vegan part trios

Alright so my last go around wasn't too successful. a few days in and Taco Bell started calling my name and I gave in. Then came the holidays and the rest was a gainful history.

but I'm back.

About two weeks ago I contacted a good friend about my frustrations. He and his wife have been vegan for years and both are healthy and fit, so I knew I was contacting the right person. He told me to write down everything I ate for three days. no cheating, no changing how I normally ate, just write it down. It was embarrassing. Even I could see how my diet had become mostly processed, sugar centered and water-less. he took some time and wrote me a thoughtful response about what I need to change and it was like it clicked. the first few days were rough but after that, I fell into my good habits again and I feel awesome. And silly for taking this long to get back into a healthy diet. it's been 7 days now, and already I have more energy, I feel clearer and I've dropped 7 lbs. only a literal ton more to go.

Anyway, I've been getting a ton of my recipes from ohsheglows.com which has been helpful. I nanny part time, so the days I do that, I make vegan soaked oats to take with me in the morning. Its hearty, it satisfies me til I get home and it clocks in at aound 380 calories. No picture because it's really not a pretty dish.

Vegan Soaked Oats:
1/4 c rolled oats
1 smashed banana
1 and 1/2 tbs chia seeds
1/2tsp cinnamon
2/3 c unsweetened almond milk
1/3 c water
1tbs nut butter
flax seeds

Mash the banana really well. Stir in the remaining ingredients except for the nut butter and flax seeds. Put into an air tight container and let sit in the fridge overnight. In the morning, add nut butter and flax seeds (and whatever else you add to oatmeal) stir and enjoy.

It's weird at first but it's pretty good. It doesn't taste like you're eating cold oatmeal either.

up next: almond "tuna" salad  and some baby recipes!

Day 1

I did it! And I feel pretty good. Actually I feel full, need to learn how to stop when I'm full, no matter how much is left on my plate.

Ray and I stocked up on supplies last night, dry goods, spices, produce, the works. Then I spent some time cooking so I'd have things in the fridge for lunches and dinners. The first thing I made was hummus. Bangin' hummus, so much better than store bought. Why do people pay for hummus when it's way cheaper to make and doesn't take that long?

Then I made big servings of what I packed for lunch so I can have it on hand for a few days:

Nevermind, the photo won't upload.

So I'll just write it out.

I made a detoxing red cabbage saute. I sauted one sliced sweet onion in 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil, then added to that a whole sliced red cabbage, 2-3 tbs apple cider vinegar, a little sugar and salt. Then about 2oz of water and let it cook down, covered on med-low, for about a half hour, then partially uncovered for another 20min. It's roughly 125 calories, 3 grams of fat and 4 grams of protein per serving. I love it because i feel like it cleans my body while I eat it.

Next I went back to my old faithful, quinoa salad. I cooked up 2 cups dry quinoa, then simply mixed it with 1 zucchini, handful  of cherry tomatoes and some green onion that I sauted in 1tbs of olive oil. 130 cal, 4 g of fat, and 5 g of protein per serving. For lunch, I added a dollop of my hummus to the top of the salad.

Snacks through the day were almonds and a rice cake with hummus. I know i need to be careful with almonds though. Yes they're healthy, but a handful is too much ;)

Dinner was a salad. I was hungry and tired and didn't feel like doing much, so I just roasted a japanese sweet potato, then mixed it with some spring mix, cherry tomatoes, some gardenia meatless beef tips and salsa.

Upped my water too so I feel soooo much more hydrated than previous days. Now early to bed as my son is still not used to time change which means frequent night time risings.

New vegan

I don't expect that anyone still reads this so this will probably turn into my own personal recipe box and a way to keep track of my eating.

Two years since my last blog entry? Two years ago seems like such a long time and yet it flew by and some crazy things have happened in that span. First...

I met a boy. Well, I met a guy. What started off as innocent flirting turned into a few dates which turned into a summer of love that included two different road trips to Chicago, amusement park dates and late nights with a bottle of wine and netflix marathons. Then came something that has changed me forever, I became a mom on May 31st. Jack was a huge surprise and totally unexpectant,  but I wouldn't change anything. He is smart, sweet, silly, and not to mention unbelieveably adorable. It's amazing seeing him grow each day, learning what he can do and watching him turn from a little slug of a newborn into this super happy baby.

Pregnancy though,  pregnancy is hard. You feel like crap for a solid 10 months. I had a few days here and there but overall, just getting out of bed was tough. So I ate. I ate what I wanted, how I wanted and when I wanted. I should've invested stock into Taco Bell and poptarts because those were my biggest culprits. Then, I had Jack via ceserean, came home, stepped on the scale, and saw that I put on 60lbs from start to finish.

Dairy and processed foods kids, not good for you.

Veganism fell by the wayside. So did working out. I drank soda, I ate crap, and I did it because "i'm pregnant." It's been 5 months since I had Jack and I'm still holding on to 40 or those pregnancy pounds. I've been trying quick fixes and staying mostly vegetarian (seafood being a problem) but then a blog post from this blog popped up on my timehop and I spent the next hour reading through all my old posts. Why haven't I resumed my vegan lifestyle after having Jack? Why did I deviate from it to begin with? My son is starting baby food and I only let him eat organic foods that I make for him to ensure he's getting the most nutrition, so how can I give him pureed avocado while I chow down on Burger King. He looks to me as his example.

Plus the energy. I miss having energy! I felt so great being vegan and having the weight off. I want to be able to play with him son. I want him to see me choose carrot sticks or a pear as a snack instead of chips. I want him to enjoy food and not lable food "healthy = gross" but instead view clean, whole, non processed food as just good food.

So I decided yesterday to return to being a vegan. Last time I did this I just jumped right in, no baby steps, and I lasted 4 years (and maintained that weight loss all that time). Good thing I kept such a nice recipe index through this blog because I've forgotten about some of these recipes.

The first thing I want to do is keep it small at 30 days. 30 day challenge, see if I lose and see how I feel then reevaluate at the end of 30 days. Because I love goals so much, here's my month goals for November 9 - December 9:

1. All vegan. No dairy, no animal by-products. Vegan diet.

2. 100oz of water per day. Hydration is so important.

3. Blog a couple days a week my progress.

So there it is. Good luck to me, hopefully by new years I'll be ringing in the year with a much happier, healthier and thinner me.

Cooking? What's that?

 Hey all! It's been a while and honestly, I've not been cooking. So that's why. For a brief update, I've successfully completed a year of grad school, I'm moving in December, I got promoted at work to a real position with benefits,I went to the beach once, met some people and I'm having my gallbladder removed on Wednesday because my family line says no woman shall have her gallbladder.

So I've stayed busy.

Today though, I decided I should cook some. Both things I'm about to post were amazing but I unfortunately cannot eat either today. The gallbladder is stating that today will be a pear and toast day, and even that is sketchy, but these two are fantastic things. The pumpkin mac and cheese I'm freezing until I'm able to eat it, and the tomato soup I think I will be able to eat sooner than later, but both were experiments that came out amazing.

For the pumpkin mac and cheese, I found several different vegan  recipes about incorporating squash into a mac and cheese recipe, so I went with that. I'm not a huge mac and cheese person and the last two vegan attempts were less than stellar, so I was not hopefully but could not shake a craving. I then went into the store and selected a few fall flavors that I thought would complement each other and went from there.

The tomato soup was because I had some peppers and tomatoes from a CSA that I needed to use before they spoiled. My friend Taly made me a cold tomato soup when I first got out of the hospital that was so amazing, I wanted to copy it. It may not be as good as hers, but it's pretty close.

The only potential downfall of either of these recipes was my oil. I don't cook with oil anymore, so I had none in my pantry. Only a bottle of meyer lemon oil that I bought on sale at a Tastefully Simple party. So I worked with it and the lemon helped freshen each dish, so it worked. I think if I ever have the will to repeat a cooking day in the kitchen and try these out again, I may add a lemon.

Vegan Pumpkin Mac and Cheese
1 box pasta of choice (I used whole grain organic shells)
1 tbs plus 1 more for topping Earth Balance
1 tbs olive oil (ha, lemon)
1/2 (the smaller) container soy creamer (couldn't find soy cream so creamer it was)
1 tbs flour
3 tbs nutritional yeast
1 package vegan cheese (I used rice cheese because of the fat content being lower but I imagin diaya would be 10x better)
1 can organic pumpkin
1 pkg baby bella mushrooms
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
sage
salt, pepper, paprika to taste, cinnamon and bread crumbs for the topping

Heat in a skillet the oil and saute the mushrooms, onion and garlic over low heat til soft. Remove and set aside, then make your roux out of the earth balance and flour. Once that's completed, add the creamer slowly and season. I use a whisk for this and from this point until the sauce is complete. Add the nutritional yeast, mix well. Add the cheese, and when that is melted, add the mushroom mixture then the pumpkin and season til you're happy. Finally, add the sage, mix in the cooked noodles (should be al dente) and put in a baking dish. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon, add breadcrumbs and add little bits of earth balance. Bake at 350 for 20 min or until the sides are bubbly then remove. It's pretty amazing, not going to lie.

Tomato Soup
3 large tomatoes (I also added 1 roma tomato since that's what I had left over)
2 hablano peppers
2 banana peppers
1 japanese eggplant (or omit, again it was extra)
cilantro
1 28oz can fire roasted crushed tomatoes
salt, pepper, garlic powder, touch of natural sugar
Oil for roasting (again, lemon)

Heat oven to 350. Place all produce in a pan, drizzle with oil and salt/pepper. Pierce the eggplant. Roast for 30-35 min or until produce is starting to char and is soft. For me, the peppers finished first. Remove accordingly and place in pot that already has the crushed tomatoes. I usually remove the stems and seeds, then place in the pot. For the eggplant, remove skin and the tomatoes just remove the hard ends. With everything in the pot, use a hand held blender and blend away. Add soy cream and blend, then season as needed. I cooked on low for an additional 45 min because I forgot about it. Amazing soup though, especially for rainy days like today.

So yeah, that was my day. Pretty productive. Also, we had a visit from Salsa, formally known as Squishy as he is staying with us for a couple days as his mom moves. Pretty obsessed with him, the other cats are jealous.

Bittersweet end

In about two weeks or so, each of the babies will have a place to live. I went through so many emotions of not wanting to keep any to wanting to keep them all to really just wanting the smallest. But realistically, in my apartment and in upcoming moving endeavors with internships and whatnot, it's just feasible to have three cats of my own (or four in a tiny apartment). It's been a really hard journey full of sleepless nights, doing 5 loads of cat laundry, and staying in on the weekend. But they are growing at an incredible rate and I'm still shocked that they even survived.

Stepping back...

I got a call from my sister asking if I would take the kittens because approaching the 3rd day, she was overwhelmed, sleep deprived and needed help. Plus, one had died so really we just wanted to keep any more from passing. I went down that night, got a small can of formula, some bottles, cranked up the heat and took home 4 kittens. I had never seen kittens that small that looked more like hamsters than cats. I picked up one and his little body was convulsing so I knew he was not going to make it. By the time I came back with a warm bottle, his little body gave out. I held him for a min and Elise and I cried, but then I wrapped him in a towel and Elise gave me a shoe box to put him in. The next day, I named him Jonas and told him I was sorry that he didn't make it, but I would do my best to make sure that his siblings did.

Nothing could have prepared us for the next month. They were nicknamed AJ, MJ and RJ. The idea was that we needed ways of identifying and recording their feedings but we didn't want to name them in case they didn't make it. Elise took over much of the Mon-Fri daytime feedings because I was at work, but the evenings, weekends and nights rested on me. The first couple of weeks I slept no more than 2-3hrs in a row. The stress and anxiety of making sure that they were growing was incredible. This became more about proving that I wouldn't fail at keeping a living thing alive than anything.

But they survived. And now they are growing kittens with amazing personalities that will have new homes in the next couple of weeks.

This is Margie (formally RJ) a couple days after we got her. She was always a good eater

It took her a while to open her eyes but she was the biggest, lovingly coined (by me) as Large Marge.

She is hands down the most playful, sweetest kitten. She despises baths though, but I look forward to seeing how she acts as an adult. She's going to a friend of a coworker. An older woman that has always had cats and was looking at adopting one from a rescue when my coworker thought of me. This woman has apparently fallen in love with Margie on sight, and I'm confident she'll grow up in a happy, healthy home where she

is the center of attention.

This is Salsa (used to be MJ, although we've been calling him Squishy).

He too was always an easy eater but what makes him unique is he might be the most chill cat I've ever come across. You can literally do anything to him and he'll just relax and take it. He also was the first to eat from a bowl of canned food/formula and the only one to consistently use the litter box, no matter where it's placed.

Salsa was picked for adoption early by a classmate of mine. She's lucky, he's going to be a great cat (as they all are, haha). Plus he just has a face to die for. I'm going to miss him so much, he's such fun to bathe because he loves the water, loves the blowdryer, but really just loves being in someone's lap being doted on.

Lastly, AJ, or now, my sweet Bee.

Not that they all aren't incredibly painful to give up but Bee holds a very special place in my heart. From the very beginning I was not confident that she was going to live. She was tiny, sick and could not seem to eat enough. Two weeks into having them, I pulled her out of her box to see that she was covering in blood and some sort of kitten bodily fluid and just smelled horrible. I started sobbing and texted my roommate that she was dying and I wasn't sure that they money invested would be worth it if she wasn't going to make it anyway. Elise insisted so we loaded up the kittens and took them in where she was diagnosed with acute diarrhea that was leaking from her, grossly underweight at only 4oz and severe "diaper" rash. The vet did say it was a miracle that any survived but they were not out of the woods yet in terms of living. Feedings were increased back to every 3hrs, with Bee being fed inbetween that, all three needed to have ointments/desitin applied after we made them go potty and Bee was on antibiotics.

But the little thing survived.

She's still tiny but quickly catching up. She always has a dirty face now because of how she eats. She no longer takes a bottle and eats on the gruel with Salsa but because her instinct still says "find the nipple," she faceplants when she eats. I always think of Randy from "A Christmas Story" when he ate meatloaf. She is a sweet girl that follows people around no matter where they go. Yesterday she balanced on the top of my foot while I walked around the kitchen. It looks like she's going to go to the coworker that suggested the friend to me. She's wanted a cat and her husband, when seeing the pictures of Margie, melted and wanted one immediately. She'll be an only cat in her family but she's going to be loved on incredibly.

Even though we still have a couple of weeks with them, I cry anytime I think that next month they aren't going to be with me. Now they've graduated from their box to the kitchen and they LOVE it. It's also weird to not have to document every feeding and bowel movement on the white board in the hallway. So much of the past month has been spent obsessing over their health that I don't know what I did before. Excuses like "I can't stay out, I have a feeding in 2 hrs" was the norm =)

But through all this, I could not have gotten this far without "shitmaster" Elise. She was the only one that could make them poop in the beginning. She also sacrificed her room to be heated to a sweltering 90degrees in the first 2 weeks so they wouldn't be cold, not to mention taking over feedings while I was at work. And for putting up with ridiculously long text messages from me about them. Oh, and loving them too =) Also thanks to Steph for being the auntie that came over when Elise and I couldn't feed them and taking over. Finally, thanks to my sister for realizing hand rearing newborn kittens was exhausting and expensive and entrusting me to raise them and find them homes when she wasn't able handle them. I don't know how Elise and I did it with three, I can't imagine days 1 and 2 with five.

Cauliflower

I wish I had thought to snap a picture of this because it was so good and so pretty. I saw this recipe a few days ago, and even though I didn't want to make it with the nuts, I couldn't get it out of my head. So I made my own. Then added curry because you can never have too much curry.

First I cut my cauliflower into florets, seasoned with salt, pepper and cayenne, then baked covered for 30 min at 350. While that was going, I worked on my sauce. First I made a roux out of 3tbs smart balance light and a could tablespoons of flour. Once that finished, I slowly added unsweetened almond milk, about a cup - 1.5 cups total. Then I seasoned that with salt, pepper and curry powder, added a nice handful of nutritional yeast and 2 tbs of tomato paste (might to a little less next time). Once all mixed well and thick like a cream sauce, I poured it over the cauliflower and continued to bake until the cauliflower was soft.

So good. It was even better the next day.

Go make this, you won't regret it.

Makes four servings. Per serving: 174 cal, 18 g carbs, 9 g fat, 8 g protein

April Goals

So since I was so successful in March goals (ha!), I decided to have more attainable, smart goals for April. I feel like when I am trying to implement changes in my life, doing them in one month increments allows me the chance to try it out, see if it works for me and keep the chance at the end of the month. So here we go:

1. Track inches and lose 5lbs.

I lost 7lbs last month which surprised me. I know that to really see weight loss you need to track inches too, so tomorrow I'm going to measure then see if I have any difference at the end of the month. And losing 5lbs will really only be 1.25lbs a week, so let's see if I can make that happen. Summer is quickly approaching, can't wear jeans and hoodies all season long.

2. Carb cutting

I track what I eat on myfitnesspal. I've noticed a higher intake of sugar and carbs (I think I eat too much high sugar fruit) so I want to cut that. I also know from previous dieting that my body does not digest simple carbs and sugars well, so reducing them will be good for me. I'd like to start off keeping my carb count under 100grams and work my way down from there. By the end of the month I should be hoovering around 50-75, which will mean an increase in dark greens and complex carbs, and really eliminating white flour and sugar. Stuffs not good for you anyway.

3. Continue working out 4-5 times a week.

I've been keeping at this workout level through March so I don't see if changing.

4. Eating out only once a week and only one frivolous purchase per paycheck.

I spend money as quickly as I earn it so I need to cut back. I buy enough food that I can easily prepare lunch and bring it in, so I'm going to work on this. Typically Sarah and I hit up Great Sage once a week, so I will allow for that. And one fun spending, this paycheck it was my haircut. Gotta be smart!

So there we go, April goals. I think very doable =)