Day 186 -- Green Tea Time -- The Search

I'm going to start off by admitting that I'm thoroughly addicted to Starbucks' Iced Green Tea Lattes (soy, no syrup).  I've sad it before, but I think I need to preface this post with a full disclosure so that my actions will be seen in the proper light.  I will also say that, with tip, this habit is costing me five dollars a day.

That said, I know that it shouldn't be that hard to figure out how to make this drink at home.   If I was really desperate, I could buy the actual Starbucks green tea powder mixture (green tea and sugar) on ebay for a ridiculous amount of money.  But instead, I decided it would be better to dump that sugar as well and start from scratch.

The biggest hurdle was finding affordable green tea powder.  According to recipes I found on the net, you need about a teaspoon of green tea powder (matcha) to make one drink.  My first  stop was the Asian grocery store in a nearby town.  They had a tiny can, maybe a half cup at most, for twelve dollars.  That seemed a bit pricey to me, so I began to wonder if I could just buy green tea and pulverize it in my Nutri Bullet.  A big more research and I knew not to try that.  Matcha is made of just the leaves and loose tea includes stems as well.

So, I started to search again and eventually, I found this site -- Nuts.com!   And their very reasonably priced 100% Matcha Green Tea Powder.   But before making my purchase, I had to make some very complicated calculations.  How much was a half pound of matcha?  From another site, I found out that a 200 gram bag of  match would yield 71 teaspoon servings.  And 8 ounces equals 227 grams so that gives me . . . .well, more than 71 green tea lattes!  So at 18.99 a bag, I ordered two, just to save a little on shipping.

I just hope I can replicate the Starbucks drink or else I'm stuck with forty dollars worth of green tea powder.  I have heard that green tea ice cream is pretty tasty, but then, I don't eat dairy.  More about the recipe tomorrow!   

Day 185 -- Getting Erotic With Kale

I've just gotten to know kale and now I'm expected to massage it?  There are many things I will do for food but I think this might be going just a little too far.

I recently came across a wonderful summer salad -- Kale and Quinoa Salad with Black Beans -- on one of my favorite sites, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.  I was immediately attracted to this recipe (can I be attracted to kale, is that why I should want to massage it?) because it included the three nutritional biggies.  Grains, beans and greens.  A completely wonderful nutritional bowl of goodness -- that required me to massage the kale.

So this is on the agenda today.  Buy some kale, massage it a little bit and then eat it.  However, if I don't feel like getting that close to my kale, the recipe does say that I can steam the kale for two minutes to tenderize it, which I think is a better alternative than sticking my hands in a bowl of greens and dressing and rubbing.

Oh, and I also found this recipe for Massaged Kale Salad with Sweet Potatoes and Pumpkin Seed Dressing on the same site.  This looks really good too!  Maybe I'll have to make two kale salads.  I suppose I can't get enough kale.

Day 184 -- Chow Down On Chowdah!

I've been finding some very good sweet corn at the market lately.  I usually eat it right off the cob, steamed, with a spritz of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray and some sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  In my pre-vegan days, one of my favorite ways to make corn was to pull the husks back and tie them to make a handle.  Then toss them on the grill to brown.  When they're done brush them with mayo (yes! I said mayo) and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and a little chili powder and serve with lime wedges.  For those of you who can still eat mayo (not vegan, boo, hoo) I'd highly recommend this recipe.

The next time I buy corn, I'm going to try this Garden Corn Chowder With Basil And Chives recipe that I found on Post Punk Kitchen.  I've made corn chowder before, but always with cans of creamed corn and frozen corn.  But I've learned that fresh is always best, so even though it's summer, I'm going to make soup.  And I just happen to have fresh basil and chives in my little herb garden!  

Day 183 -- It's All Downhill From Here

Today officially begins the second half of my year as a vegan.  Yesterday, on the last day of the first half year of eating vegan, I enumerated the various challenges I'd faced.  Today, I'm going to set some goals for the second half of my vegan year.

1.  I will eat greens every day!  I don't know why  can't seem to get this done.  I don't particularly like greens, but when I eat them, the weight comes off much faster.

2.  I will not cheese cheat for the rest of the summer.  That's going to be a tough one, especially if I go to visit my sister who loves to send out for pizza (or La Gondola lasagne) when I'm in town.

3.  I will start to do some exercise.  I'm not going to say what, but I am going to walk when I don't need to drive and maybe lift some weights to get rid of my batwings.

4.  I need to start eating breakfast again.  I've been sleeping late and starting the day with lunch, but breakfast is the key.

5.  I will start taking my vitamins regularly AND I'll make sure to get my chia/hemp seeds for the Omegas.

I'd hoped that I'd be halfway to my weight loss goal by now, but things have been at a standstill for the past 3 weeks.   I'm pretty sure it's because I'm not eating my greens or my chia seeds.  So this is the plan!

And look, I figured out how to get my text to wrap around the photo!  Six months and that's what I learned about blogging!

Day 182 -- The Penultimate Day?

Tomorrow will mark the six month anniversary of my year as a vegan.  Today is the last day of the rist half of the year.  Would that make today the penultimate day before my six month anniversary?  I don't really care.  I'm going to call today the penultimate day because I get to use the word "penultimate" for the first (and probably last) time in my writing career.  Before setting some new goals for the second half of the year, I thought it might be nice to look back at the first six months and list some of the things I've learned along the way.

I think the most important thing I've learned is that it is possible to change habits that have taken many, many years to build.  I went cold turkey from dairy, meat and fat on December 27th and I didn't go crazy with cravings.  Instead, I focused on putting only healthy food into my body.  I also learned to not make this all about losing weight but more about becoming healthier.  This way, if I had a week where I didn't lose anything, I could still feel good about the fact that I had eaten healthy!

I also learned that variety is important in any diet.  If I push myself to try new recipes, I'm much happier about my eating choices.  Eating has become an adventure, grocery shopping is fun and I've come to be very proud of the things I put in my cart.  I've also learned to like the taste of whole foods, the sweetness of a red pepper, the tartness of a Pink Lady apple, the deep, mellow taste of mushrooms.  Without all the additives, food can taste really good!  I've discovered great products that I've added to my kitchen, new tastes that I've incorporated into my diet and interesting insights that have proven to me that my plan is the right one for me.

I've learned that time flies.  It seems like just yesterday that I started this blog, but here it is, a half year gone by and 66 pounds gone as well.  I'm fitting into clothes I haven't worn for years and that's kind of fun, too.  But I think the most important thing I've learned is that food is the best medicine for the body.  By eating a healthy diet, you can alleviate so many health problems.  I feel good, and that's enough to keep me going for another six months.  So, tomorrow I start the second half of the year.  If the second half of the year goes as quickly as the first, it's going to be Christmas before I know it!

Day 181 -- Slaw And Order -- Part Two

And this is the "order" part of the post.  "Slaw" was yesterday.  I don't know why I put these two posts together, except that these two food related things hit me on the same day.  The actually have nothing to connect them, except a clever title.  And I'm a writer so a clever title trumps an interesting subject.

I've recently become heavily addicted to Starbucks' Green Tea Lattes.  I have them made with soy milk and I ask them not to put the requisite FOUR pumps of sweetener in my grande size.  As an aside, why does every drink at Starbucks have to be loaded with sugar.  The calorie count for the drink without the extra sweetener is about 210 calories according to this blog post on Off The Broiler.  But after drinking quite a few of these, I was beginning to wonder if there was more than just green tea and vanilla soy milk in this drink.

Starbucks doesn't give you a list of ingredients for the drink and I wasn't able to find any information online.  My worst thought was that there was some kind of powdered milk in the product and I'd have to stop drinking it because it contained dairy.  But wouldn't they let people know there was dairy in it, especially when you make a point to order it with soy?

I decided to take my nutrition into my own hands and talk to the barista.  He was very, very helpful and went in back to get a package of the green tea powder they used.  To my relief, it contained only green tea and sugar!  Yes, more sugar from Starbucks.  I am searching for a way to make this drink at home and will report back on the results of my search.  But until then, I'm hitting the Starbucks almost daily to order my Green Tea Latte fix.

So, there you have it!  Slaw and Order.      

Day 180 -- Slaw And Order -- Part One

This is the slaw part of the post.  The order part will come tomorrow.

One of my favorite pre-vegan salads was the broccoli slaw and ramen noodle salad.  You know the one, with the packaged broccoli slaw, crunched up ramen, almonds or sunflower seeds, green onions and lots of sesame oil and cider vinegar and sugar?  Yeah, that one.  It's still perfectly vegan, unless there's some secret dairy or meat in the ramen noodles.  But the oil makes it a bad choice for me right now.  So I was really excited to find this new recipe for Broccoli Slaw With Pineapple Curry Dressing from one of my favorite blog sites, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.

I'm  lucky because the blog writer, Susan Voisin, seems to have the same tastes in food as I do.  If she likes it, I generally do too!  So, I'm going to give this recipe a try this week.  It's got a lot of my favorite flavors in it.  But unlike Susan, I'm going to use packaged broccoli slaw and instead of grapes, I might use golden raisins or craisins.

BTW, isn't broccoli slaw just the most ingenious invention.  Take all the tough stems and leftovers from broccoli florets, shredd them up with a little cabbage and some carrots and sell it as slaw!  It is a great way to eat broccoli!  

Day 179 -- Another Soy Vay Moment

How is it possible that I've gone my whole life without every discovering Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki??  My sister introduced me to the product.  In truth, she's been talking about it for about six months and finally gave me a half-gallon bottle that she bought for me at Costco.

Today, I baked tofu that had been marinated in their Veri Veri Teriyaki and I made this pasta salad with the their Toasted Sesame Dressing.  Check out the www.soyvay.com for more yummy recipes.

Spicy Bowtie Salad

8 ounces bow tie pasta, cooked al dente and drained

½ cup Soy Vay® Toasted Sesame Dressing & Marinade

⅓ cup shredded purple cabbage

1¼ cup green peas

¼ cup peanuts

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

½ teaspoon hot chili oil

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl; toss well to mix and to coat with dressing. Chill well. Mix again before serving.

Day 178 -- Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

My sister, L, came across this post on a Facebook page for JL Goes Vegan in which the question was asked -- What three things do people assume that vegans love that you hate?  Some of the answers are pretty surprising.  Like me, many other vegans are not so fond of green salads, or seitan, or eggplant.  Those are my top three, I think.  My list of things I don't like is pretty short -- most are vegan versions of "real" food, dairy and meat substitutes.  But the list of things I DO like, is even more illuminating.

Which foods have I started to eat since becoming vegan that I never knew I liked?  I'll start with the milks -- soy, almond and coconut.  I've learned to like all three and regularly order my green tea lattes and espresso lattes with whatever is on the menu.  I really like the tofu sour cream and cream cheese, even though that's one of the substitutes.  Avocados are one of the most wonderful creations in the veggie/fruit kingdom.  Nutritional yeast is not so bad.  And I'm learning to love kale and collards when mixed into soup.  I can't live without miso.  And I love ground chipoltle and ancho chili powder.  I never used to like ginger and now, I think it's one of the best things to add to dishes.

I eat lots of mushrooms and onions and red peppers now.  Edamame is a regular part of my diet and I've learned to love whole grain breads.  I'm not sure I could go back to white bread.  A sandwich just wouldn't be the same!  And I've learned to tolerate tofu, which is a big step.  It really is all about the preparation.  Silken tofu in a smoothie and baked marinated tofu can be really good!  I'm sure I'll discover even more tasty foods over the next six months.  I still haven't tried fennel.  Or spaghetti squash.

Day 177 -- One Benefit Of Being A Vegan

Though I claim not to be an ethical vegan, I must say that I do feel good when I see this graphic (courtesy of PETA).  Yes, I do have my struggles with cheese and I know that corporate dairies are awful places, but if I go back to eating cheese, I'm going to do my best to buy locally from cheese factories that get their milk from small, independent farmers.  I live in farm country and I see herds of dairy cattle lazily grazing in fields and I can't help but think they're pretty happy.

Maybe I would make a better vegetarian than a vegan.  I'm not quite sure yet as my cheese-cheats seem to be something I struggle with on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis.  I do know that eating cheese seems to be pretty much limited to my consumption of pizza and I just can't imagine living life without the occasional pizza.

I must say that since I've started eating vegan, I've been much more aware of my consumption and/or use of other things besides meat and dairy.  I've been trying not to waste water.  And I'm going to try to start walking more often, rather than hopping in the car to drive a half mile.

Day 176 -- Say Cheese! Pimento Cheese!

Whenever I find a recipe that promises a reasonable facsimile of cheese, I'm going to be ready to try it.  I made "parmesan cheese" out of ground cashews and nutritional yeast and I love it.  I made a mac and cheese from butternut squash and nutritional yeast and I was pretty darn tasty.  And I have a recipe for another mac and cheese with Brussels sprouts (Day 167) that I'm going to try this weekend.  And today, I found a recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Fat Free Vegan, for a hummus pimento "cheese" spread.

I love my hummus and I do love cheese, so I decided to give this a try.  It looked like it would be good for spreading on my favorite crackers for a late night snack, maybe with some raw red peppers sliced on top.  If you'd like the recipe, you can find it here.

Though I've never really had pimento cheese, I didn't get a whole lot of cheese flavor from this.  But it is a really tasty hummus.  I'll have to eat it fast since it contains tofu, which tends to go bad pretty quickly, but I don't think that will be a problem.  A roasted veggie sandwich would taste really good with this as a spread.

Day 175 -- Pass The Umami, Please.

After my yummy new recipe on Day 174, a tempeh, mushroom and asparagus dish marinated in Soy Vay, I realized that the new foods that I love the most are foods that have an abundance of the umami flavor.  I wrote about umami in an earlier post, but just to recap, umami is the fifth flavor that the tongue can detect, besides, salty, sweet, bitter and sour.

Of course, meat, especially grilled meat, has a lot of umami, and so does cheese.  One of the places I get that rich flavor is from mushroom.  And marinated in soy, they're even better.  Miso, wine and tamari also add that flavor to food.  Ripe tomatoes and tomato sauces and paste (along with ketchup and sun-dried tomatoes are great.  Balsamic vinegar, olives, nutritional yeast, and mushrooms round out my list of my favorite umami foods.  It's no wonder that I love a good Caprese salad since it has cheese, tomatoes, olive oil and balsamic vinegar as ingredients!

This article, from the blog Vegan For Her, postulates that eating foods rich in the umami flavor can actually cut cravings.  Umami flavor is one of the first flavors we like as babies as milk and breast milk are both rich in umami.  Like the sweet flavor, it's something we love for a lifetime.

Day 174 -- Oy Vay! Soy Vay!

My sister, L, has been talking about this wonderful Asian sauce/marinade called Soy Vay, and she bought me an industrial size bottle of it at Costco and made a gift of it this weekend.  She uses it for lots of different dishes and was very excited for me to try it.  Well, I did and it is quite tasty!

The company's story is almost as good as their products.  Soy Vey was founded by a Jewish guy and an Asian girl in 1984 and they produce Asian-inspired kosher products!  They offer five different flavors of sauce:  Veri Veri Teriyaki (the flavor I have), Hoisin Garlic, Island Teriyaki, Wasabi Teriyaki and Toasted Sesame.

I happened to get all the ingredients for this dish as the store today, with plans to make something else.  But now, I'm going to give this a try.  Check out the Soy Vey website!  They have a lot of wonderful vegan/vegetarian recipes using their sauces.

Tempeh, Asparagus & Mushroom Teriyaki On A Bed Of Orange-infused Quinoa
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
2 cups orange juice
½ cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 package (8 ounces) of tempeh, any type, cut in 1-inch cubes
1 pound asparagus, ends discarded and remaining stalks cut in 3-inch pieces, rinsed
1 package (8 ounces) of pre-sliced white mushrooms (sliced in half if big)
3 scallions, sliced, with whites and greens separated
¾ cup Soy Vay® Veri Veri Teriyaki®

Put tempeh, asparagus, mushrooms, scallion whites and Soy Vay® Veri Veri Teriyaki® in a bowl. Marinate for 15–20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Bring orange juice and water to a boil. Add quinoa and turn heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until quinoa is soft.  Ten minutes before quinoa is done, heat oil in skillet on medium-high until hot. Add tempeh mixture and cook until all ingredients are cooked through, about 10 minutes.  Put quinoa on plate and top with tempeh mixture. Sprinkle with crushed black pepper and scallion greens.

ETA:  The picture above just doesn't do this recipe justice.  This was really, really yummy, full of flavor and the orange-infused quinoa added a whole other level of flavor.  This was my first taste of tempeh and I liked it much, much more than seitan.  I will be having it again.   I used baby bella mushrooms which I think have a bit more flavor than button mushroom.  I also added sliced vidalia onions.

Day 173 -- One Cheeseburger. Just One!

I spent the weekend cheese-cheating.  I even ate some butter on some tasty garlic bread and in a couple of yummy almond croissants from Peet's Coffee.  But I was visiting my sister and having a great time and just didn't want to sit on my vegan high-horse and watch what I ate.  So, I didn't fall off my horse, I jumped off.  Over and over and over again!

That was the weekend.  But the worst came today.  On my way home, I ran a few errands in a nearby town which happens to be home to my former favorite drive-in restaurant.  They make the very best flame-grilled burgers and serve them on hard rolls with a dollop of butter -- not very vegan, I'm afraid.  I've been thinking about breaking my vegan diet to have one of these cheeseburgers just once this summer, since it is such a traditional part of my summer.  It didn't take me long to decide that today would be as good a day as any to indulge.

Strangely enough, I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as I thought I would.  And I just had one -- followed by a kiddie-size Dairy Queen ice cream cone!  All right, enough cheating.  I'd hoped to have lost 70 pounds by June 27, just 10 days from now.    I'm about 6 lbs short of that goal, so I'm going to have to do some serious veganating between now and my deadline.  My other goal is to lose 85 pounds by my birthday in mid-August.  That's actually still possible, but for the next few months, I'm going to have to be very, very diligent!

Day 172 -- Mad About Matcha Soy Lattes

I've been hearing all about Matcha lately, so in my quest to to try out new taste sensations, I ordered a iced Matcha soy latte at my local Starbucks before I headed out on my recent road trip.  Once in Chicago, I also tried Peet's hot version of a Matcha soy latte.

Matcha is a finely milled or fine powder Japanese green tea. The Japanese tea ceremony centers on the preparation, serving, and drinking of matcha. In modern times, matcha has also come to be used to flavor and dye foods such as mochi and soba noodles, green tea ice cream and a variety of wagashi (Japanese confectionery). Matcha is a fine ground, powdered, high quality green tea and not the same as tea powder or green tea powder.

Blends of matcha are given poetic names called chamei ("tea names") either by the producing plantation, shop or creator of the blend, or by the grand master of a particular tea tradition. When a blend is named by the grand master of some tea ceremony lineage, it becomes known as the master's konomi, or favoured blend.

Matcha can now be found in numerous health food products ranging from cereal to energy bars. In 2003, researchers from the University of Colorado found that the concentration of the antioxidant EGCG available from drinking matcha is at least three times greater than the amount of EGCG available from other commercially available green teas.  Matcha is also said to boost metabolism and help reduce cholesterol levels when it is drunk regularly.  The health benefits of matcha green tea can largely be attributed to the fact that the whole tea leaf is ingested, as opposed to just the steeped water in the case of 'bagged' green teas. This means that it delivers a much higher potency of catechins, chlorophyll, and antioxidants. By weight, matcha contains more antioxidants than blueberries, wolfberries, pomegranates, orange juice and spinach.  And there is evidence from clinical studies that suggests that theanine, when consumed by drinking Japanese green teas, may help to reduce or moderate mental stress responses.

Day 171 -- So Many Good Things To Eat

I don't often get to the big city (Chicago, for me), but when I do, it's nice to add a little more variety to the diet.  As predicted, I fell off the vegan wagon and had cheese -- again.  I'm not sure why I just don't declare myself a vegetarian and be done with it, but I know that dairy products are not so good for me, so I hope that I can learn to deal with that.

Plans for my three-day weekend include a trip to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, where I will be able to  browse for items not usually found in my small midwestern city, best known for processed meat products.  I did get a chance to enjoy this Asian Edamame and Black Bean Salad which my sister L. picked up at Costco.  After reading the list of ingredients, I'm going to try to replicate it at home.  This version is very heavy on the oil and vinegar dressing which really distracts from the taste of the salad.

I've decided to try to replicate this salad since it is so tasty.  So here goes.  Lighter on the oil.  The dressing is a work in progress, so ch eck back later for the final  recipe and comments.

Asian Edamame and Black Bean Salad
1 pkg. frozen organic edamame
1 15 oz can organic black beans, rinsed
1 can water chestnuts, diced small
1/2 c. carrot, small dice
1/2 c.  red bell pepper, diced small
1/2 cup diced red or sweet onion
1 T. toasted sesame seeds

Dressing
1 T. sesame oil
1 T. canola oil
2 T. rice wine vinegar
2 T. soy sauce
1 T. brown sugar
1 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. curry powder
1 t. dried basil

I'm still working on the dressing to get it just right, but this approximates what I used.  I'll work out the proper proportions and post again later.

Day 170 -- Home-Grown Greens

My father has a wonderful garden in the summer, but I've never truly appreciated fresh veggies until I started eating vegan.  In truth, I didn't eat many veggies at all until I started down this road.  Today, I paid a visit to the family garden and my father gave me some collard greens to try.  I'm going to add them to my list of new foods since I'd never tasted them before.

They weren't exactly what I was expecting.  I expected tough and slightly bitter.  The leaves were tender and they tasted a lot like kohlrabi.  The word "collard" comes from the word "colewort" which means cabbage plant and collard greens are from the same family as kale and spring greens.  They are generally eaten year-round in the South. Typical seasonings when cooking collards can consist of smoked and salted meats (ham hocks, smoked turkey drumsticks, pork neckbones, fatback or other fatty meat), diced onions, vinegar, salt, and black, white, or crushed red pepper, and some cooks add a small amount of sugar.

Traditionally, collards are eaten on New Year's Day, along with black-eyed peas or field peas and cornbread, to ensure wealth in the coming year, as the leaves resemble folding money. Cornbread is used to soak up the "pot liquor", a nutrient-rich collard broth. Collard greens may also be thinly sliced and fermented to make collard kraut, which is often cooked with flat dumplings.

But how to use collards in vegan cooking?  I know they're greens, which are often sadly missing in my diet.  I'm going to try them first in my superfoods soup.  I think they might hold up well in the broth since they are somewhat like kale.  But first, I'm going to adapt a recipe I found in Vegetarian Times for Collard Greens and Rice.  And I'm going to try cooking it in my rice cooker!

Collard Greens and Brown Rice
1 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup brown rice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Korean red pepper flakes
1 cups collard greens, rinsed and chopped
pepper, to taste
cayenne pepper (optional)

Maybe I'll add some red beans and a little chili powder.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Day 169 -- It's Time For Tempeh

A few weeks ago, I bought a package of tempeh.  It was part of my plan to try all three meat "substitutes" -- tofu, tempeh and seitan.  Tofu has become a staple in my diet.  Seitan, not so much.  I really didn't enjoy the chewy meat gluten.  But I have higher hopes for tempeh.  During my recent visit to one of my fav websites, The Post Punk Kitchen, I came across this recipe for Tempeh Chimichurri.

I was immediately intrigued because I've heard of chimichurri, but I've never eaten it.  I don't really know what it is.  It turns out that chimichurri is a sauce for meat that originates in Argentina.  Chimichurri is made from finely chopped parsley (or cilantro), minced garlic, olive oil, oregano, and white or red wine vinegar. Additional flavorings such as coriander, paprika, cumin, thyme, lemon, and bay leaf may be included. In its red version, tomato and red bell pepper may also be added. It can also be used as a marinade for grilled meat. Chimichurri is available bottled or dehydrated for preparation by mixing with oil and water. Somewhat similar sauces are pistou and pesto.

So, I'm about to add two new taste treats to my list of new foods -- tempeh and chimichurri sauce.  Will report back soon.
  

Day 168 -- My Little Herb Garden

For the first time in forever, I've planted an herb garden (in a large pot) and I'm actually going to love having the herbs available to use.  I've planted herb gardens in the past with the best of intentions, but the only thing I've been interested in eating is the basil.  This time, I planted two kinds of mint (for mojitos, of course), basil, cilantro, dill and Italian Parsley.  These are all herbs that I've purchased from the grocery store since going vegan and now, I can just step out my kitchen door and -- snip, snip -- I have fresh herbs!

I'm really looking forward to having cilantro and parsley at hand.  I have so many recipes that call for these two herbs and I find that when I buy them, half of the bunch usually rots in the fridge.  It's so frustrating to me when food goes bad.  I never used to bother me, but I've been so in tune with the food I eat that I really hate to waste anything.  I'm also thinking of starting a pot of baby greens -- especially my favorite, arugula.  We've had a very cool start to the summer, so maybe I could get a cool weather crop like lettuce to grow.

Day 167 -- The Ultimate Comfort Food

There is nothing better than a good mac and cheese.  Now, I have to admit that I've cheese-cheated over the past couple of weeks.  I've eaten real dairy cheese three times in two weeks.  Twice on pizza and once in a cheese soup.  But, I've learned not to be so hard on myself and I'm going to try to get through the next six months without another cheese-cheat.  It's not quite as bad as a meat-cheat, but still not the best for my efforts to shed a few more pounds.  I need "Just Say No!" when it comes to cheese.

To that end, I came across this recipe for Chipoltle Mac and Cheese (with roasted Brussels sprouts!) that I'm looking forward to cooking!  It comes from one of my favorite websites, The Post Punk Kitchen, which features lots of yummy vegan recipes.

I've tried a Mac and Cheese with butternut squash that was pretty passable (see Day 60, February 24th), but this one uses cashews to create the creamy sauce.  Though it's definitely more caloric and higher in fat that the butternut option, I'm thinking I might want to try to combine the two recipes and see if I can find a happy medium.  I will report back and let you know how it was!

ETA: This is really yummy.  But also very spicy.  I used two 1.5 inch chipoltles in adobo sauce in a half recipe.  Next time I make it, I'm going to cut the peppers back by half.  A little too spicy for me, but very creamy and cheese-like.

Day 166 -- It's Cherry Time!

And it's my favorite time of the year -- cherry time!  I can't tell you how much I look forward to seeing that first bag of cherries in the grocery store.  And this last week I had a choice of two varieties, dark red (almost black) and bing cherries  I bought three pounds of dark red cherries and they were so incredibly delicious that I'd be willing to put them on my top five favorite foods list!

I can hardly wait until Ranier cherries are available.  They are the best of  best in my opinion.  So sweet and crisp and pretty to look at.  One thing I need to buy is a cherry pitter so I can try to incorporate cherries into a few recipes.  Right now, I just eat them right out of a bowl, but I'm sure I could find some way to bake them into a delicious vegan treat.  That's my mission tomorrow.  Bed, Bath and Beyond and a cherry pitter.  And the grocery store for another three pounds of cherries.

Day 165 -- Juan Canary, Spanish Movie Star or Exotic Melon?

I couldn't resist.  This always happens when I'm searching for subject matter for this blog.  I scour the grocery store looking for something interesting to eat.  And what did I find a few days ago, but a Juan Canary melon!   Exotic fruits can be so interesting to taste and I was really looking forward to this new treat.

The rind of the melon is bright yellow, exactly the color of canary.  And the flesh is the same color as a pear.  The taste is somewhere between a honey dew and a cantaloupe.  This is a fairly common melon in Asia and Japan and it was pretty yummy.  The store had a few other "variety" melons on sale right next to this one, so I'm going to give another one a try!  

Day 164 -- Polenta: A New New Food

Yesterday I pondered a deep question -- what is corn?  Is it a vegetable?  A legume?  A grain?  The question only led to more questions until I was so confused I decided the only solution was to cook.  So, I grabbed my grits and whipped up this recipe for Quinoa-Polenta & BBQ Sauce that I found on Straight Up Food.  This is a great website with lots of vegan recipes that are low fat as well.

Polenta is essentially the Italian version of corn grits.  I'd never tasted either one, so this was going to be something new.  But love corn, so how could I go wrong?  I cooked the polenta/quinoa mixture in my rice cooker which made it so much easier.  No stirring, no watching.  Once it was cooked, I spread it in a parchement paper-lined pan and baked it.

The mix of polenta and quinoa in this recipe is so tasty.  And baked, it's like a cross between a bread and a grain.  I didn't make the BBQ sauce and instead used a drizzle of Sweet Baby Ray's, which is a favorite of mine.  And I added a little fajita seasoning to the sauteed veggies and added avocado chunks and sliced scallions as a creamy and crunchy topping.  This is definitely going to go on my favorite list.  So check out Straight Up Food!  Yum!

Day 163 -- Grocery Cart Shame

A few days ago, I was standing in line at the grocery store and remembering how I used to feel when checking out -- shame.  I'd have a cart full of junk food and not a veggie or fruit in sight.  I'd unload my choices and wonder what the people around me were thinking.  I knew what they were thinking -- no wonder she's so fat if she eats that junk every day.

Now, when I go to the grocery store, I find myself analyzing other people's carts.  When I see a lot of packaged junk food, I don't make a judgement, but I do think to myself, oh, please don't eat that stuff.  It's so bad for you.  Of course, I think people should be able to choose exactly what they want to eat and I'd never say that outloud.  But I want to tell them how good it feels when you get rid of processed food and eat whole foods instead.  And if someone asks how I've lost so much weight, I'm very happy to tell them about my vegan diet and my aversion to processed food.

Yesterday, my grocery cart was a thing of beauty.  I had mushrooms, onions, zucchini, avocados, cauliflower, cherries, apples, bananas, a melon, two jars of organic no-fat spaghetti sauce, and  two packages of Boca crumbles (yes, I know they're bad, but I have to get protein!).  I was so proud.  And then I started to think about what other people were thinking -- if that woman eats so healthy, why is she so fat!

I don't care what other people are thinking.  I'm very happy with the changes I"ve made to my diet and that's all that matters to me.  I've just finished week 23 and in just 19 days I will be at the halfway mark in my year as a vegan.  I can't believe how fast time has gone -- or how lucky I am that I stumbled upon this plan.  I could still be back where I was 60 pounds ago -- unhealthy, depressed, uncomfortable.  Thank goodness for  veggies.

Day 162 -- A Big Old Can Of Vegan Worms

Had I ever had the chance to try poleta, I probably would have.  After all, its main ingredient is corn and I love corn!  I've never tasted grits either, which is made from the same thing -- corn -- as polenta is.  A few months ago, I bought a bag of Bob's Red Mill Polenta/Grits and the bag has been sitting unopened in my pantry since then.  Today, I decided to try new recipe that calls for baked polenta.

Of course, no new food enters my mouth without me finding some odd question to ponder and polenta is no different.  The question of the day -- Is corn a grain, a legume or a vegetable?  This becomes important because I've been trying to balance my daily consumption of all three in the hopes that I get the proper amount of protein.  In finding the answer, I had to define all three and I threw fruit in there for good measure.

.Grains are derived from the seeds of a plant, either whole or ground.  So, corn is indeed a grain.  But what about legumes?  Aren't they also seeds?  In order to qualify as a legume, you must start life inside a pod, like peas, peanuts, beans.  But what about nuts?  Are nuts legumes?  They begin life inside a pod.  But the major difference between legumes and nuts are that nuts store fat instead of sugar.  Also legumes grow from a bush and nuts grow from a tree.  Hence the reason peanuts are not really a nut but a legume.

Let's toss a little fruit into the salad, shall we?  If we eat the part that protects the seed, then we are eating a fruit.  Apples, peaches, pears -- we eat the flesh but not the seed.  Tomatoes are also technically a fruit, except that we also consume tomato seeds and most people think tomatoes are a vegetable.  However, I have learned that we call a lot of fruits vegetables such as  pumpkin, squash, cucumbers, green beans and all types of peppers.  So let me get this straight.  The green part of a green bean is a fruit and the bean inside is a legume?

So what's left for vegetables?  It turns out that vegetables are not a botanical term but a culinary terms.  Radishes, celery, carrots, and lettuce do not have seeds (that are part of what we eat) and so they are grouped as vegetables.  They aren't fruit, legumes or nuts, so they have to be vegetables.

So now, I'm pretty thoroughly confused.  This article should help, but when it mentioned that nuts were fruit, I realized that I opened a big old can of worms -- which I happen to know are not vegetables, or fruit, or even legumes.  I think I just need to make the damn polenta and stop thinking so much about what's in it.

Day 161 -- Extreme Weight Loss

Since I've been focused on improving my eating habits, I seemed to be fixated on these weight loss reality shows.  I started with "The Biggest Loser" and have now moved on to "Extreme Weight Loss".  And I have to say, this show is really EXTREME.

On tonight's episode, they featured a 24-year old who weighed 315 pounds.  In the first 90 days she was tasked with losing 90 pounds.  Ninety-freakin'- pounds in 90 days!  In a year, she wanted to lose 160 pounds and she actually achieved that goal, which I could believe, considering the amount of exercise she was doing.  But even with all the exercise, her weight loss rate dropped radically as she approached 200 pounds.

Which brings me to my situation, which is somewhat the same.  I started off like gangbusters and now I've come to the point where things have started to slow down.  I don't have three pound losses in a week any more.  I'm lucky to get two pounds in a week.  So I'm afraid I'm going to have to add some exercise to the mix to see if I can jump start the program.  Either that, or try a fast and see how that goes.

 I suspect that my original one year goal weight is probably overly optimistic.  It required me to lose an average of about 12 pounds per month.  I'm at that average right now after 5 months, but that average will be harder to maintain as I go forward.  Strangely enough, I'm not really concerned since no matter what, I'm eating really healthy and feeling good.  So if it takes two years to get where I want to be, then I'm okay with that.  Although there may have to be a few "cheese cheats" along the way.

Day 160 -- Dreams Of Cheese

This is my third post in a row about cheese.  Does it seem like I'm obsessed?  Well, maybe I am.  Parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, cream cheese.  I ate cheese on pizza the other day and I would have ordered cheesecake for dessert but they didn't have desserts at the pizza parlor.  (Thank you, George Takei, for the meme.) 

  

I guess I never realized how much I enjoyed cheese until I had to give it up.  It's such an important part of so many dishes.  What would grilled cheese sandwiches be without the cheese?  I decided to answer that question today and open the package of Daya cheddar cheese-like shreds.  A little Earth Balance butter-like spread and some whole grain bread and I was on my way.

First impression wasn't great.  Something smelled a little fishy.  Was it the margerine?  Or the cheese?  Or the bread.  I wasn't sure, but I decided to proceed with caution.  The "cheese" did melt as the package promised but it laid between the bread like a thin slice of cold Velveeta, kind of rubbery and shiny and a bit slimy.  It didn't have a strong taste so had it not looked like cheese, I'm not sure I would have made the connection.

Over all

Day 159 -- Better Than Cream Cheese?

And the answer is -- not better, but just as good!

Over the past five months, I've tried a number of new foods.  Some of them are vegan substitutes for dairy or meat products and I usually approach these with a fair amount of trepidation.  I've found some great substitutions, like So Delicious Chocolate Ice Cream, that taste just as good, if not better than regular dairy.  And then I've tried just as many awful things, like seitan.  I still have some shredded cheddar "cheese" in my fridge, unopened after three months.  And a brand new package of tempeh, which I'm still waiting on.

There is one little treat that I found that I really enjoy and that's Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese spread.  I mistakenly bought the Herbs and Chives flavor, which was a mistake since I thought I was getting plain.  But it turns out that it's really good spread on a JJ Flats cracker.  The pairing is a nice little snack, creamy and crunchy at the same time.  And the "cream cheese" is only 60 calories in a 2 tablespoon serving.

It's nice to know that products like these exist.  Because they do, I don't really have to go back to eating real cream cheese.  Not that I eat cream cheese that often, but when I do, I've got a tasty substitute that will keep me on the vegan straight-and-narrow.

Day 157 -- Pizza With Cheese Is Not Vegan!

Yes, I will admit it here.  I strayed.  And it was very deliberate.  I had lunch with a friend who I see only a few times a year and we'd planned the lunch a few weeks ago.  We usually go out for pizza and the last time we went was a few weeks before I decided to eat vegan.  I had  the choice to order my pizza without cheese, but I figured, what the hell.  I'd been thinking about pizza for two weeks and I was going to have pizza.  And it was so good!

Now, you'd think I'd feel guilty about this but I'm not exactly an ethical vegan.  I could very easily be an ethical vegetarian, because I'm pretty okay with cheese and dairy products.  I'm still on the fence about eggs though I have had exactly two prior big lapses and about five other smaller lapses (ranch dressing on tortilla chips at my favorite restaurant).  I never thought I'd be able to make it for an entire year as a strictly strict vegan.  I expected that there might be a few little lapses along the way.  But I'm pretty proud of what I've managed to do so far.  Five months ago, I was a committed meat eater and now, I've managed to stick to a vegan diet 98% of the time.

So, thank you, J, for the fun lunch.  And for giving me that chance to eat a little dairy!

Day 156 -- A Child Speaks

I just saw this video and thought it was so sweet.  I'll just post it and let it speak for itself.