Pressure's on...vegan food for the omnivore

My omni husband and I are accustomed to eating separately most nights of the week. We eat the same thing for dinner maybe once or twice a week. Well, that's about to change this week while he tries veganism. I personally don't think one week is going to cut it, friends. He needs at least that long to detox.

I made this menu so that I could plan and implement with ease, and so I would know how to grocery shop.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Breakfast	Smoothie: banana, blueberries, oats, honey, almond butter, spinach, walnuts	Smoothie: banana, mango, blueberries, oats, honey, almonds	Oatmeal with fresh berries, orange zest, dried coconut, crushed walnuts, cardamom	Smoothie: banana, dates, almonds and walnuts, berries, kale, chia seeds, sprouted granola	Smoothie: banana, frozen fruit, nuts, leftovers
Snacks	carrots, radishes, and bean dip	carrots and nuts	bananas and oranges	rice crackers w/bean dip	carrot sticks
Lunch	wraps w/tortilla, vegan mayo, chickpeas, avocado, spinach shredded carrot, sunflower seeds	mega-salad w/spinach, nuts, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, cranberries, shredded carrots, sliced kale, walnuts, beets, quinoa, sprouted mung beans	almond butter sandwiches, side of apple, banana, and edamame	mega-salad	leftover burritoes w/chips, salsa, and avocado
Dinner	kichuri w/brown rice*	chili*	coconut rice*	burritoes	mushroom soup* w/quinoa
	spinach salad w/apple and walnut	brown rice and steamed kale	miso soup w/tofu	brown rice, pinto beans, avo, tomato, lettuce, cilantro	spinach salad w/strawberries & pine nuts

the starred recipes came from: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday

Maybe if he sticks it out another week, we'll do some bbq veggie burgers, pizza, basic vegetable soup.

I'll probably be too busy cooking (and eating, ugh) to blog this week, but hopefully I'll be reporting great news next weekend!

A mate for this veganette

Me and my friends mixing up some practically vegan almost-sugar-free bowls of whatever they wanted. Their choices were dried coconut, almond butter, pure maple syrup, vegan grain sweetened carob chips, chopped walnuts, roasted garbanzo flour (for the brain!), trader joe's brand rice crispy cereal (therein lies the sugar), raw cacao powder, cinnamon, and honey (sorry, I know, I'll make it up to the bees somehow).

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My husband just told me he wants to try being vegan! Mr. Omnivore of the year who can't go one day without meat unless he has a protein shake from powder in a container with a the most steroid-abusing body builder on the front.

He said he'll need my help. Aargh.

I know he won't be satisfied with the dinner I'm eating tonight (quinoa with sprouted mung beans on top, sprinkled with Braggs). I'm going to have to step up my game and get some Vegan for the Manly Omnivore recipes.

So say a prayer for this guy (doesn't he look like a meat-eater???):

Other wise this guy will be my only vegan family member:

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I skipped my breakfast smoothie this morning and can I just say I have never craved leafy greens this much in my life? I saw kale in the veggie drawer and was tempted to just eat it right off the stem. I can't wait for my kale smoothie tonight before bed!!!

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I'm not going crazy...I've been feeling "off" lately, and I thought it was vegan nutritional deficiency. Well, it's mother nature and her wonderful reproductive workings, and she decided to make a spontaneous visit to Early-ville. It's reassuring to know that it's not my diet, and although being soy free has resulted in a more extreme hormonal impact on my body/mind, it's not a dead end. It'll pass in a week! So off I go to make my kale smoothie.

Vegan Power!

Mung Bean Soup and Sprouted Mung Beans

Ho hum. I hate blogging when I have no photos.

I soaked some mung beans to make soup but didn't have a recipe. I liked this one:

Mung Bean Soup with Kale from Andrea's Easy Vegan Cooking Blog

It turned out quite delicious. Didn't use kale, but added a yellow summer squash. Doubled the ginger. It could have used some cilantro, which I believe the recipe calls for, to garnish, but I didn't have any.

I also sprouted some mung beans. Seems to me to make sense that this is one of nature's complete foods. It is one tiny package with the equipment to produce food for many. Okay, not by itself, but they are smart little entities. Smart with mother nature juice. More, please.

I also plan on using them in this recipe from Veggie Belly.

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I'm having a vegan weirdness day. I feel tired and sore in my legs and I don't know if it's hormonal, or that I haven't been exercising, or what. But I feel tired and sore. My body is telling me to eat tofu, so I had a smoothie with a handful of walnuts, a handful of almonds, a few macadamia nuts, a spoon full of chia seeds, and some nut butters. Plus some strawberries. That should calm the protein urge, right? That smoothie topped off a cool-down snack (it's still 80 degrees and it's 10pm!) of a cup of frozen rasberries, a banana, some homemade cashew milk, honey, and vegan sugar-free carob chips. Both were satisfying but now I wish I hadn't had quite so much of the nut one. I have nut gut : )

The Power Vegan Diet article and a simple pizza recipe

My friend sent me this photo:

Impressive! And with Bill Clinton out with his recent vegan lifestyle, looks like we're on the right track.

Later I found this blog post that recaps the article. And one of Spencer's posts linked me to this video by Tracye McQuirter, author of By Any Greens Necessary:

I like simple, and I like pizza, so I like this video : )

And speaking of pizza...

Last week, I overheard some of my preschoolers talking to each other about pizza, so we made paper plate pizzas and I wrote down their reply to the question, "What do you like to eat on your pizza?":

I will eat pizza in the morning when I get up from nap.

Olives, syrup on my pancakes, peanut butter, cheese, all gone!

Peanut butter, carrots, peanut butter, cheese.

Cheese, that's all.

Pizza!

Macaroni [pepperoni?], cheese, syrup on my pancakes, sugar.

Bean Dip, Seaweed, Sugar

This white bean dip recipe from Vegan Epicurean is worth having around. I always have these ingredients in the house, and I always need to add beans/legumes to my diet. Plus, the nutritional yeast in the dip provides B vitamins that I don't get from other sources. I used half the mustard because, though I love mustard and pickles and that flavor genre, I don't really love mustard in these types of mixes. I added a bit of salt and a dollop of olive oil for good fats. I used canned Eden Foods brand white kidney (cannelini) beans which, while double the price of the Whole Foods brand, is packaged with kombu seaweed, which supposedly makes the beans a lot easier to digest (which is why I often add a piece to my bean and lentil soups and stews). Spreaking of seaweed...

My esthetician yesterday told me during our facial that I need to eat more seaweed or take superfood tablets. Apparently this will help the iron to indirectly help my skin (it's very dry and has been prone to breakouts). We'll see if anything can redeem this skin!

My skin's not so bad...at least I'm not a fur face!

***more about my ongoing relationship with sugar***

And one last note about my sugar cheat yesterday. I did have gelatto, and remember last time when I said I have to be all-or-nothing about sugar? Well, I came home and ate four cookies. THAT is why I can't eat any sugar!

I guess my willpower hasn't been doing push-ups after all!

Mushroom and Broccoli Soup

Tonight's dinner actually deserves it's 5 star rating!

Inspired by this Thai Curry Soup and Kim's version from Affairs of Living, I decided to venture into the soup world tonight even though California temperatures were soaring today!

What I ended up making was almost exactly like the version from Elana's Pantry, minus the lime (the one ingredient I didn't have). I really just estimated everything and replaced half of the shitake mushrooms with portabella, and replaced fresh broccoli for frozen.

It turned out delicious.

I finished the whole lot of it (granted I halved the recipe).

And now a friend just invited me to gelato and since this particular friend really needs a night out, I'll be eating dairy (ugh) and sugar (oh dear, not again) tonight.

Last time I ate sugar and dairy (last Sunday), I had a hangover (?) the next day (headache) and was depressed the day after that (withdrawal?). And why am I eating sugar and dairy tonight? Maybe I'll see if they have some sugar-free non-dairy gelato. I'll let you know tomorrow if my will power has been doing its push-ups.

5 Star Cake Batter...

but Zero Stars on the final product!

I made these today, hoping to re-ignite a Friday tradition between a co-worker and I of making decadent sweets on Fridays. Ever since I stopped eating sugar, I kind of left her behind. Well, in an effort to reinstate Brownie Fridays, I tried this Chocolate Cupcake recipe. Boo!

The cake batter was delicious. The final product was horrible. I think half the avocado, and subbing honey for maple syrup might make it better, but I think I'll just skip it altogether next time!

Vegan out!