One Year Review

Chili

So, it has been one year since I embarked on a vegan diet.  It has been a good year. Eating at home is a breeze. Processed foods were not a big part of my diet to begin with, now I eat even less.  I have used some

Tacos and Refried Beans

mock meats and cheeses, but they are not the mainstay of my diet.  I will eat less of them this year.

Noodles and Vegetables

There are still plenty of recipes to make, some are modifications. Non dairy milks are great.  I do not crave meat at all.  The thought of eating a slab of meat is kind of gross.  Sometimes I would like some comfort food with ground meat and cheese, but that is rare.

Thousand Island Dressing

Tommy and I definitely eat out less often.  That is good for the waistline and the pocket book.  Eating out is still the hardest part.  It is frustrating to peruse a menu and see nothing I can eat on it.  The farm to table type places are the worst.  They put bacon in everything.  Some places will easily make a nice dish for me, others do not do a good job.

Noodles with peanut sauce, scallion pancakes

 Brunch is the hardest meal because everything is egg based.  Eating while travelling is tougher.  I have had two veggie sandwiches that had cheese on them.  It wasn't on the menu and we were on the road with the limited options. I am sure that will still happen every now and then.

Oatmeal with nuts and fruit

Granola

Health wise, I feel good.  My cholesterol dropped almost 30 points and it was high before. I lost a few pounds and gained a lot of muscle.  I made weight training a priority at the gym and it really paid off. When I had the Bod Pod analysis done, I gained 7 pounds of muscle.  Although the scale hasn't moved much, I am smaller and my clothes fit much better.

Lentil Soup with Rutabaga Croutons

Tommy has been a wonderful sport with this.  He eats vegetarian most of the time.  He likes a little cheese on most dishes.  I buy him some meat, especially if I am making a dish with a lot of veggies that I do not like.  He is also good at picking out the things that he doesn't like.

Mango Salsa

I have found that smoothies and oatmeal make the breakfasts.  You can add so many different ingredients to them to keep it from getting boring.  I snack on fruit and nuts most often.  I have to be careful with bread because I mindlessly eat it.  We have had lot of soups and

Spicy Lasagna

salads. One dish meals are common for dinner.  Stir fry a protein (beans or tofu) and at least 2 veggies and serve over a grain. I try not to make to many desserts, but we have had cookies, cakes and pies.  Earth Balance and bittersweet chocolate are a great team.  It took several tries to get good pancakes, but I have yet to find a good French Toast recipe. But I will trying.  I have made lots of hummus, pesto and guacamole. I make bread about as often as I did pre-vegan. We are enjoying a whole wheat loaf now.  

Portobello Mushroom with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

I claim the year a success and looking forward to another meat free year.

Nachos

Quinoa with veggies and  curry sauce

Tofu steaks, bulgar wheat and asparagus

Staying the Course

Blogging two days in a row,  maybe I can keep this up on a regular basis again.  Here is another tea I have sipping.  It is a mix of berries, white tea and little bit of Darjeeling. Good for a cold day.

Lemon hummus



My most recent batch of hummus was made with chickpeas, tahini and lots of lemon. I pulled this recipe from an old weight watchers cookbook. It is definitely a different flavor profile. I ate it with some flaxseed crackers that are high in seeds and whole grains.  I have had these several times.  They have a nice crunch and lots of nuttiness.

Green Smoothie

This time for breakfast I went with the green smoothie.  It does not look very appetizing in the blender.  It was made from an avocado, spinach, soy milk, protein powder and spirulina.  It was not the best tasting of smoothies. Bananas make a much better base.

 

Lunch was a simple baked sweet potato with a broccoli and pesto topping.  The broccoli was microwaved with garlic powder and lemon juice. 



I saw a list a few weeks back about things you do once you start eating vegan.  One thing on the list was that most meals are one dish meals.  That's what I do a lot of know.  Tonight's plan was a mix of rice, broccoli, cauliflower, potato, onion and carrot with some mole sauce.  On the side would be a sautee of greens - kale, collard greens and spinach.  However, I got home from the gym at 8:00 and decided to just mix everything together. That worked. I had already chopped everything up earlier in the day so it was a quick cook in a skillet. 



November starts

one dish meals

As  the temps drop, comfort food moves in. Lately I have been doing a lot of one dish meals. The one above is  a mix of black beans, roasted corns, Japanese yam (white flesh and is sweet), onion, cilantro and avocado. I baked the potato first, then just sauteed everything together in the skillet.

Blueberry smoothie

This was my breakfast this morning. The smoothie is made with rice milk, pomegranate juice,cocoa, spinach, dates, an lots of frozen blueberries.  I am amazed  at what I put in smoothies, but you do not notice the taste of the spinach.

Another new product for me is this herbal coffee.  I do not drink real coffee, it tastes like an aspirin dissolving in my mouth.  My mother could not stand the taste of coffee either, so it might be genetic. The only way I have ever been able to drink was with lots of hot chocolate and berry syrups which left almost no taste of coffee.  This product is made with chicory and cocoa.  It is prepared like coffee, I used a french press. The taste as nice and very chocolaty. I had to add a cube of sugar for each cup, so it is not the zero calorie beverage like tea. It is caffeine free.

Pesto

One of my clean out the refrigerator before grocery day creations was this pesto.  It is made with basil, cilantro, mint, and parsley for the herbs.  Some pine nuts, garlic, and nutritional yeast finish out the recipe.  I hate waste and it always feels good to use the produce up.  I spread this on sandwiches or used is pasta or rice dishes, such as the pasta primavera with tomatoes and asparagus.

Pasta Primavera