Summer = Green Beans

At my local co-op, there were bags of fresh, local, organic green beans. Crisp, bright green with deep purple-ish spots, and some the size of fingers....i had to buy a bag. So, for luch today I heated up the steam pot, tossed in some roughly cut red potatoes, two cloves of garlic, my beautiful green beans, and a generous pinch of dried dill. Within a few short minutes I had a lunch that made my lips smile, my stomach rejoice and my body thank me. I love meals that are so simple but bursting with flavor. My children were even filling up their little mouths...after a little encouragement.

Happy fresh-produce shopping friends, may you find green beans as delicious as mine were!

Spice Spice Spice

I have discovered an amazing dish thanks to Susan V's Fat Free Vegan Kitchen blog...if you love yourself you will follow this link:

(http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/01/cauliflower-dal-with-panch-phoran.html)

and make a big ole pan of Cauliflower Dal with Panch Phoran. This dish is soooo savory and wonderful you will want to absolutely stuff yourself. I have not had a lot of Indian food, but after cooking this, I will certainly be trying some more. Happy cooking!

Veg Facts

Did you know that....

100 million people could be fed if Americans cut down their meat consumption by a mere 10%

56% of U.S. farmland is dedicated to beef production

260 million acres of U.S. forests have been cleared for cropland to produce a meat-based diet

women who consume meat daily compared to once a week are  3.8 times more likely to develop breast cancer.

men who consume meat, eggs, and dairy daily are 3.6 times more likely to develop prostate cancer

there are 125 medical schools in America

only 30 of those medical schools require nutrition study

660,000 animals are killed per hour in the U.S. for meat

(the previous info is from Christina Pirello's This Crazy Vegan Life)

OH Asaparagus, How I Love thee....

Well I lost 5 pounds this week thanks to some good ole fashion will power and Dr. Mcdougall.  I'm also feeling better than ever and I'm not missing my farm animal friends being on my plate one little bit. Today I was trying to figure out a quick lunch and my thoughts turned immediately to a beautiful bunch of organic asparagus that I bought this morning. I created the following recipe inspired by a dish that my friend makes. Her recipe includes pasta and shrimp. Well I did away with those two ingredients, added some cornstarch for thickening and what I got is so good (I'm actually eating as I type ;)) that I must share it.

Sarah's Asparagus:

1 bunch of crisp asparagus

about 1.5c of veg broth

1/2tsp crushed peppers

juice of 1/2 a lemon

2 garlic cloves mashed and halved

1T corn starch dissolved in cold water (just enough water to dissolve it)

ok, in a shallow frying pan combine broth, crushed red pepper, lemon juice, and garlic. Heat it over med-high heat and bring it to a simmer, add the cleaned asparagus (with tough ends removed) and cook just til they're bright green and tender-crisp. Remove the asparagus and set aside, you can even squirt a little extra lemon juice on them if you like. Now back to the frying pan: let the broth continue to simmer for a few more minutes and then mix in the dissolved corn starch, stirring constantly. When the sauce is nice and thick, pour it into a small dish. Dip the asparagus in the sauce as you eat. I promise you you'll be in asaparagus heaven!

yum soup yum

Well, I'm still truckin' along. Been playing a little tennis....ok, I totally suck but I'm trying...I guess a more honest statement would be, i've been chasing some tennis balls. I've also been discovering some fantastic recipes. Tonight we had Dr. McDougall's "Hearty Brazillian Bean Soup." You can find the recipe on his website, but since I love those that read this little blog, i'm gonna post it here:

Hearty Brazilian Bean Soup Servings: 6
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes 
1 chopped onion
1 chopped celery stalk
1 teaspoon chopped, fresh, bottled garlic
1 chopped red bell pepper
1 cup chopped frozen hash brown potatoes
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 15-ounce can undrained black beans
2 tablespoons sherry
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
fresh ground pepper to taste
1 cup chopped Swiss chard

Place 1/2 cup of the vegetable broth, onions, celery, garlic and bell pepper in a large saucepan. Cook, stirring occasionally over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, except chard. Cook over low heat for 20 minutes. Add chard and cook for 5 minutes.

NOw I did not have fennel, so I left it out. And please do not look at this recipe and think, "BORING AND BLAND" just because it's soup...even my self-proclaimed soup hating hubby LOVED this one, its very savory and very tasty! MAKE IT NOW!

This morning kicked off the exercise portion of my new life! I am starting out with a fast walk....lets face it, it's been a LONG time since this girl regularly exercised. I walked for 30 minutes and tried to stay at a pace where I couldn't talk...if there had been somebody there to talk to that is...I woke up at 5:30am so I'd have time to exercise, shower, eat breakfast, and get ready for work. Last night I put kasha and hulled barley in the crock pot and cooked it on low all night with some cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. Well, it burnt around the edges and came out really mushy...not exactly tasty but I figure its good for me and I'm eating it anyway.

Tonight I think I'll make one of the children's most favorite dishes: Fettuccine with Red Lentil Sauce.  I got this recipe from Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson.

3/4c of red or brown lentils, pipcked over and rinsed well

2 carrots, cut into thin diagonal slices

1 celery rib, diced

3T Olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced

One 6oz can tomato paste

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pound of pasta (I use whole wheat thin spaghetti)

2T fresh parsley

Place the lentils, carrots, and celery in a pot of boiling water. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the lentils are very tender. Drain the liquid reserving 2 cups. Toss the lentil mixture with 1T Olive oil and set aside.

Heat remain 2T of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook just til fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes to mellow the flavor. Stir in the reserved 2c. of cooking water and blend til smooth. Add lentil mixture and season with salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to low and simmer while you cook your pasta.

Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and divide evenly amongst 4 plates. Top with lentil sauce and enjoy!

going strong!

Well things are going well in my vegan world. I have actually lost a couple of pounds and I am feeling better than ever. My family is doing quite well with the transition too. We have found tons of recipes we really enjoy including one I'm gonna share at the end of this post. One thing that has occurred to me this week is how typically people label going "veg" as expensive. I have found the opposite is true. The money I have been saving NOT eating fast food is tremendous for one. I have also found what is so expensive is the fake meat and cheese stuff. This past week I have learned to make seitan which is uber cheap to make, I buy tofu when it goes on sale at my local co-op in bulk and freeze it, and we just do not like soy cheese...so all in all being vegan is actually cheaper than being a meat eater. Today we made our first trip to the Farmers market. Pickings were slim but I was able to purchase sweet potatoes, greens, zuchinni, summer squash,  and blackberries for under $20 which in my opinion was a steal...and once again money saved. Anyway, the recipe I promised...so as I have stated before we really like seitan. Today the hubby was craving gyros so we decided to see if we could make a vegan gyro...boy did we ever. Hubby made Tzaziki using soy yogurt and I made seitan using a recipe I got from Vegan Dad.

The Gyro meat:

http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2008/06/veggie-lunch-meat.html

I used the above recipe but instead of the spices he used I used:

1/2tsp marjoram

1/2tsp oregano

1/2tsp onion powder

3 cloves of garlic

2 tsp. sea salt

Then I cooked it according to his method.

The Tzaziki is as follows:

1 (8 ounce) container of plain soy yogurt
1 cucumber
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 lemon, juiced and zest
1-1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill
1-1/2 cloves garlic, peeled
5 Mint Leaves, chopped fine
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions  

Peel and seed the cucumber. Place the cucumbers in a strainer over a bowl and cover with salt. This will leech out a lot of the water and help assure you have a thick sauce.
In a food processor or blender, combine all ingredients. Process until well-combined.
Transfer to a separate dish, cover and refrigerate for at least one hour for best flavor, over night is suggested.
The first step is very important. If not followed you will make Tzatziki soup, not sauce.

We heated up some Bible Bread pitas, stuffed them with the gyro seitan, fresh, raw spinach leaves, thin slices of white onion, and a heaping spoonful of tzaziki sauce. YUMMY!

Mcdougall

So far things are going well. I have found lots of really great recipes. Tonight I made Barbecued Seitan Ribz, a recipe I got from Fat Free Vegan Kithchen. They were soooo yummy. I also discovered a chocolate pudding recipe from Beautiful Vegan that is made with avocados...too good to be true. And I am enjoying lots of veggies too. I am trying to incorporate veggies into meals that I typically did not eat them in before such as breakfast. I am afriad though that I am still consuming too much fat...i.e. avocado chocolate pudding...so I have been looking into this Mcdougall program. It seems like I am pretty much following the program already with the exception that I have been using olive oil when I cook and I must admit i like the faux meat stuff. Tommorow I will begin to do the 12-day program and just see if it doesn't help me get some weight loss going. OH and I am commiting to training to run in a 5k August 22. What an accomplishment that will be. It is 8 weeks away so I have time to lose a little weight and build up some endurance. My goal is to be able to run at least half the race! Oh and one small change I have noticed already in the past week: I am staying full longer and feeling full with less! Thats a pretty good change I think.

Me and the hubby!

And in the beginning....

 I have debated writing a lengthy intro to give you all out there in cyber world insight into my past and present thought processes in order to more clearly illustrate what has brought me to my recent transformation...but I decided it is not important. I am here now and now is really all that matters. All that is important to know is that I woke up one day 80 pounds overweight, with a pantry full of Walmart plastic bags, a car that reaks of Mcdonalds, and a realization that it has been 5 years since i have been hiking or camping. Beliefs that I once held dearly somwhere along the way of becoming a mommy and a full time nursing student, got tossed to the side for traditional, American, fast convenience; this makes me feel ill mentally and physically. Maybe things would be different if I didn't know better, but I do. I heard it once said that knowledge is responsibility and I believe that to the fullest. So here I am, wish me luck!