30 Day Detox: days 18-23

Wow, I’ve been bad at keeping this thing up to date. Such is life once school begins again.

Day 18

Before I went to the gym I had a handful of raisins. When I got back I had a smoothie with protein powder, flax, psyllium husk, frozen berries, and soy milk. Later for a snack I had a peach.

For lunch I had a salad with mixed greens, lemon tofu, and balsamic vinaigrette. I also had 2 nectarines.

That night for dinner, I had the Moroccan Tagine with Spring Vegetables from Vegan with a Vengeance (in keeping up with the PPK Cookbook Challenge). This was sooooo good…even my veggie hating husband liked it. I served it on top of quinoa.

Day 19

For breakfast I had another smoothie with frozen berries, protein powder, flax, psyllium husk, and soy milk. I also had a peach.

That day for lunch I had a very similar salad as Day 18 greens, lemon tofu, and balsamic vinaigrette. I also had 2 nectarines. Later on for a snack I had some kale chips.

For supper that night I made the mango summer rolls from Vegan with a Vengeance. I gotta say, this recipe didn’t really do it for me. I have issues with fruit in savoury dishes. I thought I would try these to branch out, especially since we’re in the middle of a heat wave and these didn’t require me to do much cooking. Anyway, a lot of other folk on the internet seem to love these so I think it’s just me and my weird fruit issues.

Day 20

I was out of things to make smoothies with, so after the gym I had protein powder mixed with water, as well as a bowl of oat bran with agave and cinnamon. This was okay, but I missed my morning fruit.

For lunch I had a salad with spinach, romaine, radish, quinoa, tofu, and balsamic vinaigrette, as well as an orange. Later on for a snack I had two peaches and some cucumber.

It was still so hot that night that I didn’t have it in me to cook…I had some refried beans cold out of the can mixed with salsa. That’s right, I ate cold beans out of a can. And I liked it.

Day 21

I was still out of smoothie making materials, so for breakfast I had a tofu scramble loaded with veggies (onion, carrot, broccoli, mushrooms, and spinach) as well as an orange.

For lunch I had a salad with romaine, radish, broccoli, carrot, snap peas, chickpeas, and balsamic vinaigrette, and another orange.

For supper that night I made the braised cauliflower with three seed sauce from Vegan with a Vengeance. This was surprisingly really good. I always passed by it when flipping through the cookbook without giving it a second thought. The only reason I made it is that I had a head of cauliflower to use up ASAP. I also made a chickpea soup, based on the punk rock chickpea gravy recipe.
Day 22

Before I went to the gym I had a banana. When I got back I had a smoothie with protein powder, flax, psyllium husk, soy milk, and frozen fruit. Later on I had a nectarine.

For lunch I had leftover chickpea soup and braised cauliflower. I usually don’t have a problem with leftovers, but I did not care for the cauliflower the next day at all…I couldn’t finish it.

That night for supper I made the corn chowder from Vegan with a Vengeance. This certainly wasn’t photogenic so I won’t make you look at a picture of ugly soup. This was alright, but I think it could use some tweaking. It was a tad too sweet for me, I think next time I would omit the maple syrup.

Day 23

I went for a really long bike ride in the morning. When I got back I had a banana and some protein powder mixed with soy milk.

Later for lunch I made myself a salad with greens, sauteed asparagus, roasted tomatoes, tofu basil ricotta, and olives. I also had a peach.

That afternoon I had some cherries and a nectarine for a snack. For supper I made the Ethiopian Seitan and Peppers from Vegan with a Vengeance…but subbing tofu for the seitan. This was alright…I honestly don’t think I would make it again. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t the most flavourful thing ever either. Perhaps it’s better with the seitan. I also had a pear and some more cherries.

Well only one more week to go for the detox!

Next week’s cookbook challenge is Vegan Brunch.

wedding stuff and the start of a 30 day detox

Well I’m back from the honeymoon. We were up at a cabin at a nearby lake and it was sooo peaceful and relaxing. The weather was sunny and hot so most days we just hung out on the beach. We did do a bit of hiking on the last day.

The official wedding photos won’t be ours for some time, but our photographer released a few “teasers” if you will. Here are some of them:

As much fun as the day was, I’m glad the wedding planning madness is over! I think that’s one of the most stressful things I’ve ever gone through. One way I deal with stress is to eat. And I’m talking sugar and chocolate and delicious carbs. My veggie intake was abysmally low. I also tend to get lethargic and as such I stopped going to the gym. So here I am, feeling unhealthy and like I need to get my food back on track and get healthy again. Also, my pants are a little tight from all of that indulging and if they could fit again that would be great as well.

And so I am embarking on one of these “30 Day Detox” things as other vegan foodies have blogged about. Erin over at Vegan Homemade has one going on right now. Anyway, here are my rules for the next 30 days, which are loosely based on Eat to Live:

-no alcohol
-no refined sugar
-no artificial sweeteners
-no wheat (I’m going to try to avoid gluten as much as possible, but I’m not going to be militant about being gluten-free)
-drink at least 1 gallon (4 L) of water every day
-eat a giant salad for lunch every day
-eat tons of veggies (cooked as well as raw)
-work out at least 5x/week

Day 1
Breakfast on the first day was blueberries and a sliced banana in soy milk, I also ate a peach. For lunch I had a giant salad with mixed baby greens, romaine, sprouts, carrot, radish, cucumber, onion, and chickpeas with a mustard vinaigrette dressing.

For dessert I had 4 of these really tiny plums. The grocery store had them labelled as “yummy plums”

For a snack I had more blueberries and a clementine. That night for dinner I made the chickpea broccoli casserole from Vegan with a Vengeance. I added a ton of fresh herbs to this. Along with the casserole I had steamed broccoli and roasted asparagus. Excuse the crummy photo. It has been pouring rain for the past few days which means I have to use my oven overhead light for photos…not the best light source.

For dessert I had pineapple.

Day 2

For breakfast I had a sliced banana and blueberries in soy milk, as well as a peach.

My lunch was another salad with romaine, baby greens, sprouts, radish, and cucumber. I crumbled leftover casserole on top. I also experimented with a bbq sauce-type dressing. It didn’t work out that well. It was edible, but it certainly needs some work. For dessert I had an apple.
For a snack I had a banana and more blueberries. For supper, I had (more) leftover casserole, along with steamed broccoli and sauteed kale. Once again I’d like to apologize for the horrid oven light photograph.

For dessert I had a peach and more blueberries. Later that evening for a snack I had plain air-popped popcorn.

Canada Day eats

Happy belated Canada day! I started my day with a nice long bike ride and then came home and made these: blueberry pancakes. Mmm…I just used the regular Vegan with a Vengeance recipe and just added frozen blueberries. Although I never quite succeed in getting perfectly round photogenic pancakes, they sure tasted good.

For dinner we had a bbq and I had a monster grilled veggie sandwich. Inside is grilled zucchini, eggplant, a portobello, and tempeh…on a sprouted bun. Not the most colorful looking sandwich (probably should have added some spinach for green and some red onion), but it delicious.

For dessert I wanted something red and white and I happened to have a carton of strawberries on hand. That’s when I remembered Vegan with a Vengeance had a strawberry shortcake recipe. I didn’t make the suggested macademia creme (as the bf is allergic to nuts) so essentially this is the strawberry sauce over a scone. It was delicious! And nice and light and the perfect dessert for a bbq.

Hope all of the Canadians out there had a great Canada Day and happy early Independence Day to you folks out there in the U.S.

delicious east indian…

My apologies. The following food is not very photogenic. Usually I wouldn’t post these. But I already feel guilty enough about my infrequent updates so I decided to go ahead and share these for one very good reason: the food was delicious.

First up, spinach chickpea curry from Vegan with a Vengeance. I used frozen spinach for this dish, as that was what I had on hand. The spice combo was a bit bland for my tastes, so I jazzed it up by adding a pinch of this and a dash of that until it seemed right. Yum. I was eating this for 3 days afterward, but no complaints here.

To go with this delicious curry I made bharta from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian. This was pretty good, although labour-intensive. I’m not sure if I would make it again for that reason. I had this served warm, but Madhur Jaffrey says you can eat it room temperature or chilled. I think it would be great as a chilled spread in a pita or something like that.

I didn’t serve these with rice. I just ate them “as is.” So there you have it, an Indian feast that’s Eat to Live compatible.

Christmas Baking Overload

Note: I will be away Dec. 20th – Jan. 3rd with limited Internet. So I apologize in advance for not checking your blogs. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

For Christmas I typically give out boxes or tins of homemade goodies. So that’s what I’ve been up to the past few weeks. Here’s what made it into the gifts this year:

Pumpkin biscotti, a recipe from Katie up on Everyday Dish. I omitted the nuts and then coated 2/3 of each biscotti in more chocolate. Because you can never have enough chocolate. Why hasn’t anyone told me before how well pumpkin and chocolate go together?

Sparkled ginger cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance. I see now why these get such rave reviews…they are extremely addictive…

Gingerbread men from the Post Punk Kitchen. I really like this recipe for cut outs, it rolls out thin and is crisp, not cakey like some gingerbread recipes I’ve tried.

Sugar cookies decorated with a simple royal icing I made out of powdered sugar, vanilla, and soymilk. I wasn’t sure what to expect with that recipe as it has powdered sugar in it, but I think this is my “go to” recipe from now on. They are nice and thin and crisp, which I like. The cookies do spread a bit though when baking, so watch out for that.

Chocolate fudge. I used plain soymilk and added a bit more vanilla to compensate and it’s divine. It’s perfect at room temperature as well, so it’s great for presents. Unlike my previous attempt…

Walnut-caramel-chocolate thingies from Mihl. These things are amazing. Amazing.

Snickerdoodles by Lolo. These are pretty good. Mine didn’t turn out as pretty looking as her’s, but they taste good and that’s what really counts, right?

Last but certainly not least, caramel corn. I made a version with peanuts and a version without. It reminds me of Crunch’n'Munch…I used to love that stuff. Yes it has corn syrup, so if you avoid corn syrup you may want to avoid this recipe. The way I look at it, I hadn’t touched my bottle of corn syrup since last Christmas so I don’t really feel too bad about it.

Vegan Caramel Corn:
-7 qts. plain popped popcorn
-2 c. peanuts (optional)
-2 c. brown sugar
-1/2 c. light corn syrup
-1 tsp. salt
-1 c. Earth Balance
-1/2 tsp. baking soda
-1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Place popcorn and peanuts on two shallow, greased baking pans. Set aside.

2. Preheat the oven to 250 F. Combine brown sugar, corn syrup, Earth Balance, and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Once it begins to boil, boil for 5 minutes. Stir constantly.

3. Remove saucepan from heat and add baking soda and vanilla. Pour this mixture over the popcorn and peanuts in the pans and stir to coat. It probably won’t coat all of the popcorn at this point but don’t worry about that.

4. Bake for 1 hour. Every 15 min., remove pans from oven and stir. This will make sure all of the popcorn is coated. After 1 hour, dump the corn onto waxed paper and let cool. Store in an airtight container.

**This recipe makes quite a bit. It halves great though.

sausages and tofu

I actually did cook two things in the past week. Shocking. First up is what I had for brunch on Sunday morning: Tempeh and White Bean Sausage Patties from Vegan with a Vengeance. I baked them (at 400 F) rather than fried them to make them healthy. I really wanted to love these, but I found them just “okay.” It was the spices/seasoning. They just didn’t do it for me. So I think if I were to make these again I would probably change those around and they would suit me a lot more. I served the sausage patties with some herbed oven-roasted potatoes.

I recently borrowed ExtraVeganZa from the library a few weeks ago. One recipe I wanted to try was the Ginger Garlic Tofu. It was pretty good. I did add extra garlic though, but I am a well-known garlic fiend. I served it up for lunch with some steamed broccoli.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I adore butternut squash. I adore all sorts of squash. But why on earth had I not tried roasted butternut squash?? I gave roasted butternut squash soup from Vegan with a Vengeance a try and words cannot express the amazingness that was this soup. I roasted the squash the night before and kept it in the fridge. I didn’t roast the squash with oil as recommended, but merely just placed it cut side down on a cookie sheet and let the squash work its magic. The next evening I followed the rest of the recipe, with the exception of replacing the chiles with crushed red pepper flakes, as that was what I had in stock. Served with some homemade bread and there you have it, a yummy comforting meal.

Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy….my new love

I’m always reading on the internet how the Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan with a Vengeance is extremely delicious. Somehow I just never got around to making it…perhaps because in the book it’s paired with mashed potatoes, and I’m not the biggest mashed potato fan ever (too many years eating them against my will as a child). Well, I finally remedied that. Let me just say….wow. Wow. This gravy actually made me speechless. I ended up eating a significant portion right out of the pan with a spoon. In fact, I think I would change things around a little bit and make it as a stew. Here is the gravy on top of mashed potatoes, pictured with Baked BBQ Tofu from Veganomicon. The tofu was okay…nothing too special about it, just baked tofu with BBQ sauce. But who cares…the gravy was the star of the show.

After awhile I ended up smothering my green beans in the gravy too. Mmm….

Brooklyn Pad Thai

I’ve had my eye on Brooklyn Pad Thai from Vegan with a Vengeance ever since I first bought the book…I just never got around to making it. I don’t usually have bean sprouts in the house, truth be told. However, after the spring rolls I previously posted about, I had some left over that needed to be used up quickly. So I took advantage of this delicious pad thai opportunity.

It was pretty good. I added the peanuts on top of my dish after it was done cooking, so the bf could have some as well. The sauce is delicious…I added some extra sriracha to mine, but that’s because I have an addiction to the stuff.

Wow..I’ve really been on a VWAV kick lately haven’t I?

On another note, I’m getting quite fed up with taking crummy photos because there is no light at dinner time anymore. It’s usually pitch dark by the time I get home. Boo. So I’m thinking of building a lightbox. I have a cardboard box and some tissue paper sitting around, so maybe that will be my weekend project.

in which I rediscover my love for reubens

I come from a reuben-loving family. After I went vegetarian, my Mom would make mine with just sauerkraut and cheese. That suited me fine. I carried on this way for 10 years. When I became vegan I didn’t know what to do anymore. So I resigned myself to a life without reubens, because at that time I thought the cheese was the best part.

I finally gave the tempeh reuben recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance a shot. And let me tell you, I didn’t even miss the cheese. It was amazing. The marinade for the tempeh is so great, I could have eaten it with a spoon. The tempeh was creamy and melted in my mouth and I had vegan thousand island dressing oozing out of the sandwich everywhere. Yes, it’s a messy sandwich to eat. But, in my opinion, reubens are supposed to be that way.