D
elicious Eggplant Parmesan for dinner.
And some answers to a couple of questions.
EER asked about Rob's joints. I have been guessing that once he overcame the plague he'd start feeling some differences.
But last night I asked him. And this was his answer. "I am very pleased with this project. I feel good. I worked physically hard today. And I don't have a tweak or a twinge in the normal problem areas."
Losing the quotations...he went on to say that he has struggled with little intense flashes of pain in different joints almost every day. His hands, shoulders and arms especially. And he is currently not having any of those. Even though he was fighting the creeping crud for the first ten days of so of this adventure....he's been feeling okay. And now he is feeling good. He says this is a success as far as he's concerned. Though he won't claim rigid Vegan as a lifestyle, he is planning to be as conscientious as possible about what he 
puts into his body.
He also said that the small changes we've made over the past couple of years, going more toward organic and natural, one step at a time, have all been little steps that have made a difference.
Stopping the fueling of his body with chemicals, sugar, highly processed and total crap began the process of reclaiming his health. Animal-product-free-eating is one more tool in his health arsenal. The early steps kept him from having to add that injectible to his regimen. Will he ever be able to remove the prednisone and methotrexate? We can hope and keep trying. If not, the real food he eats will strengthen his body to maybe avoid some of the side effects of those big gun medications.
He did say he suggests that no one go completely cold turkey into something this extreme. 24 and I have been slowly learning, rethinking and restocking our pantry,freezer, and garden ... getting rid of the the stuff that is not fuel for our bodies and replacing those uber-processed and food-free items with things that really are fuel. Today has come about because of almost three years of rethinking and learning. But. Every step we have taken has been important on some level.
I will continue to share products, information and recipes with you because this trial month is the beginning of another lifestyle change. We may not end up 100% animal free, but those items are not necessary to eat things that taste good.
So stay tuned.
And now that I've gone on and on, I'm going to have to save the rest of my thoughts til later.
Lots of opportunity to eat not-so clean this weekend.
We had a tea party at church. Full of delectable sounding and smelling desserts and sandwiches.
However, I stuck with the four Vegan friendly items on the menu.
A cup of fruit. Check.
A cup of celery and carrots (and a whole lot of extra carrots as my table mate kept giving me hers.) Check.
Cucumber sandwiches. Classic seasoned cream cheese with a cucumber on top. One of my favorites. And we made the recipe with Vegan Cream Cheese (Soy). My table mate said it was hand's down the best sandwich. So that was all good. And the dang thing was tasty.
The Vegan cookies fooled lots of people and tasted just grand.
I created a dish Saturday night that was super good. I had some sauce leftover because I only cooked half the box of spirals so I adapted it for a casserole on Sunday, too. I was really excited that the sauce kept it's flavor. If you ever eat leftover alfredo or mac and cheese you know what I mean.
At the beginning of our journey I said I had made a Scalloped potato dish that needed tweaked. This sauce will do it. Seriously. The other one was good. But it was made with more Nutritional Yeast and cashews and lemon juice (among other ingredients). So it cost more, too.
This would be fabulous with sauteed mushrooms, too. Rob loved it. So did the girl...and her dogs.
Here is the recipe.
Spring Fling Greenfredo
5 Chopped Green Onions.
10 Chopped Asparagus Spears
1 Minced Clove of Garlic
4 TBSP Soy Free Earth Balance Spread
4 TBSP favorite flour (I used Spelt)
1/3 tsp salt
2 and 1/2 Cups unflavored Almond, oat or soy Milk
1/2 tsp garlic powder.
2 Handfuls of raw spinach leaves (approx 2 jam-packed cups)
1/4 heaping cup of Nutritional Yeast (this is sold in bulk at Whole Foods)(and probably at health food stores. I couldn't find it at my local store that has a healthy/organic food section)(It has a cheesy, almost parmesan-y flavor).
1 - 12 oz Package Eden Organic Kamut Spirals
Put water for pasta on to boil in a saucepan. When the water reaches boil. Add pasta and stir. Then cook for 7-8 minutes.
While pasta boils, in another saucepan melt the Earth Balance spread.
Toss in the minced garlic, the asparagus spears and the green onions. Saute until tender. Approx 2 minutes.
Add the flour and salt and garlic powder and stir. The mixture will become paste-like. Add the milk and stir. When blended toss in the spinach which will wither and cook down. Stir until mixture thickens into an alfredo type sauce. About 3 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Toss in nutritional yeast and stir.
Spoon pasta onto plates. Top with Greenfredo sauce.
Serves about 6.
Oh Snap!
These are tasty!
Found them at Whole Foods, thought we'd give them a try.
Yum. If I don't find the perfect "burger" in my pantry, and in my quest to make the perfect one, I can find something totally satisfying in my freezer.
Cooked them on our cast iron stove top griddle, popped them on buns with avocado slices, alfalfa sprouts and spinach.
Not just any buns. Rudis. Also at Whole Foods (T.J.'s has one or two of their products). These are tasty buns. (We ate the dinner roll version, cut the eggplant burger into smaller portions and had mini-"burgers". I haven't tried the actual full-size buns or bread yet, but we will since the dinner rolls are so tasty. They've got the texture and feel whole grain, but not cardboardy or sawdusty. If you click on the picture you go to their website where there is a $1 off coupon.
Nice that we are finding products that are something we can keep on hand for those nights where we just couldn't find the creativity to think ahead. And when the alternative is oatmeal for dinner, or a smoothie. Or when the thoughts of Applebees dance through our heads.
Cooking and creating is fun. Lots of fun. But finding something in the freezer that we feel good about eating is terrific, too.
We tried this recipe last night. Some of the comments are helpful and interesting, too.
Over coconut ice cream (not the mouth feel of the real deal, but works when you've got a wicked bad ice cream craving - kind of fudgsicle texture). We used Almond Milk though. It was a nice treat. Creamy. Decadent.
Rob shared that now that he's kicked his final bits of plague he's feeling terrific on his new no-animal lifestyle. However, he is looking forward to the kick-off of the Flexitarian part of the experiment. In other words, he is planning for his reentry into eating occasional meat dishes. Told the people he was talking to that he had his first meat meal planned out in his mind. Hmmm. Wonder what it will be. I also wonder if it won't have some kick-him-in-the-head negatives. This stands to be seen.
The TJ's pizza crust was okay. I like Naan as pizza crust way better. So I'm going to have to perfect that Vegan Naan recipe so we can do that.
Day 13 delivered a fabulous dinner of Kamut pasta (delicious, didn't taste or feel whole grain. And it's an ancient grain with high protein), the marinara sauce I posted yesterday, topped with sauteed mushrooms, spinach and zucchini. Garlic bread (a dribble of Olive Oil, a smear of Earth Balance and Garlic in whichever format you prefer spread over lengthwise split Italian bread and broiled.) Tasty salads. Yum.
We made enough sauteed veggies for pizza tomorrow, too, and with the leftover sauce, pizza will be easy breezy. We are going to try the Trader Joe's $.99 whole wheat pizza crust. I made a bunch of "meat" balls last week that aren't quite ready to share with you. But decent enough for tonight's pasta and tomorrow's pizza. (It is my goal, over the next couple of weeks, to tweak/create/find the perfect "meat"loaf recipe that works as burgers and "meat"balls, too.
We've found a cheese we really like, too. Dayia. It doesn't taste amazing just out of the bag, but it melts well and tastes good. Not cheap, about $5 for 8 ounces. But we use less and get the taste and feel of cheese, not a thick, melty layer. (If you put this on your list, know that you need to use it once you open it. Within days. We open it and place it in 1/2 cup portions in small bags and freeze it.
This adventure is turning out to be less painful and more pleasant than I expected. I really thought I would feel very, very deprived. We are training our taste buds. Some training is not so pleasant....I guess it's a lot like Jillian Michaels' Shred at 5:30 in the morning. So good to know I'm making that choice to do something great for myself but i sure don't like it. But. The thrill of mastering a move, or having done the workout bright and early thereby starting my day off right feels fine. And knowing that the food choices that we are making are good for our bodies is kind of the same. And finding a recipe or item that tastes great is a yippee moment.
I don't have a lot of exciting things to report on Day 12. I'm working out plot details in my sleep. Trying to think like my character. That's a good thing.
My do-it-yourself water kefir kit seems to have worked. I found a website that said I could train milk kefir grains to adapt to water/sugar so I could make my own sugar-free "soda". I'm on my second batch and the first one was tolerable...took awhile...thought I killed the grains but I think I'm cooking with gas now. Literally. : )
I saw a tree full of hawks? Vultures? on my way to work yesterday. Something creepy about multiple carrion eating, massive birds in a tree, especially a tree hovering right over a day care center. Shudder.
Dinner was so-so last night. Used up some leftovers. But here's an easy and light but tasty spaghetti sauce that is getting raves.
Marinara Sauce
1 Large can chopped tomatoes (not huge as in Sam's/Costco sized but like the 20-28 ounceish size)
1 Tomato paste (small can)
Dump into crock pot. Add 1 and 1/2 Tomato Paste cans of HOT water (and stir to get all the tomato out).
Add 1 and 1/2 tsps (approx) Italian Seasoning
1 teaspoon (approx) Granulated Garlic (or powder or 2 0r 3 minced cloves)
On low for 4 or more hours to let the flavors marry. Even better if put together the night before. I added the basil to the one that got the raves.
Additions. Chopped Black and Green olives. Fresh Basil. Chopped Garlic. Mushrooms, green or red peppers.
I have had a few questions about Veganism directed toward me. I'm stewing those thoughts, too. And will comment later when something forms.
Lots of activity over the weekend. Lots of food trials and errors and a few successes like Asian night and "meat"balls. Another coconut kefir lover won over. (Remember, kefir is the less scary, and much more socially acceptable first cousin to THE MOTHER of all teas.)
A birthday party with veggies and fruit and that made the fudgy cake not so difficult to pass up.
And a family party where these cookies drew raves and requests for the recipe and disappeared like ice cubes spilled on a parking lot on a 98 degree day. Of course, as pointed out, these cookies are in no way "diet" cookies. Good thing this Vegan adventure is not about counting calories.
Orange Cranberry Pecan Coconut Cookies
1 Cup Coconut Oil
1/2 Cup Sugar
Zest of one small orange. (zest before juicing)
Juice of one small orange
1 Cup chopped nuts of choice
2 and 1/4 Cups flour (I used King Arthur, unbleached and Oat flour blend)
1/2 to 3/4 Cup of dried cranberries
Set oven to 350. Blend coconut oil and sugar until mixed. Add zest and juice. Mix. Add flour, stir. Add nuts and cranberries. Roll into small balls, or use small cookie scoop. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in 350 oven for 11 minutes. These are really fragile when they come out of the oven. Loosen and let sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes. Then place on rack or plate, let cool and then store them in the fridge.
puts into his body.
