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.

Birthday/New Years Eve Celebrations...

The last day of the year is always a weird day for me. I’m always sad that the year is over, and always happy and excited that a new one is just about to begin. This year things are a little different though. Since 2013 wasn’t that great a year for me, I’m not so sad to see it go. I’m looking forward to 2014, and know that there are many amazing things waiting just over the horizon. I hope everyone has a lovely New Years Eve, and I wish you all the best for the New Year too. Enjoy your celebrations!

We’ve been celebrating rather quietly this year. Yesterday was my husband’s birthday and so we spent a lovely day together. Each year on his birthday I make him a special dinner of his choosing. Sometimes he wants something elaborate and sometimes he wants something simple - this year it was kind of in between - he requested sushi! We both love sushi, he even more so then me, and while I don’t find it particularly difficult to make it, it is usually time consuming. When I asked what kind of sushi he wanted he shrugged and said “Whatever you want, you always make great sushi.” and so I decided to try my hand at making the Tempeh Nori Rolls from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s book “Veganomicon.” I really don’t use this book enough and so I was happy to try the recipe out.

Tempeh Nori Rolls 

I guess you could say that the Tempeh Nori Rolls are a kind of take on a spicy California roll. You mash steamed tempeh with vegan mayo, and chili sesame oil, and then spoon it over your rice, and topp with green onion and avocado before rolling the whole thing up. I’ll admit after tasting the tempeh mix I added just a touch of garlic and salt to the tempeh and really the final product was fantastic. We loved these rolls, texture-wise I think they were spot on.

Cucumber Rolls 

For our second roll I just made a simple cucumber roll - no recipe required. It’s just Nori, Rice, Thick sliced cucumber, and a smear of Chipotle Vegenaise. Super quick, super easy, but super delicious especially that Chipotle Mayo!

To go along with our sushi I baked up a box of Vegan Calamari. My husband used to love calamari before we were vegan, he used to eat it any chance he got, and so when I saw this vegan calamari at the store I thought I’d get it for him so that he could try it out. Now, I’ve never eaten a calamari in my life - never was one for squid, octopus or anything weird like that, so I can’t say how this compares in taste to actual calamari. I can say that I liked it, and that the texture is about what I’d imagine actual calamari to be like. Chewy, and in my opinion it tasted a bit like what I remember chicken tasting like.  We dipped our Calamari in Follow Your Heart Tartar sauce and the sauce was absolutely delicious. My husband really loved them, but I’m not sure this is something I’d be dying to have again. Great for the novelty factor though.

Vegan Calamari 

Today the celebration continued with a combination birthday/New Year’s Eve party - which is currently still in progress, I snuck away for a few minutes!! - Every NYE we have family and friends over and order Pizza - or in recent years It’s been a pizza/Chinese Food combo. This year the omni’s ordered pizza and Chinese food, and this year I decided to make my own pizza from scratch since I had the time, and since I’ve been really enjoying pizza making lately.

Meatball Pizza 

Pizza is my husband’s other food. I think if he had the choice he would probably live off of sushi and pizza for his entire life, and so It was the perfect food to celebrate NYE. When I picked up that box of calamari I came across a bag of frozen vegan meatballs and decided to try the Meatball Pizza in Julie Hasson’s awesome little book “Vegan Pizza” It’s a pretty simple recipe, Marinara, vegan meatballs, daiya mozzarella, and minced parsley - and it was so damn good. If you want to know a secret I’ve always hated meatball pizza. As an omnivore I thought it was pretty nasty, I think I only ate it once! As a Vegan, I thought it was great, just another example of how my tastebuds have changed since going vegan. I guess it turns out that I was never so much a picky eater as I just didn’t like the taste of meat in the first place.

Caramelized Onion and Artichoke Pizza with
Balsamic Reduction 

For our second pizza I made the Caramelized Onion and Artichoke Pizza with Balsamic Reduction from Lane Gold’s book “Vegan Junk Food.” Again this was a very simple recipe, onions, garlic, daiya mozzarella, artichokes and a balsamic reduction made with balsamic vinegar and sugar. It was so tasty, so oniony, we couldn’t get enough!

And of course, no birthday celebration would be complete without dessert. Every year in addition to a delicious dinner I make my husband a cake of his choosing. Well this year he didn’t want cake, he wanted cupcakes! - Yes more cupcakes, because he apparently didn’t get enough on Christmas. - He requested the Cookies and Creme Cupcakes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s book “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World” and so I was happy to oblige him. Unfortunately I only had 4 candles left, but you get the idea. We sang happy birthday, he made his wish, and now we’re playing board games until it’s time to ring in the New Year.

Cookies and Creme Cupcakes 

Until Next Year! Stay Safe - Be Happy.
Peace/Love

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.