Vegan Day Three

I am happy to report there were no chicken cravings on day three.

The day started as such.

Breakfast:

• Sauteed onion, bell pepper, spinach, and tomato with crumbled tofu
• topped with soy cheddar and nutritional yeast
• Potatoes fried in Earth Balance at TJ's Everyday Seasoning
• Orange and Banana

I've always been a big breakfast person, but this was a LOT of breakfast.  Also, I love egg whites and usually eat them everyday for breakfast, but the crumbled tofu was a very good substitute. 

Then I went about my day doing my "no 9-to-5", "it's the week before finals" thing (i.e. procrastinating). The good news is I fit in the THIRD kettlebell workout for this week (of FIVE planned). My tiny hands are so calloused. I look like a cowboy. 

Post workout, it was time for lunch. Mama Pea raves about her favorite lunch, a Crack Wrap. She wraps up hummus and vegan cheese in a whole wheat wrap and cooks it on a griddle with Earth Balance.  I didn't have a wrap, but I had whole wheat bread, so I made myself the BEST grilled cheese I have had in a very very long time. PS I never order grilled cheese at restaurants because calories scare me.

The key to this sandwich was the Daiya cheddar.  Daiya is kind of like a mystery because it's not soy and it's not gluten. So, like... WTF is it?

"Filtered water, tapioca and /or arrowroot flours, non-GMO expeller pressed canola and /or non-GMO expeller pressed safflower oil, coconut oil, pea protein, salt, inactive yeast, vegan natural flavors, vegetable glycerin, xanthan gum, citric acid (for flavor), annatto, titanium dioxide (a naturally occurring mineral)"

So this brings me to my only problem with Veganism. How is that laundry list of ingredients better for me than cow's milk and salt? I don't know. I do feel good eating Vegan although only three days isn't enough to really see a difference in my health. Maybe I shouldn't eat super processed fake cheeze? But it's SO good.

Seriously, this cheeze is better than cheese.

Lunch:

• Grilled cheeze with hummus and daiya cheddar
• Salad with grapes, sunflower seeds, carrots, edamame, avocado
• Agave Mustard vinaigrette (homemade!)

I ate my delicious and nutritious lunch outside with my two buddies, who both got baths yesterday. Happy little fur people. (not)

 And then after a full day of getting hardly anything productive done, it was time for dinner. All I do is eat, apparently.

Dinner was inspired by Post Punk Kitchen. The original recipe is Seitan Chops smothered in Apples and Ginger, but I wasn't interested in Seitan two nights in a row. So I marinated Tofu instead.

I started the meal by marinating extra firm tofu in dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, a touch of maple syrup, and worcestershire. I let this soak for 24 hours in the fridge.

Then it was time for dinner!

First let's roast some apples. These are great as a side dish for anything, so here's the recipe!

Gingered Apples
Post Punk Kitchen

Ingredients

• 2 pounds of apples (I used honeycrisp), sliced into 1/2" pieces
• 3 tbsp freshly grated ginger
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp EVOO
• 3 tbsp dried cranberries
• 1 tbsp brown sugar

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Line a baking sheet with parchment
• Dump all ingredients on sheet
• Toss
• Bake for 20 minutes
• Turn apples
• Bake for another 20 minutes

Parchment saves you from dish duty and keeps the apples from sticking to the pan.

SO tasty!

Back to the tofu.

Like the PPK recipe, I dredged my tofu in panko crumbs seasoned with S & P and rosemary. Good thing I have this handy dandy herb mill that the christmas fairy sent me!

Thanks Britters!!!

Once my tofu was nice and dredged, it was time to fry in EVOO.

I'm usually not one to fry, but I figured I'd make an exception since the rest of this meal is produce.

I also thinly sliced 2 cups of shallots to make a crispy onion topping.

Wanna know what I look like when I chop anything onion-like? Especially two cups of anything onion-like?

I cry.

 I thought that mascara was waterproof. Fail.

Dinner:

• Tofu Chops with crispy shallots and gingered apples
• Leftover protein mashed potaotes
• Green Salad 

Vegan Day Three was delicious!

Vegan Day Two

I woke up on day two feeling GREAT! Energetic, light, good. By the end of the day I couldn't stop thinking about chicken. I blame the food network, commercials, pinterest, and my google reader.

Breakfast

• Vegan Yogurt
• Pumpkin Spice Protein Bar (which was later smothered in PB)
• Banana and blueberries
• Cofffeeeeee

This vegan yogurt was awesome! The recipe came from Happy Herbivore, and I was extremely skeptical at first, but it tasted just like banana yogurt...I would not have known the diff in a blind taste test.

The recipe uses silken tofu, soy milk, lemon juice, banana, and maple syrup. I used agave syrup instead and divided the recipe into 4 containers for the week. These servings are 2 WW P+ each. This is comparable to normal yogurt, and a pretty good deal!

Before I left the house for my internship, I threw dinner in a crock pot.

Slow cooker seitan carnitas a la Mama Pea!
And if you're thinking "EW WTF IS SEITAN. sounds evil" then rest assured this recipe would be excellent with chicken, pork, or beef. Ps Seitan is like tofu, but from wheat. It's like 100% gluten, so don't attempt this recipe if you are gluten intolerant.

Here's the recipe:

Slow Cooker Seitan Carnitas
a la Mama Pea
for 4 - 4 WWP+ each

Ingredients

• 2 8 oz packages seitan
• 1 c. vegetable broth, divided into 1/4 c. and 3/4 c.
• 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp salt
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/2 c. cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2/3 c. organic salsa

Instructions

• If you're using seitan, brown the seitan in a lightly oiled frying pan just until you get a bit of color on the "meat"
• Dump in to a slow cooker
• Deglaze pan with 1/4 c. vegetable broth, then add broth and bits to crock pot
• Add all other ingredients to crock pot
• Cook on low for 6 hours
• If you use real meat you can skip the browning step and go ahead and crock pot the raw meat for 8 or so hours on low

After internship, there was lunch:

Lunch:

• Open face meatless meatloaf sandwich
• Salad with edamame and snapea crisps
• Honeycrisp apple
• Red Zinger tea

And after an afternoon kettlebell workout and a bit of homework, I got to enjoy that seitan carnitas.

Dinner:

• Two Seitan Carnitas tacos topped with avocado
• Vegetarian refried beans
• Spanish brown rice (brown rice, tomato sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, corn)
• Salad with vegan cheese and salsa

Seriously GOOD tacos.

I think I promised you some info on Black Bean Brownies.

You GOT it.

The recipe for Black Bean Brownies came from Habby Herbivore.

What happens when you cross black beans, bananas, oats, cocoa, and some other stuff?

3 WW P+ brownies!

They're fudgy and moist and fix that chocolate craving in a snap.

And they're super easy. You just blend all the ingredients in the blender, pour into a pan, and bake. And there is no flour (just oats), so the recipe works well for people who are off gluten.

So that is all she wrote for Vegan Day Two!

Vegan Day One

Success!

I got so much done today, I can't believe it was only one day.
I started off with a trip to TJ's and a local health food store to pick up the week's supplies. Note that I also picked up pantry items at Target over the weekend. I estimate the grand total for 19 planned recipes that feed 3 people is about $150. Not too shabby.

Bulk spices are a wonderful thing. I transferred the baggie contents into jelly jars and labeled so I wouldn't forget. 

Say CHEEZE.

anyone interested in a taste test?

I took today to meal plan and prep for the week. Tuesday through Thursday shoot right by with work, workouts, and school, so if I don't plan ahead, I end up eating microwaved disgusting things while driving. Ick.

Today's Menu:

Breakfast AKA not vegan clean out the fridge fest AKA the last supper

• Chobani 0% Blood Orange greek yogurt 
• 2 pieces turkey bacon
• Toast
• Banana

Pre-workout Snack

• Pumpkin Spice Protein Bars a la Mama Pea

2 Weight Watchers P+ for a huge piece!

Late Lunch

• Sandwich with hummus, shredded carrots, and cucumber
• Snapea Crisps
• Honey crisp apple

Dinner

• Meatless Meatloaf a la Mama Pea
• High Protein Garlic Mashed Potatoes a la Oh She Glows

meatloaf ingredients

Pre-oven 

Post-oven

Meatless Meatloaf was a hit! It was mostly garbanzo beans, sunflower seeds, and oats, but all the seasonings were absolutely perfect. Kudos to Mama Pea. This is a MUST MAKE for anyone interested in a meatless meal.

On the side were these AWESOME garlic mashed potatoes. The recipe starts with 2 cans of white beans pureed with garlic, salt, and paprika. I modified the recipe a bit from Angela's version.  See recipe below.

Garlic Mash

High Protein Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

• 10 large red potatoes
• 2 cans white beans (navy or great northern variety) drained and rinsed
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 tbsp whipped earth balance
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 - 1 1/2 cups reserved hot water from boiled potatoes (or hot vegetable broth)
• cracked black peper to taste

Instructions

• Scrub potatoes clean, cover with cold water, and boil for 20-30 minutes or until fork tender
• Meanwhile, in a food processor, chop garlic until minced
• Add beans and puree until smooth
• Dump into a very large bowl
• Add paprika, salt, and a 1/2 c. of hot water
• When potatoes are ready, fish them out of the water and add to the big bowl with the bean mixture
• Mash em up!
• You could always rice the potatoes in to the bean mixture if you're afraid of potato chunks (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE)
• Add hot water as you mash until you're happy with consistency
• Season with S & P until your taste buds have a happy party on your tongue

I think I'm in love with these potatoes.

Oh yes, and then I had dessert

• Black Bean Brownies a la Happy Herbivore
• Protein Ice Cream a la Mama Pea
• more like protein pudding ice cream. this is not a complaint.

This blog has been entirely too long, so I will save the deets on that dessert for another night.

I'm going to go digest my plants now.

BeErs, Beets, Battlestar Galactica.

Well, two for three. Or 1.5 for three. I did a little play on words with Beers and Bears there.

What did you do this weekend?

I did this:

Souvees!

Leah, Bjorn, our friend Erin (shout out!) and I headed to an International Beer Festival in Thousand Oaks. We were hoping for some good cougar sight seeing, but we only had one possible D list celebrity sighting instead. I'll take it. It was a really nice California evening with wonderful and entertaining company. And some yummy beers! Bears! Beers!

Today I cooked one of my very favorite vegetables. Kimberly Doyle loves this vegetable one million times more than I do, so I dedicate this blog to YOU, momma! I hope you read this. Will someone tell her to read this? Tell Doris, too.

First things first. Put your kitty apron on.

loooooking crazy.

 We have a great farmers market in Camarillo, and I picked up these gems last week:

Red and Gold, like Gryffindor

Roasted Beets

My favorite way to prepare beets is roasted. I think you get a lot more flavor and concentrated moisture than when you boil them. I like to eat them slightly warm on a salad with a strong cheese (goat, bleu, gorgonzola) and balsamic vinegar. Golden, red, whatever, they are ALWAYS good. Yes, Kim, ALWAYS.

Note: This time I tried putting all the beets in one foil pouch to cook them but I recommend individually wrapping the beets snugly in foil in the future. The skins will come off more easily that way.

Ingredients

• Beets (try to pick out beets that are equally sized for equal cooking time)
• Foil
• EVOO
• Salt
• No desire to maintain a manicure

Directions

• Wash and trim beets
• Drain dry
• If necessary, cut beets in halves/thirds so that all are the same size
• Wrap each beet individually in a sheet of foil with a tiny drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of salt
• Wrap tight so that any leaking juices don't burn in the oven
• Place on a baking sheet
• Bake at 375 for 45 minutes (this time is for lime-sized beets... use your judgment)
• To test for doneness, unwrap one beet (BE CAREFUL!) and stick a knife in it. If it slides out easily, it's done!
• Let cool 15-30 minutes, depending on how impatient you are
• Unwrap and skins will slip right off!
• Slice to your preference and serve

Arrrreee ya done?

INTERMISSION. INTERMISSION. INTERMISSION. INTERMISSION.

Oh, hey sprinkles! You gonna help cook?

Where ya going?

Oh.

RESUME BLOG POST. RESUME BLOG POST. RESUME BLOG POST.

And no salad is complete without a homemade vinaigrette, right? I rarely like balsamic vinaigrettes out of a bottle. And I don't like the excessive oil. So I make my own.

Basic Vinaigrette

Can be adapted one trillion different ways. My favorite way is to add 1 tbsp of nonfat plain greek yogurt to make a creamy balsamic. Amazing!

Ingredients

• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp very finely diced (or grated) red onion
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1.5 tbsp good dijon mustard ( I recommend Annie's or Grey Poupon)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 c. balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together, in order, with a whisk. The mustard will make the oil and vinegar emulsify.

And now you have all the skillz to make a fancypants salad. Like this one:

Lettuce, red onion, red and gold beets, goat cheese, chicken, vinaigrette.

Wonderful way to end the weekend! Who am I kidding... every day is a weekend right now. Gotta get a job...

So now I look like I murdered someone....

And the kitchen looks like a crime scene.

But it was totally deliciously worth it.

Back in the Saddle Again

Greetings Earthlings!

Today started like this:

About damn time. That's right, It's back to Weight Watchers with me. I had huge success with WW in middle school, and again after the freshman 15. And I'm bacccckkkkkk. Between sixth and seventh grade I lost about thirty pounds. Thirty pounds!  Most sixth graders only weigh thirty pounds, right? (I have a really hard time judging kids' ages...)

After my first year of college (read: binge drinking, cafeteria, no mommy) I lost twenty pounds over summer. The only problem was I wasn't done growing and maturing so my habits didn't stick. I didn't know what it meant to cook for myself or what healthy living meant. I really didn't know how crucial fueling your body right and exercising is to your longevity.

My philosophy is that we were given this one body and we only have one lifetime to treat it right. Don't get me wrong, I have done many many terrible things to my body (including starving it with diet root beer and carrot sticks then binging on cookies the next day for an entire summer in high school).  I still occasionally do terrible things to my body like eating processed food and drinking too much diet coke. However I now have the maturity and sensibility to understand that when I eat pure, whole foods I feel better! When I exercise, my head is in the right place and I sleep better at night.

My goals are to relearn healthy habits, especially in terms of portion control. I don't think I will ever look at food purely as fuel... I see cooking and food presentation as an art, really. My relationship with food is a little abnormal, and I know I have room for improvement. I already have healthy food habits and decent exercise habits, but it's time to hone in on them, put my nose to the grindstone and drop the extra pounds I'm carrying around. I dug through old family pics this morning to find some of me at my chunkiest in the last ten years. Trust me, some were a lot worse, but so much that I refused to even look twice at them.

Don't mind Leah, my sister, in the right picture. She must have been in a Posh Spice phase. Ps my momma is a lifetime weight watcher and she looks nothing like this anymore. She's svelte and buff as shit these days (she's my inspiration!). These pics are circa 2004/2005, right in the midst of the freshman 15. I don't want to go back there.

Remember when I mentioned mascarpone cheese the other day? Let me follow through with a promise! Now you're probably thinking, HOLD IT THERE SISTER, I thought you were on a diet?! The great thing about WW (weight watchers) is that nothing is "off-limits", you just have to budget for it. And my dad took care of all the leftovers for me, so really, the best tip is to have a human garbage disposal in your home to eliminate any temptations for overeating. 

Ginger and Fig Mascarpone with Puff Pastry

adapted from Fig and Gingered Mascarpone Napoleons, Gourmet, 2001

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. Mascarpone cheese
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp candied ginger, diced
• 1 large or 2 small fresh figs, stems removed and chopped 
• Puff pastry cookies
• Pretty fig, sliced for topping cookies

Directions

• Mix together mascarpone, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, candied ginger and chopped figs

• Chill in fridge for 20-30 minutes at least
• When ready, dollop 1-2 tbsp of cream on top of cookie and a slice or two of fig, like below

If you stopped reading this a bit ago because you don't like figs, I understand. Texture is gross. Replace figs in the recipe with nectarines, peaches, plums, strawberries, or mango. Also the sugar could be easily replaced with agave or honey to taste if you are watching your sugar intake. It's probably a better choice anyway!

That's what I love about cooking. You can never be wrong. If it tastes good to you, then it's good.

Here's something that's never good:

The number of bruises on my body. 

Moving totally wrecked me. Always does. Gotta stop moving so much. Good thing unemployment is so low-impact. (Bitter).

 And on that note, Monster.com awaits me.