Acorn Squash soup, Hamentashen, Cashew cheesecake, and Sugar Addiction

Okay, I almost didn't do my goals for the day because of this couch:Ikea drama! We will never be going back there again. Emphasis on never. But Mitch, unaware of the drama, found his nook.

I saw these at Whole Foods and wanted to make some, so I baked some kale chips in the oven today. I didn't use their fancy ingredients, just plain kale, baked until it was crisp-ish and ate it right off the veins.

For dinner this evening, I made butternut squash soup, brown rice and artichokes.

Inspired-by-Sue Squash soup:

Star rating: 5

Acorn squash, baked at 350 degrees for around 40 minutes

Scraped it into boiling veggie broth and water

Added chopped yellow onions and a couple of chopped carrots

Let it simmer for a while

Pureed a few ladles full to create a more bisque-like texture and get rid of the stringy squash pieces

Adding the brown rice straight into the soup afterward made it reeeeallly good.


Then, on to my goals. These non-vegan, with sugar, hamentashen (from this recipe) turned out pretty tasty but a bit mis-shapen. Yes, tasty. Yes, I ate them. I will talk about this later.

On a raw vegan note, I attempted to make this cashew cheesecake recipe. The crust:

The cashews, soaking (for four hours!):
The pie filling in the food processor:
And since I don't own a pie pan, so I used this dish thing (shouldn't be a problem since you it will be frozen before it will be taken out of the dish):
It's in the freezer now...I'll write about the final product when I complete it!

And since I didn't feel like improvising the cheesecake recipe, I used agave nectar like the recipe called for. I was tempted to use maple syrup but didn't want to mess with the flavor. Looks like I'll be getting my dose of fructose this week!

***

Sugar

Tonight's baking (and raw) adventures reminded me of why I have to cut out sugar cold turkey. I don't possess the ability to consume sugar in moderation. When I say sugar, by the way, I mean processed, refined, or just really concentrated sugar (as opposed to fruits and honey and along-with-its-source sugars). I made the hamentashen and could not help eating one. "It's okay, just eat one," I told myself. "Don't be so rigid about this diet thing. Your body can handle a little bit of bad." Well, one didn't happen. It was one, then two, then a third, and then when I burned my husband's chocolate chip cookies (he had me bake some frozen cookie dough since the oven was going), I had to try those to make sure they weren't too burnt to eat (couldn't take a bite, had to eat two). So I had about five sugary, non-vegan cookies tonight, thinking the whole time about how I will probably feel in the morning after all that sugar. I couldn't just have one? I had to have five?

I've always tended toward the rigid side when it comes to creating and following rules. I'm trying to be balanced about this diet stuff. For instance, I stay off of soy for the most part, but last night we went out for pizza and the only cheese alternative is soy cheese (which is very lucky for us vegans!). So what am I going to do, have a cheese-less pizza? I don't think so!

I'm just trying to stay balanced. Finding the balance is pretty easy, but remaining there...not so easy.

I guess it's an adventure that is really not about the destination but the process of yet deeper levels of self-discovery.

And I can't wait to give those hamentashen cookies to my brother-in-law and get them the heck out of my house! Oh, the temptation!!!