30 Day Detox: days 14-17

Day 14
For breakfast I had a smoothie with protein powder, blueberries, banana, flax, and soy milk

I didn’t have any salad veggies on hand, so for lunch I had leftover chickpea-quinoa pilaf as well as broccoli florets dipped in some “honey” mustard vinaigrette I also had 2 nectarines.

For a snack I had blueberries and a peach. That night for dinner I kept on with the Veganomicon Cookbook Challenge and made cheater baked beans, tomatoes and spinach, as well as some bbq tofu. The beans were delicious, I love how they’re not sickeningly sweet like the canned variety. The spinach dish would have been way better if my spinach wasn’t so old and gross.

I also had 2 oranges for dessert.

Day 15
Before I headed to the gym I grabbed a banana. Once I got home I had a smoothie with protein powder, frozen peach/strawberry/blueberry/mango, soy milk, flax, and psyllium husk. I made this thing way too thick and had to eat it with a spoon.

Later on for a snack I had 2 dates.

For lunch I had the edamame and corn salad from Veganomicon. I cut the sesame oil in half but otherwise kept things the same. Not pictured, I served this over greens for my lunch. This salad is really good, and sooo filling due to the edamame. For dessert I made a banana “pudding” with banana and agave whirred up in the food processor.

For a snack that afternoon I had 2 oranges and some cherry tomatoes. For supper I had more of the edamame and corn salad, plus sushi made with quinoa instead of rice. This sushi had tofu, spinach, and carrot. It was alright. It’s no rice sushi, but it’s surprisingly good.

Later on for a snack I had some frozen mango whirred up in the food processor.

Day 16 – this day SUCKED diet-wise. I ended up getting caught off guard and didn’t have suitable meals lined up. I ended up eating gluten AND sugar. Ugh. I wasn’t too happy with myself. However, that evening I spent some time introspecting and realized what went wrong to get me off track and how I can deal with it in the future. So I’m concentrating on the positives.

Day 17

First thing in the morning I went for a 10 mile bike ride. When I got back I had a shake with protein powder, flax, frozen berries, soy milk, and psyllium husk. I made this extra thick so I could eat it out of a bowl like frozen yogurt.

Lunch was delicious. I had lemon pepper tofu from Vegan Brunch (no oil) on top of salad greens with back to basics balsamic vinaigrette from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. The vinaigrette is a bit sweet for me, but I usually find Dreena’s salad dressings too sweet. Next time I’ll lessen the amount of agave I use.

For a snack I had this really weird pickle that my husband (still not used to calling him that…) found in the grocery store:

Who am I to refuse a portly pickle? It was actually really good.

For supper I had some grilled tofu, zucchini, and corn on the cob. I usually don’t have tofu both for lunch and supper but I didn’t have anything else in the house to grill and I didn’t have time to run to the store. For dessert I had 2 oranges.

To recap the cookbook challenge, I ended up making 6 new recipes from Veganomicon and 2 repeats. This week is Vegan with a Vengeance. So far I’m loving the push to actually use my cookbooks instead of just staring at them.

30 Day Detox: days 12 and 13

Day 12

For breakfast I had a smoothie with protein powder, flax, mixed berries, banana, and soy milk. This one was such a pretty color. Later for a snack I had an orange.

For lunch I had a salad with greens, radish, beet, cauliflower, broccoli, onion, and “honey” mustard vinaigrette. I also had some leftover bbq black-eyed peas and some strawberries. Excuse the bad picture, horrible lighting.

Later on in the afternoon I had another orange and a peach. Keeping with the Cookbook Challenge, I made another recipe from Veganomicon: chickpea quinoa pilaf. This was alright. I found it a bit bland actually. I’d throw in a lot more herbs next time. Anyway, I had this with Italian tofu (also from Veganomicon, but one I’ve made several times before) as well as some sauteed kale. Later on I had some watermelon and strawberries.

Day 13

Before I went to the gym I had a banana. When I got home I had a smoothie with protein powder, flax, soy milk, frozen peach, strawberry, and blueberry, psyllium husk, and oats. I was still hungry so I had a bit of leftover pilaf.

For lunch I made the portobello salad with spicy mustard dressing from Veganomicon. Except my salad had a lot more veggies in it than recommended and I omitted the avocado as it has a tendency to make me ill. The dressing burned my sinuses. But I think that’s because of the weird spicy mustard we have in our fridge. It kind of tastes like it has horseradish in it, but it doesn’t. Weird. Anyway, the mushrooms were succulent and I could have eaten 10 of them. I also had a nectarine, watermelon, and some strawberries.

After lunch I ended up not feeling well and getting a bad headache (which I’m pretty sure was unrelated to food). So for supper I grabbed some raisins and a bowl of oatmeal as there was no way I was cooking. Later on I started to feel a bit better and was hungry again, so I had some more oatmeal and an orange.

Fat Tuesday Eats

Since yesterday was Fat Tuesday, I decided to try my hand at some Cajun cooking. Living way up here in Canada, Cajun food isn’t something I’m very experienced with. First up is Happy Herbivore’s Cajun Chickpea Cakes. These babies are delicious! The mixture was pretty dry and crumbly and wouldn’t stick together, so I added some additional tamari as well as some water, worked like a charm. I simply adored the spice combo in these cakes. Since they are fat free they are a bit dry, like she says, so I suggest dipping them in something.

We also had Susan Voisin’s Eggplant Creole. This was good, but I feel like it’s missing a flavour. However, I have no idea what that flavour is since I know nothing of Louisiana cooking. Maybe my ratio of tomato to eggplant was off? Mine certainly turned out a lot saucier than her’s looks in the picture. Not sure. The heat was there, but it lacked a certain “zip.” That being said, it was still quite good and we enjoyed the nice fresh veggies. I served this over quinoa instead of rice.