Sickness!

So, I took one week off of blogging (not off of being vegan) because we have been, and still are, sick. I am talking fever on and off for four days for me, and a double ear infection/ ruptured eardrum for my baby. Mother of the year award here I come. Tip: become best friends with a doctor and she will let you bring your baby into her office when there is no one else there to look in her ears and give you a prescription. I love Kelli!

I have to give a shout out to my cousin, The Beckster, who told me she and her hubby read this blog. She and her mom are the greatest writers ever! Becky wrote my Grandpa's obituary and it was perfect. She is my motivation for pumping this post out while I am sitting with a fever and sore throat. Love you, despite the fact that you are tall and skinny and have beautiful hair! Dang.

Before I begin, I have to explain the moral dilemma I had this week. I always weigh myself in the morning, naked, before I eat and after a bowel movement. My kids are going to be screwed up if they read this in 10 years. So my scale showed no weight loss or gain this week. After weighing myself, I picked up my 1 1/2 year old baby who has avian bone syndrome (those who watch 30Rock will get this) and put her on the scale. My scale put her at 15 lbs! After this we went to see Dr. Kelli and weighed the babe on Kelli's office scale. It put her at 19lbs. Not much, but better than 15. Here was the dilemma: Do I hold on to the number I got on my scale for my personal weight, and believe my baby weighs 15lbs, or do I add 4 pounds to my weight and feel like a better mom who's underweight kid is almost 20 pounds? I did what any mom would do. Both. I am still at my weight, and good news! My baby is almost 20 pounds!

So the past two weeks... well, I guess I will start with Seitan. I have no idea how to pronounce this, but I have been calling it satan. My last blog talked about making the Italian seitan sandwiches, which I did. My kids did not eat it, however, because it looked really slimy, and because my brother and his wife and kids saved them by being there for dinner. I warmed up Costco soup for them, and Kelli and I ate Satan's Sandwich. It was actually pretty good. Word to the wise: SEASON. If you are cooking with this product, season the crud out of it and add lots of peppers and onions. We also melted vegan mozzarella cheese on top and that helped a bit. If you can get past the texture that is a little wormy, it is worth the experimentation.

 Kelli blogged about our dessert here:

http://www.4diets365days.blogspot.com/2013_01_01_archive.html

I bought these puppies:



Thinking they were chocolate covered cherry vegan ice cream. It was pink with chocolate on it, what else could it be?!?! I gave them to my kids and my brother's family before I tasted it, and they all brought them back to us saying they were done. My bother took a bite and told me, "They taste like Grandma's house." Kelli and I had them later on. After discovering they do taste like my grandma's house, we looked at the package and discovered they were chocolate-covered grandma's house (flower) flavored. Only a vegan would think about covering a flower with chocolate to eat. Dang them for their fancy writing that I couldn't read and their pictures of flowers that I didn't pay attention to! The race was on to find a better dessert.

After my Grandpa's funeral a couple weeks ago we went to Magleby's, a restaurant in Spanish Fork, UT famous for it's chocolate cake. It is fabulous. I found a copycat recipe and made it vegan and covered it in vegan ganache, and it was fantastic. I have not lost weight this week! Here is the recipe, veganized:

Vegan Chocolate Cake

1 Cup vegan butter
1 Cup water --boiling
6 T. heaping cocoa
2 Cups flour
2 1/4 Cups sugar
½ t. salt
4 TBSP cornstarch
3 t. soda -- dissolved in little water
1 TBSP vanilla
½ Cup vegan sour cream or low fat veganaise or applesauce

mix melted butter, water and cocoa together, then add dry ingredients, mix the in soda and vanilla. Gently mix in the sour cream substitute. do not over mix.

bake in greased 9X13" glass pan for about 28-30 minutes at 350 degrees. You may need to re-evaluate this time. I like my cake a little on the moist side- Kelli would say under done in the middle.

OR you could get one of these sweet things that I found at Macey's Grocery Store


and add 1cup apple sauce, 1/2 cup veganaise and about a cup of vanilla almond milk and bake according to directions. One thing I have learned while baking: as long as the store bought cake mix is at the consistency it would be at if you followed directions, it will turn out. Use a can of Coke or Sprite or anything, and it will be great! Experiment!

Ganache:
Melt 1 cup dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips with 2 TBSP vegan butter and 1 cup vanilla almond milk over double broiler while stirring (or in the microwave like I did-lazy- for 30 sec at a time, stirring in between). While still hot, add 2 tsp vanilla. My mom said you could never add too much vanilla, so I always eye-ball it.
Pour ganache over the cake and enjoy! I actually walked into the kitchen the next day and my kids were eating it out of the pan with the same fork. Then I joined in with the same fork. And now we are sick.


I also made another batch of vegan lasagna that Kelli posted here:

http://4diets365daysrecipes.blogspot.com/2013/01/vegan-lasagna.html

BUT I added green peppers and artichoke hearts. It was awesome.

And I (well, Kelli) made the CHICKpea Salad (substitute for chicken salad) when my family ordered Papa John's for dinner. I really pizza, but resisted. I can't believe I didn't lose weight on that day. I added pickles to mine and LOVED it. Then my meat loving mother had some and LOVED it. Then my twiggy baby ate some and LOVED it! It is a must try, and here it is:

http://4diets365daysrecipes.blogspot.com/2013/01/chickpea-salad.html

So, a bit more time gone by as a vegan, no more weight loss, sick family, late post. If you read this and can suggest new recipes, please do! I love to try new things that people can recommend! And, if you work for the company of Panda Licorice, I would totally take you as a sponsor!

Licorice, Oh, Licorice!

Clearly I have a problem. I thought that these little Bad Boys had punished me enough, but I came back for more. This time, I only ate one bag in 48 hours, which was better than the 2 bags in that amount of time. I am now being punished. Curse you, delicious cherry licorice. It's the ALL NATURAL label that gets me every time!                                                                  

As for this past week, it has gone great! I am living proof that when you go without for about a week and a half, the cravings for all things animal stop. My longing for cheese has ceased, and I don't crave chocolate anymore. I feel really healthy, too. I am down about a pound and a half this week, which isn't a dramatic amount, but it's a pound and a half gone for good!

So on to my discoveries for this past week. #1- Vegan Bread! I found this brand at Costco.

Thank you, Kelli! Dave is an ex-felon from Oregon who made his way back into society and into his family's bakery making it bigger and better! BTW, I am an Oregonian, and we love ex-felon entrepreneurs! Look at this hottie. You know he is still a bad boy at heart. There is even a pic with him in a dew rag. Nothin' better than a long-haired mustache bicep cartoon in a dew rag. I love it! His bread is good, too! Here is a link to his site with a list of places to get his bread at, and a life-story about him and his family. I love you, Dave!

http://www.daveskillerbread.com/index.html

I also found this website full of vegan recipes that look pretty dang good:

http://vegweb.com/

I am trying this tonight with Kelli, and I am making my kids eat it:
http://vegweb.com/recipes/chicago-style-italian-beef-seitan-sandwiches


My hubby will probably eat it, and then after Kelli leaves he will eat a sleeve of Oreos (which are also vegan) to deffer the healthy effect of the vegan sandwich on his body.
If you're wondering what seitan is, you are in luck! I googled it. It is basically gluten. It is used as a meat substitute like tofu, but this has a more "meaty" texture and is stringy like meat. It is a great source of protein. I will let you know...

This week is full of links because I have been trying to get new ideas for food and am discovering that there are better options for vegan than I originally thought. Here is a link courtesy of Jamie, Kelli's brother.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/13-junk-foods-you-wont-believe-are-vegan

A little disturbing to see what doesn't have dairy in it that you would think should. Hmmmm...
The moral of the story: There is TONS of junk food for vegans to eat, so don't feel bad for them! The trick is to stay away from them so that this way of eating can actually be healthy. Good luck with that, Meghan!

1 Week Down

One week down, two pounds lost, and all I have to say is if you are sitting next to a vegan and it smells, the vegan did it! I am so gassy! Not bloated, just gassy. Gassy.

I do have to say being vegan is not as hard as I thought it would be. There are plenty of unhealthy snacks to satisfy a craving when you are vegan. For me, they aren't as accessible as, say, a chocolate chip cookie from Kneaders or a glass of chocolate milk with a sleeve of soggy Oreos... mmm...soggy Oreos. This lack of accessibility is probably what is saving me from weight gain. Aside from the chocolate almond milk, my new favorite snack is the all natural Panda licorice. I personally love the blueberry and strawberry flavors. They were 2 for $5 at Macey's last week. BTW, if you eat two bags of that, you get crazy diarrhea for 24 hours. Not that I did, I would never talk about such a personal thing online, but if you do eat tons... diarrhea.

Kelli made an awesome vegan lasagna this last weekend. Here is the link to the recipe:
http://www.4diets365daysrecipes.blogspot.com/

So, let me just say that the creator of this recipe was crazy, but in a good way. This recipe combines tofu, broccoli, sweet potatoes and the like with whole wheat noodles. I did not think I would like the whole sweet potato thing in a savory dish, but I ate about half of a pan over the course of two days. Did I mention I was gassy? Anyways, with a little salt and pepper, this was one dish I feel totally comfortable passing on to friends. I just have to add that artichoke hearts would taste amazing in this.

We also tried another recipe that was simply chopped kale, smashed avocado and the juice of half a lemon. WAY TOO MUCH LEMON, but it was edible and really healthy. I think that is the reputation for a lot of vegan dishes, so my goal between now and the next post will be to experiment with another vegan recipe and make it taste good, not just edible.

For dessert we did an Cheerybrook Kitchen Arthur chocolate chip cookie mix made with vegan butter, and instead of adding water we did vanilla almond milk. They were good and borderline great after a week without serious junk food. My kids devoured them and my husband was totally satisfied with them. I'm not sure which of those is a bigger miracle. They were gluten free as well, FYI. I don't know why, but as I ate them I kept thinking that because they were vegan and gluten free, they must be a health food. I ate three of them.
http://www.cherrybrookkitchen.com/products/cccookie.php

After dinner, Kelli and I went to see Les Mis. Amazing! How does Hugh Jackman look good in a beard pulling a boat? It defies all laws. So, I'm not mentioning this to talk about Hugh, but to tell you all that I actually went to see a movie without any concession purchases or, hold your breath, any candy shoved into my purse! I left the theater without gaining 5 pounds. Doing vegan and blogging about it is actually holding me accountable to a healthier lifestyle. AND, it is keeping my money in the bank! Cha Ching! Well, actually I will probably just go spend it on more diarrhea licorice. Blueberry.

So, the point of this blog entry was to tell the world that I am still vegan, 2 pounds lighter, and licorice=diarrhea. Happy first week in 2013, world!

VEGAN- the 5 letter word!!

This whole dieting thing started when my friend Kelli, a family practice doc, wanted to get a good scope of different diets for her patients. Naturally, as any normal friend, I didn't want her to lose weight without me, so I am joining in!

We are doing 4 different diets in one year; 3 months for each diet, one cheat meal a week, one blog a week, go!

January to March we will be doing our first and possibly hardest- the VEGAN. Vegan is a naughty word in my family. I grew up eating bacon with a side of bacon and bacon juice to drink. To tell the truth, I don't think I knew a lot about vegan eating until I did the research for this diet. Apparently people who are vegan don't take anything from any animal. ANYTHING! I don't know why this was a huge shock to me. Maybe because I never had to sit down and think about what vegans don't eat and why. One of the first vegan info sites I went to was a PETA site with a picture of a baby cow saying "you wouldn't steel milk from me, would you?" or something to that effect. Confession: In my head a tiny voice said, "Why yes, I would, and then I would turn it chocolate." I quickly shoved that voice out, and told the little calf I wouldn't. Then I told the bees I wouldn't take their honey, the chickens I wouldn't take their eggs, and reluctantly the cow that I wouldn't cut their cheese. Sigh.

I have a new respect for those who are vegan. WHAT DO YOU EAT?!?!?! I love me any vegetables with ranch dressing- homemade preferably! But without being able to consume milk, I need to come up with a better idea to feed this body! I started looking over vegan recipe sites and found that most of it consisted of wraps, smoothies and food that, well, looked like it had already been processed by someone's body. Insert 3 month life calling here: I need to come up with family friendly and kid friendly ways for one to eat a vegan diet and not feel like the only thing they are eating is roughage. So, two goals now: Lose weight and give people some new ideas for vegan.

My first week has not gone entirely as expected. My wonderful and handsome grandpa passed away on New Year's Eve, and we spent the past couple days doing stuff as a family and sorting through pictures. I am also getting over the Cold of 2012 as well as the Stomach Flu of '12, but I think this gave me an advantage. I haven't had much of an appetite. Alas, no new recipes, but one great tip for those of you who want to do a vegan diet without involving your kids or your carnivorous husband or making a complete meal for them and then a green smoothie for you. Last night I made spaghetti, only I started differently than I normally do. I sauteed a bunch of onions, mushrooms, peppers, olives garlic and tomatoes in veggie broth and then pulled a couple of serving sizes out for a sauce for me. Then, I added a can of sausage spaghetti sauce to the pot, cooked up some whole wheat noodles, and voila- a dinner my kids and hubby would eat and enjoy.

Then I had the sauteed veggies over noodles with LOTS of salt and pepper to taste and we were all happy. SUCCESS! So that is my tip of the week. Oh, and one more little nugget of wisdom: Chocolate and vanilla almond milk is very enjoyable. I will survive this because of those little babies!

Here is a link to Kelli's site in case anyone wants to view her posts. She is focusing more on the medical aspects and is actually drawing her labs before and after each diet. It will be very interesting to see her values after this diet!

www.4diets365days.blogspot.com

and some recipes to come:

www.4diets365daysrecipes.blogspot.com