Veggie + Southern = TLA

Between the babies, The Hubs surgery (minor, he’s fine), and the beginning of a hurricane, it’s been a busy week.

But, oh - I am totally on a mission.

Like many people these days, I got what I thought was a brilliant idea – only to Google it and find out it was (of course) a concept that already existed: Vegan Soul Food. But that’s ok. I need some inspiration and so far, I see some things that could stand improvement. So this is going to be a little side project of mine, to turn my favorite southern cuisine into equally delicious vegan dishes.

I’m sure it was inevitable, but I think what really got my wheels turning was a version of Macaroni and Cheese that was better than boxed – but nothing like what I can make of the ‘real’ thing. The Boys said they loved it, but it was no where near my standard.

In the rush of things, I didn’t get a pic of the dish. But I never posted my Mexican Stuffed Peppers from a few days ago…so here’s a random image of that!

 

 

Also, I mentioned to a fellow (only) Vegan friend today, I feel like I’ve got enough of a handle on ‘meals’ for now, I definitely need to start experimenting with sweets more. I haven’t dove into the cookies yet and thankfully Halloween is pretty much canceled here this year (thanks, Sandy), so the chocolate isn’t completely in my face 24/7. It is getting more and more difficult, though to not break down and eat fist fulls of Snickers and Almond Joys. So next weeks shopping list: chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!

Hey, Julie - Can We Make a Small Revision?

Let's discuss willpower, shall we?

Gimme Some Soul

I’m not sure what it is, but I’ve always had a tendency to fall in love with things that are in complete contrast of each other: country life and city life, 100 degree days and blizzards, California ‘clean’ food and thick, creamy, and/or fried southern soul food. So while on the one hand I’m loving the healthy dishes I’ve been eating lately, I’m always going to crave a heavy comfort food now and then (especially with winter coming). Friday night’s pizza is just what I needed.

I was having another ‘cheese-crisis’ moment as I loaded up the boys’ pizza with mozzarella, telling my husband, ‘You have no idea how easy it would be to just shove all of this into my mouth right now instead of putting it on your pizza’. He knew I meant it because he’s seen me do that numerous times. So I made my usual promise to myself: get through dinner and if my own food was that horrible, I could eat the cheese. It’s never happened.

And I was SO rewarded for not eating it!

I have a girlfriend who is also a die-hard cheese lover and on her own dairy-free journey while breastfeeding. She’s struggled to find a pizza she loves (and during college football season, this is a MUST!), but I’m thinking this might just do the trick for her! The two key factors in this pizza for me were using a hearty pesto and, just like last time, making sure I used ingredients that had intense flavor. I make everything from scratch, but obviously it’s not ‘required’. Just make sure each ingredient used is a ‘love’!

• Pesto (I used two ‘ice cubes’ from a previous batch of walnut & basil. It was a thicker batch, which I’m sure contributed to the extra creamy-ness)
• Sauce

Just combine the pesto and sauce to your flavor liking. I probably used a ½ & ½ ratio, maybe a little extra sauce (this batch came out really good). If you like the taste of the combined sauce at this point, I honestly don't think you can put on too much!

~ sprinkle on some nutritional yeast ~

• red onions
• mushrooms
• artichokes
• kalamata olives
• greens
• marinated red peppers

 ***DEVOUR***

 

Day 18

Day 18. It’s fun to keep track of the good times and most of this has been positive, but there are some moments of struggle. To try to not appear ‘pushy’ to The Boys, I make sure if I don’t at least add some meat to their dishes I put on some cheese. The cheddar isn’t so bad. But the parmesan. I miss the parmesan. And there is a pause every time I grab a fistful to sprinkle on everyone else’s dish and stare down at that salty, nutty deliciousness in my hand. It’s not often but it’s strong during those flash moments when I think what I’m doing is ridiculous. It’s hard to remember 100% of the time why I even started this when it feels like no one else is. It seems like everywhere there are instructions to add cheese, add milk, messages that it’s good for you, ‘you need protein, so adding a lean meat is important and much healthier option’. But just as quickly as I think I might just throw in the towel, I think of how much better I’ve felt, how much more ‘pure’ my food has been, how much I’ve learned, and how there’s one less chicken on a conveyer belt.

So, on a lighter note – an even BIGGER victory tonight! Made Eggplant Pasta Marinara, not something we have every week but still a common dish here. I thought this was an easy shoe-in to make without feeling like the dish had been altered much. But…UGH, the egg coating!!! How to mask that?! How do I get the breading to stick?! Thankfully I was introduced to this kick ass blog with an AWESOME recipe for the same dish. And the verdict? From the teen, meat-loving boy: ‘This is the best eggplant dish you’ve ever made, mom’.

I can’t make this stuff up.

 

 

Eggplant Pasta Marinara with Roasted Red Pepper
http://ohsheglows.com/2011/11/08/eggplant-parmesan/

Victory is Mine

Note to self: The Boys will stay on my side as long as I continue to serve them pesto (which is fiiiiiinnne by me)! Last nights dinner was a success, quote, ‘I could even eat this without the chicken’. (I think I mentioned before that I would make dinner that I could eat and then alter it to The Boys liking.) Honestly, I’ve made this dish in the past, but I’m not letting that sway my victory.

• walnut pesto (made with nutritional yeast instead of parm)
• chopped tomatoes
• 2 ice cubes of veggie broth

~ Heat ~

• just before finished heating, add chopped greens and pasta water.
• add pasta

 I also just came across a recipe for jalapeño pesto that I am extremely excited to try!

Sometimes I make things that I immediately obsess over and then make myself sick of within a week. I don’t think that’s going to be an issue with lunch. I’m loving this weeks salad concoction. One thing I learned about a year ago when I first started getting a wide variety of veggies from our local farmer: the more you buy and the bigger variety you have on hand, the better you’ll become at preparing awesome dishes that you never would have thought of before. Even though at first (and sometimes still) I was completely intimidated by all the new things to make through this new lifestyle, I now am embracing how much it’s forcing me to learn and push me out of my comfort zone.

 

• green tomatoes
• yellow bell pepper
• cucumber
• cilantro
• avocado
• kale or greens
• wheat berries
• lemon juice

Get Your Grains!

If you like to eat, this 'diet' is for you. For most of yesterday I was feeling hungry, like I hadn't gotten enough to eat. Most people would say, 'Yeah, because you can't possibly be eating enough without meat and dairy'. But I haven't had a single day that I felt deprived of something (ok, chocolate, but then I found the almond chocolate milk and all was right in the world again) or just hungry for no reason (I literally eat every 2-3 hours now). I realized today why: I left a key ingredient out of my lunch salad - the wheat berries. I've been chopping up all the the weeks salad toppings on Monday so that when it comes time, I can just grab some kale or greens and a fistful of salad toppings and be done with it. Because my fridge is over run with veggies now (not a bad thing), I overlooked my pre cooked wheat berries and never added them. I know how important it is to vary what I eat and balance everything out, but I still think it's crazy that one thing missing could truly affect my day so much.

Weekend Recap

We had a really great weekend! We didn't 'overbook' ourselves with things to do, which is sometimes a big problem with us (though not always our fault) and got a little 'down' time in. One of the best things to happen was I found our local health food store! We had been driving 20 miles to a popular chain grocery store that specializes in a lot of healthy options but I felt a little lost and overwhelmed when I tried to find what I needed - especially when I didn't even know what I needed. Not only was location for my new store a huge plus but one of the workers took the time to talk to me at length about my new eating habits, recommended some good items and gave me tips to make sure I was staying healthy, rather than just eating a few of the same items every day and depriving myself of the nutrients I needed. I was so excited and happy when I left to finally have had an actual conversation with someone about what I was going through!

Saturday we hit up the Farmers Market and then got ready for the Bama game.  This is a mini-event that we celebrate every Saturday come fall and I always make a small buffet of appetizers to accommodate. One of the major goals is to not give up the ‘fun’ in eating, so I had to rethink what I was about to make since my typical spread of buffalo chicken dip, jalapeno poppers, cheese and crackers and quesadillas wasn’t going to cut it. Thankfully, again, my awesome husband compromised on his wish list of foods and we made a few changes for us all to enjoy.

Since we are not used to living in a complete Fall season, we are trying to make the most out of this time of year. Sunday we visited a local pumpkin patch that had a ton of fun things to do. The girls took their first hayride and even our oldest son had fun with the activities they offered. When we were still at the house and had decided to go to the patch, we left pretty quickly and hadn't had much to eat yet. I was able to throw together some almonds, pretzels, chopped veggies and fruit, peanut butter and hummus in a bag for us to snack on and use as our lunch. It went over well with everyone, the boys actually seemed to like the grab bag lunches the best!

For dinner we stayed low key and had leftover Vegetable Barley soup that I had made after the football game on Saturday with some Bruscetta. With the exception of some coffee creamer, I didn’t have the heart to point out that the boys had completed a full ‘Plant’ day of eating - they were really good sports. Tonight I’ll make them burgers to show my appreciation J .

 

At this point I'm getting a little more confident to share some of my meal creations, so here is one I fell in love with on Friday night: Pizza with (ready?) red sauce, garlic, collard greens, mushrooms, artichokes, kalamata olives annnndddd...probably something else I'm forgetting. But it was good and I  didn't miss the cheese at all! The key was definitely getting some strong flavors together to make the cheeseless pizza even appear worthwhile, which it totally was.

 

 

 

Just Keep Swimming

Hoping that this weekend is able to give me a little push to keep moving on. Agenda:

1. Explore local farmer stand
2. Go to 'main' Farmer's Market
3. Find local health food store

This weeks meals had some very clear highs and lows, which I'm sure is to be expected. Because I love to cook and pride myself for being slightly knowledgeable in the kitchen, the feeling of not knowing what I'm doing and coming out with some failed meals is actually really scary and heartbreaking when it happens.

I was ecstatic, however, to find out our new health insurance actually pays 100% of 6 Nutritionist visits a year! SCORE!!! And, did you know that Ellen has a page supporting Vegan eating? It’s true!

http://www.ellentv.com/categories/going-vegan-with-ellen/

I’m in need of a larger support group, but because I’m more of a ‘touchy-feely’ person, I can only get so much from online forums. But Ellen – she’s like a friend, right?! It makes me feel like I have a trusted source to find stuff. Speaking of…it’s only 6 minutes till her show comes on.

Make that Soy Milk, Please

I know this is going to come across as shitty, but in all seriousness:

Do Vegan's breastfeed their children?

And if so, why the exception? I was thinking that maybe it was because of the lack of cruelty. But my cracked and bleeding nipples seem pretty cruel to me. And I wouldn't be surprised if this were a question that Vegan's were asked a million times in a sarcastic tone, but it just occured to me.

I wish I had more time to Google this stuff.

Lift Off

Written Sunday night but apparently failed to publish.

This weekend seemed jam-packed. Staying home with the girls all day during the week causes my head to spin enough, so I’m not sure why come Friday I seem to think I need to get out and insert more craziness. But we managed to make it to the Farmers Market to get a small truckload of awesomeness and crossed the Bay Bridge for the first time which made me officially fall in love with our new move. Toss in a mini breakdown in Whole Foods and we had a well rounded weekend.

I can’t say I’m at a place where I can offer much advice on a ‘meat & dairy free’ diet, but let me give you lesson #1: Do not attempt to mosey on into Whole Food on a Saturday afternoon with a list of foods you don’t understand, a rambunctious toddler and a gassy one month old and expect to get anything done.

The wake up call probably began Friday when I ran out of the food my girlfriend had made me the weekend before. It dawned on me suddenly that things were going to start to get a little more tricky and I was not at all prepared. I had a few food items I could rattle off that I had heard repeatedly from my new cookbooks ('flax seed', 'almond meal', some type of mushroom, agave), but I had no idea what I was going to do with them and what recipes I would need them for. Between my poor newborns own mini meltdown due to her tummy pain, dodging carts constantly wizzing by me, trying to keep everyone else happy and my own 'I have no idea what the hell I'm doing' confusion, it was just too much. I left the cart in the bulk nut isle, left my family to figure out I wasn't just grabbing some random item but actually leaving, cried on my way out to the car and told my husband, 'I can't do this any more. This is stupid, I don't know how to do this and I couldn't have picked a worse time'. He just put his arms around me and said, 'You are dealing with a lot and you're doing a great job. There's going to be a learning curve involved, but you can do this'.

 

As we headed home, I calmed down and bit and tried to focus on what we usually make at the house and how I could tweek it to fit my new eating lifestyle. We stopped by the library quickly so I could pick up a book being held for me, The Skinny Bitch. It's only a 3/4 mile ride to our house from that point, but by the time we got home I was totally hooked again and ready to keep going.

 

By the next morning, I was able to pick out a few recipes that would work for us during the week that I knew everyone would like and come up with some 'basic' meals that I was used to preparing and could easily alter. Oh, and not break the bank doing it. I know that there is a big following of eating organic and using things like 'vegan sugar' vs. 'regular sugar', but a girl can only handle so much at one time. So despite a few bumps in the road, the journey continues and I'll continue to do my best one meal at a time.

Aren't Labels So Boring?

If today ends like the last 4, I will have completed my 5th full day of eating Vegan.

Or 'Vegan'.
'Vegan-ish'?
Strong Vegetarian?

I don't know. I don't exactly know what I'm doing, where I'm going with this, or what to call myself. I thought ridding my diet of all things 'animal' made me a Vegan, but apparently I also have to give up an entire slew of things outside of food that I am just not ready for yet. Emotionally I'm sure I'd be fine, but between my pocketbook, lack of research/knowledge, trying not to bully my family into (temporary?) decisions I'm making for myself, and handling a new out of state move, husbands new career, a one month old, a one year old and a teenager, I just need a bit to soak this all in.

***deep breath***

Does your head hurt? My head hurts.

At any rate, I'm proud of what I have accomplished this week. Each day I have learned something new and while trying to undertake a complete eating overhaul is both easy and difficult at the same time, I have been frustrated the last two days thinking 'Why am I doing this again? I like cheese. No, I LOVE cheese. Everyone else is eating cheese. It's NORMAL to eat cheese.' I know that a large portion of this is because I have run out of food that a gracious friend cooked for me last weekend as a 'Yay for Another Baby' gift (she has recently started her own 'Vegan' (Vegan-ish?) journey). Of course, growing up in the Midwest and loving cheese play their part as well. But I can't deny how good my body has felt these last few days and I like what I'm eating. So, I'm going to keep giving it the old 'college try'. Hopefully this little journal will help me figure out what direction I ultimately need to go in and - who knows - maybe it won't all be about the food.

Who am I kidding. I LOVE food.