in a while. You can eat this soup as is or serve it with your choice of noodles, I picked rice noodles because pho just isn’t pho without some rice noodles you know?

Thursday started off with more juice, and then a smoothie. I wanted something a little different from my usual green smoothie and so I decided to go with the Aztec Spirit from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. This smoothie has almond milk, cacao powder, vanilla, cayenne, maple syrup and kale. It also calls for espresso but that’s listed as optional and so I opted out since I’m staying away from coffee on this cleanse. The flavor of this was really crazy, you could definitely taste the ‘greenness’ but it was almost masked by the sweetness and the chocolate. The strange combination really appealed to me, and I found it really satisfying. Since chocolate is something I’m trying to stay away from on the cleanse I cut the amount of cacao powder to a 1/4 cup. I’ve definitely had a few chocolate cravings in the past week, and this smoothie really satisfied that need without turning me into a choc-o-holic.

Woodstock Peace Salad 

Lunch was another giant Woodstock Peace Salad - this one had romaine, spinach, red cabbage, sunflower seeds, green onion, tomato, chickpeas and black olives. Super delicious.

Lentil and Chard Ragout Over Wild Rice 

For dinner we had another meal from Crazy Sexy Kitchen - the Lentil and Chard Ragout. Honestly when I looked over the recipe I didn’t think it was going to be that fantastic. I feared it might be bland but it turned out to be super delicious, I was really amazed/ I love how simple it is too - just Beluga Lentils, Swiss Chard, shallots, garlic, peas, nutritional yeast, red pepper flakes, parsley, lemon zest, salt, pepper, thyme, broth and sherry. It also calls for Earth Balance but I left that out. I took Carr’s advice and paired it with a plate of wild rice, which was a delicious suggestion but doesn’t make for a very lovely or cheerful photo - sorry.

Friday started off with more juice and then an Aztec Spirt. For lunch I made a big batch of the Greensicle Smoothie from Carr’s Crazy Sexy Kitchen to take with me to work. It’s got almond milk, oranges, vanilla, agave, spinach, and romaine leaves. Very tasty. I also ended up drinking a Suja Mango Juice that had mango, Serrano chili, and some other tasty fruits in it.

Aztec Spirit Smoothie 

Dinner was leftover Pho and leftover Ragout.

Saturday I had no more juice left and no time to make anymore before work. Instead I started my day with another Greensicle smoothie, and then I made a batch of the Strawberry Fields Smoothie also from Crazy Sexy Kitchen to take to lunch. This one had Almond milk, strawberries, lemon zest, orange, banana, and spinach, and it was amazing!

Greensicle Smoothie 

The smoothie kept me mostly full throughout the day but I did get hungry around 7pm or so and so I ate 2 packets of Justin’s Vanilla Almond Butter. I find that when I’m working, and I get hungry something small and protein rich gets me through.

Curried Nada-Egg Salad Wrap

For dinner we had the Curried Nada-Egg Salad with Watercress Wraps from Crazy Sexy Kitchen except I didn’t have watercress and so I used Arugula instead. This was a really good tofu ‘egg’ salad. I love a good curried tofu salad, and this one had tofu, green onions, carrot, parsley, cilantro, nutritional yeast, Dijon mustard, curry, sea salt - I opted to use black salt instead, - and black pepper. I didn’t have gluten-free tortillas and so we used sprouted tortillas which is better then just eating the regular wheat kind anyway. The salad also uses a home-made cashew aioli but I didn’t have the time to make it before work so the recipe says you can use Vegenaise instead which I had, so I used that despite not wanting to eat processed foods on the cleanse. These were really good and filling wraps though I think next time I’ll do it with the gluten-free or regular tortillas. Sprouted tortillas are great, but they’re a bit tough.

Sunday I started with another Greensicle Smoothie because I didn’t have time to make juice that day either. Then I made a big batch of smoothie to take for lunch with me. This time it was my own concoction of almond milk, blueberry, orange, banana, spinach, flaxseed, and vanilla. Very tasty, and a very lovely shade of blue but I forgot to take a picture.

Again this smoothie kept me satisfied most of the day but around 6:30pm my stomach began rumbling and I started craving something solid. I knew I had a nice dinner waiting for me at home and I didn’t want to ruin it but I needed something. I wanted sweets, and I wanted chocolate and I craved pizza and all the bad things I can’t eat right now but instead I opted for a quarter pound of maple roasted cashews and surprise, surprise that did the trick. No more hunger, no more cravings. They weren’t overly sweet, nor were they overly salty, just enough of each to stave off the crazy cravings and give me the satisfaction mastication.

Rice Bowl - Brown Rice, Red Cabbage, Broccoli and Green Onion
With Annie's Organic Green Garlic Dressing 

Dinner was a big hearty rice bowl. Full of brown rice, red cabbage, green onions, and broccoli. Super simple, but delicious. Originally I intended to make a dressing of my own but was so tired by the time I got home I decided ‘to hell with it’ and used Annie’s Organic Green Garlic Dressing instead. This was a super tasty and satisfying meal and I quite liked the dressing which I’d never had before.

And that about brings us up to speed. Overall I still feel great, though I experienced more cravings this past week then I did before. I’m not sure why, but I find the days I have the worst cravings are the days I’m working, and particularly seem to hit at night, around the 7pm mark. It’s all mental I’m sure, and probably related to my soaring stress levels at work but I was happy I had the control and the willpower to recognize this and reject the cravings instead of falling prey to them.

Also since I’m feeling much better today will be my first day getting back into an exercise routine! I’m quite excited about that because it’s been far too long.

January Cleanse Part Two...

And so the cleansing continues - I had meant to post a couple of days ago but time gets away from me, and then I caught a cold middle of last week and didn’t feel all that inspired to write. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been keeping track though, and interestingly being sick has helped me stick pretty rigorously to the cleanse. Since fresh fruit and veggies - lots of garlic, onions and greens - are the best things to eat when you’re under the weather.

Each days starts the same with a 20oz glass of water - there’s nothing particularly special about this number it’s just that all my drinking glasses hold about 20oz of liquid. - Sometimes with lemon and sometimes not it depends on how I feel. I normally drink immediately upon waking, but I don’t always drink a full glass before decided to eat. I’ve found that waiting to eat until I’ve drunk a full glass of water better helps me to determine whether or not I’m actually hungry. You’d be amazed, sometimes those ‘hunger pains’ you feel in the morning is just a need for water.

Grapefruit/Orange/Lemon Juice &
Immune Me Juice 

When I begin to feel hungry again I grab a 12oz bottle of fresh juice. Either it’s the grapefruit, orange, lemon concoction I mentioned before or a green juice. The Green Juice pictured here is the Immune Me Juice from Kris Carr’s “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” it contains cucumbers, green apples, lemon, ginger, and romaine lettuce. Though it’s not my favorite juice from the book - nor my favorite green juice - it’s still pretty good, less sweet then some green juices I’ve had before, with a real cucumber taste. Great ginger zing though.

Everyday Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and today I followed my 12oz juice 2-3 hours later with either a smoothie or a bowl of oatmeal. My bowl of oatmeal is always pretty well the same. Quick cooking oats, sliced almonds, dried cherries or cranberries, fresh or frozen blueberries, flaxseed, pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds, unsweetened almond milk and a few drops of liquid vanilla stevia. Super hearty and filling.

Oatmeal 

In the case of the smoothie - which I neglected to photograph each day, my apologies - I either had a Green smoothie - usually a combination of spinach or kale, wheatgrass, banana, pineapple, mango or blueberry and water - or I made the AJ’s Power Smoothie from Kris Carr’s “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” this is a smoothie combo of Almond Milk, Blueberries, Mango, Almond Butter, Cinnamon, Kale, and Spinach. Overall this smoothie is pretty good, though not as sweet as I initially thought it might be.

Masala Tofu Scramble 

On both Friday and Yesterday I was feeling inspired and decided to treat my husband and myself to a breakfast of solid food that wasn’t oatmeal. On Friday I was really feeling like a hearty tofu scramble and so I decided to make the Masala Tofu Scramble from Anupy Singla’s book “Vegan Indian Cooking” It’s a very simple recipe - Tofu, cumin seeds, onion, ginger, Serrano chilies, turmeric, chili powder, sea salt, black salt and cilantro.

Now on this cleanse I’m not doing ‘oil-free’ ‘salt-free’ or ‘gluten-free’ but I am trying to limit all three of these items in my diet to minimal amounts or in the case of wheat - a few times per week. So instead of using the 1 Tbsp of oil called for in this recipe I used 1 tsp. I also used only 3/4 tsp of black salt as opposed to ½ of black salt, and a ½ tsp of sea salt. I also decided we needed a little more green in our life and so I added 1 cup of frozen peas and a generous handful of baby spinach to the scramble. It might sound crazy, but this was one of the best scrambles I’ve ever had. It was moist, and flavorful with great combination of tastes and textures. To make it a bit heartier I served it over dry toasted wheat bread and sliced tomatoes. - The toast in this meal was the first wheat I’d had in 5 days.

Chickpea Flour Crepes 

Due to our tremendous sucsess with Anupy’s Scramble I decided yesterday that I wanted to give another one of her breakfast options a try. This time I wanted something gluten-free and so I picked the Chickpea Flour Crepes - or Besan Poora - from “Vegan Indian Cooking” Making them was a bit like making a socca except instead of cooking the entire batter in a cast iron skillet all at once you make smaller thinner crepes with it. I was kind of skeptical at first about how it might turn out but I have to say these were incredible and so filling! This kept me full pretty much all day. At around 5pm yesterday I had a 12oz juice, and was still only moderately hungry when dinner was ready at about 9pm.

So what’s in these delicious magical crepes you ask? Chickpea flour obviously, and water, onion, ginger, serrano chili, cilantro, sea salt, coriander, turmeric and chili powder. There were also suppose to be fenugreek leave in the batter but I don’t know where you might find those for sale around here - possibly the Indian market but I wasn’t about to run out to look, and so I just left that out. Anupy says that the recipe is pretty adaptable and she encourages you to experiment with different batter ingredients and also suggests filing the crepes. I liked the idea of filling the crepes and so I sauteed the half an onion that didn’t go into the batter, along with some garlic, spinach, and tomato. I happened to have fenugreek seeds in my pantry and so I used 3 tsp of those rather to replace the flavor the leaves might have imparted.  She also suggests serving the crepes along with mint or peach chutney but I didn’t have either nor did I have the proper ingredients to make chutney. Instead I mixed some tamarind concentrate with water and made a quick tamarind chutney to drizzle over the pancakes. Tamarind chutney is my favorite anyway and so I didn’t feel like I was missing out.

The flavor of these crepes was really spectacular, and they kind of reminded me of an egg, even though there were no eggy ingredients in them. Typically I prefer a sweet breakfast if I’m going to have breakfast, but this just might have made me a savory breakfast convert.

Now what I’m sure you’ve all been waiting eagerly to hear about. What have I been eating for dinner? Well Wednesday night was simple I was really just craving greens you know? So I made one of my ‘go-to’ quick and easy rice bowls. This particular one contained brown rice, steamed kale, minced raw garlic, minced pickled ginger, diced tomato, red cabbage, and sesame seeds. Over top I drizzled some of that spectacular Tahini dressing that I’ve been using on my Woodstock Peace Salads. - Which I talked about in January Cleanse Part One

Rice Bowl with Kale 

Thursday night I really needed some immune support you know? All Wednesday night into mid-day Thursday I had a fever of over 100. By Thursday evening I was feeling a little better because the fever had finally broken and gone, but I was tired and needed some food that would support me. I decided to make the Garlic and Greens Soup from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s book “The Vegan Table. This is a super simple soup that uses a whole head of garlic! Plus an onion, potatoes, vegetable broth, kale, salt, pepper, and rice vinegar. It’s actually a really tasty soup despite how simple it sounds although I thought it could use more garlic. Maybe it’s just because I naturally put ½ to 1 full head of garlic into almost all of my meals anyway that I didn’t notice the garlickyness of this, but I ended up adding some extra garlic powder.

Garlic and Greens Soup

Along with the soup I made a salad. The Chopped Salad from Kris Carr’s “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” this is a super simple but delicous and satisfying salad of romaine, chickpeas, parsley, sunflower seeds, flax oil, white balsamic vinegar, sea salt and black pepper. I also added avocado because, well why not? I’ve made this salad on a few occasions before and really like it. Even my husband enjoyed it and he’s neither a big fan of sunflower seeds or chickpeas.

Chopped Salad 

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we ended up having the exact same thing for dinner. The Crazy Sexy Bean Chili from “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” I had really been craving chili for a while and it seemed like the perfect time to make one. Typically my husband is not a fan of chili - he hates beans! I know a vegan that hates beans, absurd! - so he wasn’t too thrilled about it but I decided I didn’t care. I wanted chili he could eat leftovers. This particular chili is made with cumin seeds, olive oil - I used half the amount listed - onion, garlic, jalapeno, chili powder, seitan or tempeh - I used seitan because I had some homemade seitan patties in the freezer - zucchini, potato, black beans, kidney beans - I was a bit concerned about this because Kidney beans are the only variety of bean I don’t like! - crushed tomatoes - I didn’t have any so I used 14 oz diced tomatoes and 6 oz tomato sauce - water, maple syrup, sea salt, cilantro and kale.

Crazy Sexy Bean Chili 

This is a super veggie packed chili, but I was a bit skeptical. Most chili recipes I make call for vegetable broth not water, and they typically have more spices so I was worried this chili might be bland. Crazy thing is, it was the most flavorful chili I’ve ever made. Seriously I’ve had some good chili in my time and this really tops the list, it’s probably going to be my ‘go-to’ chili from now on. I didn’t even notice the kidney beans and the mixture of veggies, seitan and beans provided a perfect balance. The chili was so good in fact that my husband tasted a little and then devoured an entire 2 bowls! I’ve never seen him go crazy for chili like that, I’ve never seen him eat beans with such relish! Since he loved it so much and It was so easy to make I decided that after our leftovers ran out Saturday night that I’d make another batch for Sunday. Seriously, this is a totally heavenly chili, and so good it doesn’t need extras like vegan sour cream or vegan cheese - though we did add some diced avocado to the top, because, like, why not?

Last nights dinner was another winning meal from “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” I made the Coconut and Red Lentil Soup and it’s probably one of my favorite red lentil soups now. It’ll probably be another ‘go-to’ recipe for me. Again it’s a super simple recipe, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, olive oil - I used less then half the amount called for - Serrano chili, onion, red lentils, vegetable broth, coconut milk, ginger, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt - the recipe calls for ½ Tbsp but I couldn’t in good conscious put that much salt into anything! So I used 1 tsp. Black pepper - a ½ Tbsp is also called for but I used a little under 1 tsp instead,- fresh cilantro and diced avocado. This soup was really flavorful, really creamy, and just plain delicious.

Coconut and Red Lentil Soup 

So, how have I been feeling? Overall I’d say that despite being sick I’ve felt a lot better then I had been feeling previously. Most noticeable is an increase in energy. I feel more alert, more awake and I’m better able to make it through the day without yawning or laying down for a nap. My brain doesn’t feel foggy, my body doesn’t feel so leaden and heavy. I don’t think I’ve lost weight but I feel lighter and leaner despite that. Probably because I’m not bloated and my bodily functions are normalizing. I have less trouble waking up in the morning and can stay up later - like I used to be able to.

As far as temptations are concerned, yes there have been some hard moments. At least a few times I’ve found myself craving something sweet - particularly chocolate - but I’ve been able to find ways to overcome this. I find these cravings often come in the evening and so if I make a hearty satisfying dinner they typically don’t persist. However if they do I’ve been able to stave them off with fresh juice, or in Thursday’s case a healthy dessert. Thursday I really wanted something sweet and it was driving me bonkers so I decided to make the Banana Chia Pudding from Matthew Kenney’s book “Everyday Raw Express” it’s a super simple Vitamix recipe. You blend together cashews, water, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, ginger, bananas, and agave - I used 1/3 cup instead of the ½ cup called for. Then you pour it over a ½ cup of chia seeds stir and refrigerate until it’s congealed. Bam, practically instant pudding, and while this might not sound all that phenomenal let me tell you. This stuff is like crack! I’m serious, if I could mainline this stuff I would. It’s amazing! What’s great is you don’t even have to feel guilty about eating it! It’s absolutely perfect on it’s own or you can jazz it up with some fresh fruit or chopped nuts.

Banana Chia Pudding 

I also had some caffeine cravings and there was nothing I could do to find a suitable replacement and so I just had to ‘be strong’ and exert my willpower. I try and drink a significant amount of water, and I have been drinking quite a bit of tea - due to the cold - so that does help The occasional Kombucha or coconut water doesn’t hurt either and I remind myself that I feel great after drinking these things as opposed to how I feel after drinking coffee which is an immediate buzz, and then a total crash and ‘blah’ feeling.

So far I’m most proud of myself when it comes to eating at work. I have a bad habit of snacking on junk at work, and work is really my biggest downfall when it comes to sweets. That’s when I crave chocolate the most. Since I’ve been sick I’ve been arming myself with travel mugs of hot tea, and 2 12oz bottles of green smoothie. I sip these things slowly over the course of the day, or save a bottle of smoothie for my lunch break and I’ve found that my hunger was completely satisfied and I felt no need whatsoever for sweets or snacks. Packing a smoothie is also quicker then packing a ‘traditional lunch’ and so I think I’ll continue this trend even after my cleanse is technically over.

The only thing I haven’t been able to do is exercise. I was hoping to get into a real good exercise routine as I started my cleanse but having this cold has kind of thrown that out the window. Low pressure activities like walking would have been acceptable if the weather wasn’t so bad, but with -20 degree temperatures I hardly think it wise to venture outdoors for a walk. I could do some easy yoga inside but the headache and sinus pressure I’ve felt over the past few days made that impossible. Just bending down to tie my shoes had my head feeling like it was going to explode. So exercise will have to wait, but at least the eating portion of the cleanse is going as planned. Stay tuned for the next installment.

January Cleanse Part One...

Woodstock Peace Salad - Spinach, Green Cabbage, Sunflower Seeds
Tomato, Cucumber, Kalamata Olives, Avocado Tahini Dressing

I did not forget that I promised I’d keep you in the loop on all my New Year’s cleansing details - it’s just that I’ve been busy - incase you haven’t yet noticed, I’m sometimes notoriously bad at structuring my time! Over the weekend I was especially derailed and never seemed to have my camera handy - no camera, no pictures, not much to post about you know?

Anyway, the weekend was just my ‘primer’ as I mentioned before, it was the slow giving up of the bad, and the slow incorporation of all that’s good. I ate up the last of my holiday goodies, and made sure to get into a routine of green smoothies - a combo of spinach, water, banana, mango -1 12oz for breakfast and another 12oz to drink on break at work. Lunches were big ole salads, or in the case of Saturday where I dropped my lunch on the ground I bought a sesame bagel, an avocado, and a tomato and ate an open faced sandwich with a bit of sea salt and pepper sprinkled on top. Strangely that impromptu sandwich and my green smoothie kept me so full all day that I wasn’t hungry for dinner and so I decided to end the night with some water, tea, and some fresh grapefruit juice. Dinner Friday night was the sesame noodles from Robin Robinson’s book “Party Vegan.” These were super delicious, and though they look and sound decadent they weren’t really. Buckwheat Soba Noodles with broccoli, tahini, sesame seeds, onion, garlic, tamari, and siracha. Pretty straight forward and yet they were so satisfying. It’s not likely I’ll be eating a lot of - or possibly any - pasta on this cleanse, but since this was only a ‘primer’ I didn’t feel too guilty about it. Especially since it was a whole foods meal.

Sesame Noodles with Broccoli 

Sunday night was whole wheat penne that my husband made. I had neglected to make dinner before leaving for work Sunday and so he took care of it, My husband is not very proficient in the kitchen, but he can whip up a mean batch of pasta. Unfortunately I neglected to take a picture of the dish. He made a light olive oil sauce and added lots of garlic, a bit of onion, red pepper flakes, zucchini, tomato and parsley to the dish, then jazzed it up with a little sea salt and pepper. Sounds simple, but trust me, it was so good. He used an entire head of garlic!

Monday was when things were suppose to get serious and it all started off well enough. I got up and made a large batch of juice. A fruit combo that included grapefruit, oranges, and lemon, which was delicious. Then I made a big batch of green juice - Swiss Chard, Kale, Cucumber, Apple, Pineapple, broccoli stems, celery, ginger and lemon. It was a bit bitter due to the massive amount of broccoli stems I included and so I altered it a bit with a few drops of liquid stevia, and it was actually really good and refreshing. I made a couple of 12 oz bottles of each juice and popped them into the freezer. I know it’s best to drink fresh juice right away, but the reality of it is that I’m just not going to juice each day - I don’t have time for that. So instead I thought juicing twice a week and freezing the juice would be a much more feasible plan, and it’s been working great so far.

Super Simple Stir-fry Wok Veggies
Over Quinoa and Edamame 

My downfall came early Monday evening. The weather in Chicago is bad - I’m sure you’ve heard - still my husband and I decided to venture out in the arctic chill to catch a film that was playing a good hour from our house. We were gone for some time, and since I’d only had fruit juice and green juice all day I started to feel that gnawing in my gut. I broke down and bought a vegan cookie at the theater, and then after we grabbed a cup of coffee to warm up. Sugar and Caffeine are two things I’m trying to avoid and so I decided I’d start the cleanse ‘for real’ Tuesday.

Monday nights dinner however was another massive Woodstock Peace Salad and it was amazing.

Yesterday went much the same way as the days previous. Each day I’ve started my morning with a glass of water with lemon. Then I drink a 12oz juice. Then I drink a cup of tea, if I’m hungry I drink another juice and then make a breakfast. Yesterday I was so busy with school work that my breakfast ended up being more of a lunch but I was craving oatmeal and so I didn’t think there were any rules against making oatmeal for lunch.

I loaded my bowl of oats with sliced raw almonds, pumpkin seeds, flaxseed, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, a dash of cinnamon, a tbsp of blackstrap molasses, a few drops of stevia and just enough unsweetened almond milk to give it a nice consistency. It was delicious.

Yesterday’s dinner was this super simple Stir-fry Wok Vegetables from Kriss Carr’s book “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” It’s lightly sauteed onion, red bell pepper, snow peas, button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, baby bok choy, and ginger. The sauce is super simple, just vegetable broth and tamari, I added a bit of red pepper flakes and garlic for fun then served it over some quinoa I boiled in water with edamame. It doesn’t sound like much but this was super satisfying.

So that about recaps the past few days. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I’ll try to be more diligent in that department from now on. Though I probably won’t get the chance to post every day of my cleanse I’m going to aim for 2 posts per week, recapping what I’ve been doing.

I have to say, it's only been a few days but I already feel a lot better then I've felt in a while. I have a lot more energy, and I feel more satisfied. Though I had a bit of a sweet craving last night I was able to overcome it by drinking a 12oz bottle of fresh juice, and I felt a lot better then I would have, had I given in and eaten a square of chocolate or something.

Cleansing For The New Year...

Woodstock Peace Salad with Tahini Dressing 

Happy New Year - and here’s to making 2014 count! I recall being very excited, and hopeful that 2013 would be a red-letter year, it turned out to be kind of a rough one, with several ups and downs. I never make resolutions - I’ve talked about this before, but I basically believe resolutions are nonsense. - however I do enjoy goal setting. The first day of the new year is always like a clean slate, you don’t know anything yet, and anything can happen. There are a lot of things I’m looking forward to this year, I’ve got vacation plans already in the works - amongst other things, school is almost at it’s end, and I have numerous ideas for the future. Right now the world feels like my oyster, and I want to take full advantage of it, and make 2014 the amazing year that 2013 was suppose to be.

I plan to start this year off right, and my biggest goal for this year is getting back into a routine. An exercise routine, a meditation routine and a healthful eating routine that focuses on whole fruits and veggies. I normally don’t do January cleanses, I think it’s silly - everyone does it, but this year a cleanse is something I really need.  May was really the beginning of my ‘falling off point’ I fell out of my usual routines, stopped hooping, stopped yoga, started eating more processed foods. Over summer I got back on the wagon for the most part, but school took up a significant portion of my time which left little time for me to exercise. Come September and vacation - an amazing, yet gluttonous touring feast through Eastern Canada, I fell back off. For months I’ve been trying to get back on track, and I do great with it for days and then fall prey to the sugar monsters, and the chocolate demons once more. The sadness I’ve felt over my Oma’s passing in October, coupled with the stresses of school and work, the bad weather and a few other things have just left me feeling blah. Staying on track has been a struggle these past few months and so I feel a cleanse is in order. I need to kick myself in the ass, and kick-start my health you know?

So come Monday I’m going to embark on at least a 21 day cleanse. Using Kris Carr’s amazing “Crazy Sexy Diet” as kind of a jumping off point. I may extend the cleanse, for several weeks depending on how I feel, and I haven’t decided yet how exactly I’m going to structure the whole thing but I’m feeling good about it. Getting back to whole fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes. Getting back to juicing, junking processed foods, sugar, chocolate, easing up on oil, and salt. I’m excited. This is the way I prefer to eat, but sometimes we get side-tracked.

Chiptole Black Eyed Peas and Steamed Kale 

Anyway, I plan to document my experience on the cleanse for you guys to follow, with pictures of what I’m eating, and descriptions of what I’m doing and how I’m feeling. The next few days leading up to Monday is going to be sort of a ‘cleanse primer’ a slow giving up of the bad stuff so that Monday isn’t a total shock to the system.

I started today with a glass of water with lemon, and cayenne. Then downed a bottle of fresh grapefruit, orange and lime juice. For lunch I had an enormous salad - the inspiration for which came from Kris Carr’s Woodstock Peace Salad with Tahini Dressing. I loaded my bowl with a mixture of baby spinach, red cabbage, chopped broccoli, sunflower seeds, avocado, radishes, and green onions. It was so delicious and tasted great with the tahini dressing.

For dinner we had a simple meal of Chipotle Black Eyed Peas from Jae Steele’s book “Get it Ripe” made with carrots rather then zucchini, and served alongside a bed of steamed kale. This was the perfect dinner, and I felt great eating it. Eating black eyed peas and greens on New Year’s Day is tradition in some parts, and it’s believed that doing so will bring good luck and prosperity in the year to come. Lets hope so! Stay tuned for more cleanse details, tips, ideas, and recipes.

Merry Christmas 2013...

Two Christmas Stollen.
Almond-Free on the Left, Almonds on the Right

This year we had a somewhat quieter more relaxing Christmas which I appreciated. It was a day of gift-giving, family, friends, and good food. It all started when I got up around 6:45am, which is early, but not as early as I normally get up on Christmas morning. When I lived at home my mother and I always got up around 6am Christmas morning. We’d make tea or coffee and sit in the quiet of the house, talking and admiring our Christmas tree until everyone else woke up. Even though I live so far away now, I still like to rise early on Christmas, in fact the early hours of Christmas morning are still my favorite part of Christmas. It’s like the calm before the storm, and I enjoy being the only one awake. Of course, without my mother to talk to I don’t spend that much time sitting in the livingroom. Instead I use my early morning time to prep and roast vegetables for Christmas dinner, or do other cook prep things to save myself the time later.

So I worked on dinner until about eight o’clock, and then it was gift-giving time. My other favorite part of Christmas is the look on my husband’s face when he opens gifts - particularly when he’s not expecting them. I got quite the haul this year - loads of books, both cook books and non-fiction books. Some from my husband, some from my brother-in-law, some from my parents-in-law. My parents-in-law also got me a lovely 5 quart Cast Iron Dutch Oven - and this thing weighs a ton! My husband got me a cute little cake pop maker which is totally awesome, because I keep talking about how I want to re-create some non-vegan cake pops I’d had in the past. Plus it makes doughnut holes! I mean, sure you can make doughnut holes without special equipment but I know myself, they won’t come out as round spheres, without a little help, ha.

Then it was breakfast time. Traditionally, growing up the only breakfast we ever ate in my house on Christmas morning was Stollen. Stollen is a German Christmas fruit bread. It’s a yeasted bread, traditionally made with a lot of butter, and it’s not particularly sweet itself, but the outside is dusted with a load of powdered sugar. Stollen is my other favorite thing about Christmas, I love it! The thing is, the only person in my family who knows how to make Stollen is my Oma. She used to make all the Stollen’s for her children, and grandchildren. Each year she’d take three or four days and bake maybe 2 dozen of them or so. She mailed me one each year, but as some of you may know she passed away this past October. An aunt of mine, was considering making the Stollen’s herself this year - she had been helping my Oma do it for the past couple of years because it was getting to be too much work for her to do alone - but it was just too soon for her. A lot of us in my family still haven’t quite gotten over it, and Christmas has been a particularly hard season for us because it was my Oma’s favorite holiday. Still I really hated the idea of having Christmas without Stollen, because Christmas just isn’t Christmas without it, you know?

So I took it upon myself to make the Stollen myself. I couldn’t get my Oma’s actual recipe and so I spent countless hours researching online how to make Stollen. I finally found a traditional Dresden recipe - sans marzipan, the way my Oma made it - that looked promising. Of course the recipe was very vegan-unfriendly, it also took about 24 hours to proof. After a bit more research I came across a veganized version of the Dresden recipe that only took about 6 hours in total to make - with only 4 hours of proofing. I went with that recipe, and tinkered with it to get it suited to my taste. I made one tester Stollen in early December and it turned out great, except I used candied cherries and cinnamon in the dough which I realized was a mistake when I took my first bite. My Oma never used them. For my second batch - my Christmas batch - I omitted the candied Cherries and the cinnamon. I used cardamom, candied lemon and orange peel, currents, sultans, raisins, cranberries, and slivered almonds. I soaked the dried fruit in a mixture of rum and amaretto, and even if the recipe isn’t exactly like my Oma’s I would say it tasted pretty damn close.

Since my husband doesn’t like nuts I divided my dough and made two Stollens. One with almonds one without, he loved it too. This was his first time eating Stollen, because he’d always refused to eat my Oma’s due to the almonds. We cut three slices each, smeared them with Earth balance and downed them with Vegan Nog, and hot Vanilla Hazelnut Tea. The perfect morning.

Lebanese Muhammara Dip

After we cleaned up I had a little time to relax before I needed to make my appetizers. I went simple this year, we had the leftover hummus from Christmas Eve, and I made a Lebanese Muhammara Dip from the book "Easy Vegan." As well as the Baked Onion Dip from Lane Gold’s “Vegan Junk Food” Both dips went over well, I loved the addition of the pomegranate seeds in the Muhammara, but that baked onion dip, damn! It was amazing, and it went fast. It was better then any other onion dip I’ve ever had, way better then any non-vegan onion dip, and it was so easy. It’s basically just vegan mayo, vegan cream cheese, vegan mozzarella, dried parsley, onions and garlic. Except I didn’t have dried parsley and so I used fresh, and I also used my own home-made cream cheese instead of store-bought. So good, I could have eaten the entire pan.

Baked Onion Dip 

When it was time to eat we tucked in to a lovely home-made Porcini-stuffed Seitan Roast with Wild Mushroom Sauce the recipe for which came from Robin Robertson’s “Party Vegan” I’ve had a lot of luck with Party Vegan in the past, it’s a great little book, but for whatever reason this recipe gave me trouble. I cooked the roast in it’s water bath for an hour - 20 minutes longer then the recipe said to - and it still wasn’t firm, it was dough. At that point I decided to pitch the water bath and just bake the thing in foil on a cookie sheet. I baked it for about an hour covered and 15 additional minutes uncovered after which point I was finally firm and brown. I don’t know why the water bath didn’t work, I’ve never had trouble with any of Robertson’s recipes in the past so maybe there was some error on my part. Anyway, in the end the roast was firm, chewy and delicious. Maybe not my favorite roast - I think that honor goes to Carla Kelly - but pretty good nonetheless. The roast was stuffed with a mixture of rice and mushrooms and bread. To me the stuffing was a bit bland, but then I’m also not a fan of rice stuffings. I don’t know why. The mushroom sauce that went with it was pretty damn delicious though!

Porcini Stuffed Seitan Roast

To accompany the roast I made Robertson’s Herb Mashed Potatoes - also from Party Vegan, and these were great. Nicely flavored with fresh thyme, tarragon, parsley, chives and garlic. It went perfectly with the roast and the gravy.

Herb Mashed Potatoes 

Wild Mushroom Sauce 

We also had the Sweet Root Casserole with Dried Fruit from Terry Walters “Clean Start” which was a delicious mixture of parsnips, carrots and sweet potatoes with ginger, lemon zest, orange juice, Dried Plums, and dried cherries. A bit sweet for some people but I thought it was pretty good, maybe fewer plums next time as they seemed to be the sweetest component.

Sweet Root Casserole with Dried Fruits 

Also from Terry’s “Clean Start” we had the Green Beans, Figs and Pistachios in Balsamic Reduction. A nice accompaniment, the beans were tender crisp, and the figs and pistachios brought a really lovely flavor note.

Green Beans with Figs and Pistachios in Balsamic Reduction 

Finally we had Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts and Fresh Cranberries, the inspiration for which came from Here. By the way I couldn't find canned or Jarred Chestnuts anywhere and so I had to buy fresh ones and boil and peel them myself. Wow, what a pain in the ass that is! After all that we were pretty stuffed, and as my Oma would say “If that was dinner then we had it.” Indeed. Of course, after a bit of lazing around and more gift-giving we dug into dessert.

Roast Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts and Fresh Cranberries

We had tons of leftover cookies from Christmas Eve , plus I made 3 dozen cupcakes. First up were the Salted Caramel Cupcakes from Chloe Coscarelli’s book “Chloe’s Vegan Desserts.” these were really delicious, and I liked the addition of big flakes of salt on top. However, they were a bit sweet for my taste. Half of one was more then enough.

Slated Caramel Cupcakes 

Also from “Chloe’s Vegan Desserts” I made the Mint Cookie Cupcakes. Which are essentially a chocolate cupcake filled with crushed oreo’s, topped with a frosting full of crushed oreo’s and peppermint extract. This was probably my favorite out of the three cupcakes I made. Something about that peppermint chocolate combo you know?

Mint Cookie Cupcakes 

Then I made the Tiramisu Cupcakes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s book “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World” These were pretty good, although the cream cheese frosting didn’t make near enough to frost each cupcakes. Since I didn’t have enough time to make a second batch of frosting my cupcakes looked a little sad, and kept falling over. Oh well, I suppose in the end taste is more important then presentation right?

Tiramisu Cupcakes 

At some point during the evening festivities it began snowing. In Vancouver it’s pretty rare to get a White Christmas and even more rare for it to actually snow on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Typically our Christmas’s are wet and rainy, or cold but sunny. Growing up I think I maybe only saw 4 or 5 white Christmas’s, so that’s one thing I like about Chicago, except over the past few years Chicago hasn’t had snow on Christmas Day either!  So this felt really kind of special to me, and after everyone left the house my husband and I took a nice walk with our dog Artemis in the quiet, snowy night. This, more then any other, ended up being my favorite moment of the entire day.

My Full Plate.