CUCUMBER DILL PATTIES ON ARUGULA SALAD (VEGAN)

May 9, 2014… its been a crazy busy past few weeks.  Sorry I have missed checking in with you!!

Today’s weigh in for me is 182, dropped 18 pounds since the beginning of our venture which was March 24 (approximately 6 weeks ago).  Jess weighed in today at 222, dropping 10 pounds since the beginning of our venture.  So overall we feel accomplished.  We started out eating healthy, then changed over to vegan.. but before that we were going to just eat vegan five days a week, sparing ourselves the torture by indulging on the weekends.  The truth is… we have not had to indulge.  We have stayed on track and focused.. even through the Cinco de Mayo party!  I have a client who has been great to share with me some of her food blends, as well as eating at Veggies once a week and taste testing Mary’s cooking.  I read, research and copy boo-koos of recipes, keeping myself interested in the new form of cooking I am doing.  I feel like eventually I will get die hard into 100% vegan, but for now, I am totally ok with what I am putting on my plate.

So tonight I was going to make zucchini patties and put them over a simple argula salad and drizzle some dressing over it.  Went to get the zucchini… low and behold.. its a cucumber.  So.. what to do with a cucumber?  Grate it and fry it of course!!!

The outcome was GREAT and refreshing.  I added some dill and gave it a cool refreshing flavor atop the bed of greens, a gob of avocado spread in the middle and drizzled with ranch dressing… all VEGAN, of course!!

So here is the recipe for the cucumber dill patties:

Grate a large cucumber, skin and all, and put in a bowl.  Be sure and mash out as much liquid as you can.  Let it sit while you are getting the remaining ingredients together and before you add them, mash it again to get any settled liquid out.

Then dice half a small onion, put in about 3/4 cup or so of panko bread crumbs; a tablespoon of dill (or more if you like dill); about a tablespoon of powder egg replacer; salt and pepper.  thats it!  Add that to the cucumber, mix real good, form into patties, gently press them into more panko that you have in a plate (do both sides) and put them in a skillet with some hot evoo.  Let them cook on med heat til brown on one side, flip and cook on other side.  After they are done, take them off and put on a paper toweled plate.  Eat them that way or on a salad or on a sandwich would be good too!!  Mighty tasty dinner – 5 star plate in my 2 star kitchen!!!

CINCO DE MAYO PARTY

Monday, May 5, 2014 – Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!  Weigh in today was 183… YAY ME!

Yesterday was a day filled with cooking and I am surprised I actually did not gain weight.. all the taste testing I MUST do you know!!  For breakfast I made biscuits and gravy from Mary’s cook book.  Mary is the owner of Veggies, a local health food market and eatery.  Fabulous foods.. and one day mine will taste like hers!  My biscuits and gravy were actually pretty damn good.  Lunch was a mix of what I stuffed in my face as I was cooking and tostadas.  Later that day it was really hot so I thought a watermelon slushy would do the trick… it was WONDERFUL.  I put fresh watermelon, frozen peaches, apple juice and a little sprite (because I did not have anything else) along with a few ice cubes and blended away.  It was refreshing and cooling.  

For supper, although I ate the last tamale around 4pm, I told Jess I was not hungry, but I fixed him a great sandwich and ended up eating a few bites of his.  It was VERY good.  I sauted some onion in a pan with some evoo, put in a frozen veggie burger (because time was of the essence when you got a big o hungry man standing there staring at you), cooked it, made a thousand island dressing of vegan mayo, a dab of ketsup and a dab of dill pickle relish, slathered it on the wheat bread as it was grilling, put it all together and YUMMMMM.  

I must admit, I am really looking forward to the day when I don’t have to use any frozen products, or at least as few as possible.  I want to learn how to make the stuff myself.  

Well, this morning for breakfast we had Skinny Bitch’s Nutty Monkey smoothie.  YUMMM.  A blend of almond milk, peanut butter, fresh almonds, banana… could not even finish the glass.

Tonight is our Cinco de Mayo party.  I spent all day yesterday making an assortment of sauces and fillings for a “ENCHILADA BAR”.  I made shredded mild beef, spicy shredded chipotle beef, pork fajita, refried beans, cheese, sweet potato/blackbean/corn, spinach/whitebean, and then my toppings will be a red sauce, a beef chipotle enchilada gravy, greenchili/sourcream, vegan greenchili, and assorted other things.  I know my guests will appreciate the fact I made “regular” food, but the fact is, I had it in the freezer and needed to use it up.  Once its gone, my guests will have to endure the pain of eating vegan… or bringing their own!!  I am hoping by making an assortment of vegan choices as well as the other, some may choose the healthier side of enchiladas.  If not, I can always freeze it!!

Oh yeah…  I am endulging tonight in margaritas and sangria… TOTALLY NOT VEGAN but… baby steps!! 

see you all tomorrow

 

BISCUITS AND GRAVY (VEGAN)

Sunday, May 4, 2014, weighed in at 183.5…. FINALLY broke the 184 barrier!  

This morning was a hard morning for me, I was really have mixed feelings about our food choice.  It would have been very easy to say, “to hell with it” today.  But, I have a chosen partner in crime who said “no.. we need to stay focused”.  WHAT?  This coming from MY husband?  WOW… That in itself was enough for me to stay focused.  The fact HE was being my strength this morning during a time of weakness was pretty incredible.  Don’t get me wrong, he is my source of strength the majority of the time in other areas, but NEVER for staying focused on a vegan plan.  

Ok, so… he wants biscuits and gravy for breakfast.  I know that my vegan cookbooks have several recipes in them for that, and its off to the kitchen I went.  I must say, the recipe that Mary has in her Veggies cookbook were really good and I will make them again.  The gravy was especially good.  So, back on track!!

LEFTOVERS

Had a busy day today getting ready for our Cinco de Mayo party on Monday, made my first run on veggie tamales, along with my vegan green chili cheese sauce; and a lot of other things so dinner was a nice mix of leftovers… a little french onion soup, a little salad and some oven roasted ranch potatoes.  It may have been leftovers, but it was great to my tummy.  The extra flavor came from my tamari roasted pumpkin seeds that we tossed in with the salad… yummmm

see you all tomorrow

CHOPPED BBQ SLAW TOASTED SANDWICH (VEGAN)

Friday, May 2, 2014.. weighed in this morning at 184.. yeah, we are hanging tight right about this number.. uggg

This morning was my first experience with tofu… and it was actually not bad.  For breakfast I warmed up some vegan sausage, cut them into pieces, sauted them in a pan with some vegan butter and chopped onion.  Then I added a little tofu, scrambled it, diced half an avocado and put that in the pool.  Then, while that was warming, I warmed a couple tortillas.. and made quite a tasty breakfast burrito.  

For lunch we just had leftover vegan chicken patty sandwiches.

For dinner we ate the dinner I originally made for last night, which did not get eaten because my husband’s tummy was a tad under the weather.  I will say, changing to a plant based lifestyle has caused havoc on our tummies.  Getting better though!  I am sure my stomach is wondering what in the hell is going on.. and I have no doubt that my husband’s is!!

So, dinner tonight was a grilled wheat bread, topped with sloppy joe/bbq vegan beef mix that I made from a box, and awesome cole slaw that I made and then topped it all with some crunchy durkee dried onions.  VERY VERY TASTY.  

The sloppy joe mix was from a box that I purchased at homeland, I added a few items to make it more bbq than sloppy joe flavor, plus I added onions and cooked it all down.  The coleslaw was cabbage, onion and carrots that I put through the ninja, added some vegan mayo, 1 packet of stevia, salt and pepper… that was it!  It was wonderful.  I am sure the durkee dried onions had something that were off limits but… I had them… had to use them up!!!  You will note the bread looks a bit over grilled but it actually was perfectly cooked.  Guess its the wheat grain bread.

until tomorrow… 

MACARONI AND TOMATOES (VEGAN)

Wednesday, April 30, 2014.. lunch was fabulous.  Went to Veggies (a local health food eatery/market).  Her tamale was out of this world.  I am just hoping to copy that to half the flavor this weekend when I try making them myself.  

Tonight’s dinner was easy because I just did not feel like going all out into something.  The good thing to know is that there are easy quick fix meals for maintaining a vegan lifestyle.  I made a pot of wheat elbow noodles, drained them, added a can of diced tomatoes, about 2 tablespoons of vegan butter, salt and pepper and sat down to a bowl of one of my all time favorite comfort foods.  I also put a few bocca non-chicken chicken patties in the oven, baked them, toasted a wheat bun, added some vegan mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion and avocado, then add some sweet potato chips and guac to the plate… and snarfed that down.  Jess actually enjoyed dinner tonight really well and asked for more macaroni.  I think he is starting to get used to the plant based way of things.  

Until next time…

VEGGIE LOAF (VEGAN)

Wednesday, April 30, 2014, weigh in at 184… AGAIN!  Well, I guess that is better than steadily going upwards!

Had a fabulous dinner last night and probably ate way too much but OMG was it good.

You know I never throw anything out (a part of my mom’s teaching as we grew up with no money.. you save even the one hot dog left because at the end of the week, it will be in a stir fry of some sort), so last week I had a bit of the asparagus mushroom couscous left, a bit of the veggie stir fry left, a couple pieces of the cornbread left, I had practiced with a new cheese sauce recipe… SO… in the pool it went along with some egg replacer, formed it into a mound like a meatloaf and into a square sprayed baking dish, baked for about an hour… man, it was fantastic!  A taste very similar to dressing so it was right up my alley.  I made a simple vegetable gravy and put over the top, served it with a baked sweet potato and salad with vegan ranch dressing.  Yes, my meal was a success.  And, later found my way to a couple scoops of vegan ice cream with some cookie granola on top.

I ate until I thought I was going to pop (part of my problem with loving food) but still did not have the miserable full feeling like I used to have.

This morning we had a bowl of corn chex with almond milk, blackberries and banana.  This afternoon for lunch I am excited to go try Mary’s (at Veggies Restaurant) tamales and guacamole.  Looking forward to one of my favorite things and then I plan on trying my own hand at vegan tamales this weekend.  My husband is staying steadfast with me and I am very proud of him.. its a very hard thing to change from being a die hard meat eater to a plant based diet eater!  Stay tuned for more stuff.

BACON AVOCADO BAGEL (VEGAN)

Tuesday, April 29, 2014, weighed in at 184.  Ugggg.. it sure was easier to put on than take off!!

Breakfast today was a vegan version of one of my husband’s favorite items.. the bacon avocado bagel with cream cheese.  So, I decided to give him a treat, vegan style.  I started with a vegan bagel, toasted and spread vegan cream cheese on it.  Then I sliced half an avocado and piled it on top of the cream cheese.  Then I sprinkled it with my new found bacon sprinkle seasoning and a little sea salt.  He LOVED it and said “its a keeper”!  So there ya go, a simple, healthy breakfast.  Today is going to be a great day!

PIZZA (VEGAN)

Monday, April 28, 2014.  This is a couple of mile markers today.  No. 1, we have been eating healthy for one month now, starting out just eating healthy for about two weeks and then (after Jess’ hospital stay) beginning a life of eating plant based foods, which brings us to No. 2, we have been eating a plant based diet for two weeks now.  

My beginning weight was 200 one month ago.  This morning, I weighed in at 185.5.  I am excited to have lost down and starting to feel a bit better.  I definitely am noticing more energy later in the evenings and, wait for this… I actually am staying up til about 10pm.  WOW, my friends would be shocked.  This past winter it was getting very easy to drop in bed around 7:30 and just veg!  Now.. I am vegging a different way and staying up later!!  

Went to our local health food store/restaurant today, Veggies.  One day I will cook like Mary!!  Until then, sometimes we just gotta choak it down!  Actually, overall I think I have done fairly well.  Even my chocolate chip oatmeal cookies that I thought were going to be granola actually hardened up today and taste amazing.  They were amazing last night but today its even better since they did not have to get turned into granola cookies!  

So, tonight’s menu is actually a second attempt to rescue the califlower that I baked yesterday.  You know the recipe that shows this beautiful full head of califlower that you rub a mix and spices on and bake.  Well… I can’t do spicy because my husband does not do spice.  And, I did not have any vegan cream cheese on hand.. SO, what do you do???  Of course, you use what you have!  I used vegan sour cream and italian pizza spice, put it in the oven, baked it, took it out, tasted it… it was horrible.  

Now what to do with a head of italian califlower?  You crumble it up, add minced pecans, grated zucchini, diced mushrooms AND MY NEW FAVORITE SPICE… Vegan Bacon Crumbles!  Then you mix it all together, open a wheat pizza crust (for lack of energy in making a fresh one), add some spaghetti sauce, top it with all the crumbled veggies and add some vegan mozzarella cheese.  Note to self.. I am not a fan of vegan cheeses so I surely can do this again without the cheese and think it will be just fine.  The mixture of veggies and the nuts really made it taste meaty.

There… no more califlower!

SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST (VEGAN)

Sunday, April 27, 2014.  Weigh in at 184.

Breakfast on Sundays, for us used to mean biscuits, gravy, fried potatoes, eggs, sausage or bacon and then a nap afterwards.  Admittedly, I still miss that; however, as I get more and more educated into what all this means while inside my body, missing it gets a little easier each day.  

This morning’s breakfast we tried the smoked apple sausage I got from the local health food store.  I sliced it and sauted it with some diced onion and roasted garlic.  By now you have figured out we love onions and garlic!  Not so bad but my plan today is to make my own sausage.  I think I can, I think I can.  We added some fresh watermelon and some artisan toast with vegan butter (you will note the picture has a lot of butter – that’s Jess’ toast!!  He loves butter and actually has commented on how good the vegan butter tastes) and some of my home made plum spread (boiled plums, skinned, deseeded, mashed and a little stevia added… thats it).  A good breakfast, a healthy breakfast and no need for a nap afterwards.  

Today I plan on experimenting with a roast and gravy, some cookies, a few veggie things, sausage and other things.  We shall see how this all turns out.  I have to be challenged in the kitchen… this has proven to be a challenge that I think I can win both in recipes and in health.  We are getting ready to review Jess’ meds and get him packed up for the week’s worth… we will be dropping two (by doctors recommendation), so we are definitely on the right path.  Excited!!