Lotsa Good Stuff

Yesterday we we had to go to Lowes to return stuff, and since Lowes Foods is across the street, and I'm still searching for my millet and amaranth, I asked mom if we could go look. Now I rarely shop there because they are so over-prized, but they do have some things a normal grocery store doesn't have. Well they didn't have the millet or amaranth, but I did find 2 other items.

This is Polaners All Fruit Blueberry Jam. It is so good, I was actually looking for fig jam, and there was some, but it had sugar, and HFCS (High fructose corn syrup), and truthfully, that stuff kinda scares me lol. So since the Blueberry Jam is sweetened with only fruit juice, I got that (and it was on sale). I was really eager to try it, so when I got home I just tried some straight. It's awesome, and it really has little pieces of blueberries in it!



Next is Sunbutter What is sunbutter? Sunflower seed butter! I got a book from the Library called The Food Bible by Judith Wills (awesome book, it even has a full section of vegetarianism, and mentions veganism), and it talks about sunflower seeds/sunflower butter in the back of the book as being very good for you because of it's high vitamin E continent (27%), it also has high levels of copper & magnesium. And lucky for me I found it at Lowes! I checked their website, and I'm going to try and find the organic if I can, because that has even more vitamin E then the kind I got it (40%). It taste like a combo of Peanut butter, and cashew butter. Yum-O.


Now for the other food (besides jam):



For breakfast was a small Stonyfield Soy Yogurt (strawberry), 1 slice of Ener-g Tapocia Bread with 1/2 TBS of my new blueberry jam, and 1 large pink grapefruit dusted with stevia. Very yummy and the perfect mix of protein (yogurt), carbs (yogurt, bread, jam, grapefruit) and fat (bread, yogurt).



For a few days I've been thinking up a bean salad. I wanted something for when people go (Well where do you get your protein?) you can say: This! With 30g protein I think I did a good job. It also is lower in fat (10g) and very high in fiber (30g, more than 117% of your daily value)



It's made out of edamame, chickpeas, small red beans, grated carrots, scallions, sunflower seed butter, red pepper flakes, lime juice (I used a little orange juice because I had no limes) and soy sauce. The grated carrot looks like noodles doesn't it? I need to keep adjusting it though, It needed a little less soy sauce, and something was missing...I'll keep working on it!



Oh and look at this gorgeous plate I got! We walked next door to the dollar store (A little ways down from Lowes Foods) because mom needed some more reading glasses, and I always walk down the cooking-ware aisle, and I saw it! Only a dollar. You'll definitely be seeing it a lot (I ate my breakfast and lunch on it, see)


*EDIT*
Sorry I can't get it to let me put the link for the Sunbutter. The website is Sunbutter.com

Oh and Lola still hasn't had her babies :( Though she looks like she's about to pop.

A day of healthful eating

As some of you know, I normally just post 1, maybe 2 meals a day, but today I decided to do a day of healthful eating. So here's my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I didn't include snacks though, they're too boring :)

Breakfast

2 slices of French Toast, basically I did the same thing I did last Tuesday, except I omitted the almond extract, and used a tiny bit of grapefruit zest instead of orange (I used Ener-g Tapioca Bread again). Very yummy. I ate this beside a large grapefruit "dusted" with Stevia. Does anybody find that eating breakfast with bread/rice helps keep them fuller. Especially bread for me. Though something like a tofu scramble and oven fries doesn't keep me full? I think it's the combo, Sweet + Bread + fullness.



Lunch

I decided to make a taco salad. I got the idea from Vegan Eats & Treats, though unfortunately I didn't have any brown rice tortillas. Though I did have some whole-grain corn tortillas (6 inch), so instead (because I thought they would make too small of bowls), I cut them into triangles and baked them in the oven until crispy. Then for the bowl:

I took some cooked small red beans that I made this morning. Mashed 1/4 cup in the bottom of my taco bowl with some cumin.

Then I added some green leaf lettuce (chopped).
(forgot to take picture of :)

Then in a skillet I cooked some parsnips, mushrooms, green bell peppers, onions, garlic, and canned diced tomatoes with cumin and chili powder until everything was soft. I spooned half of this over the lettuce.



Then I added some more beans (un-mashed)


Then the rest of the sauteed veggies, and arranged the chips around the edge


And it was delicious. The only thing I'd change is add some salsa, and cut the chips bigger, because the plan was too use them to pick up the filling.

Dinner

I was in the mood for some pasta. Earlier today I watched Healthy Appetite with Ellie Kreger, and on there she made pasta with roasted tomatoes. Basically she roasted garlic with some fresh tomatoes, then tossed it with pasta, beans, cheese and olive oil and basil. I didn't have any fresh tomatoes, so I took some canned tomatoes and drained them really good, then roasted them. It actually turned
out pretty good, though I wouldn't do it again because it didn't give it enough flavor for the time it took to roast. I sauteed some garlic and spinach in a skillet while the pasta was cooking with some Italian seasoning and a little sea salt. Then added the tomatoes and pasta. Magnifico (I think I spelled that right), very good.




Now I'd like to tell you about my favorite pasta. There is now many good gluten-free pastas out there that actually taste like pasta, but my favorite doesn't really taste like pasta. NutriKitchen makes pasta completely out of soybeans! And I love it, it doesn't really have the same texture or taste of pasta, but for me it's addictive. Anytime I go to Whole Foods (not often) I buy a bunch of this stuff. The main thing I love about the pasta is it's health benefits. It's full of fiber (11g), protein (22g), iron (60-70%), and it's also low fat (2.5g), and has Soy Isoflavones (46-70mg). Though it has 2 drawbacks. 1. the pasta tangles together really easily (I do stir it, and cook it in plenty of water) and it only comes in 1 shape. I wish it came in penne or something too.

Now I must confess something. I am... *tension builds up*

A Tea Addict (ATAA)



Yup that's right. Every month I try a new tea, green tea. At the moment I have 6 kinds of tea. Mango Zinger, Mint Green Tea (decaf), Mandarin Orange Green Tea (decaf), Cranberry Pomegranate Green Tea (bag), Acai Berry Green Tea (tin), Plain Green Tea (decaf) and Jasmine Passion fruit Orange Green Tea. My favorite is green tea, I particularly like the flavor, plain teas (herbal) don't have enough flavor to me. I like to drink mine with Stevia. Other tea addicts: how do you like yours?



So there's my day of healthful eating, I don't think I did too shabby :)

Behold...THE Salad!!

Today I was in the mood for a salad. So since we had to go to Lowes and Blockbuster anyways...and Wal-mart is right next door. We stopped by and I got some more carrots, lettuce, canned tomatoes, soy yogurt, apples and some other stuff. Now I really do love salads, the dressing is hard for me though. I know eating a dressing with fat helps you absorb the nutrients, but I'd rather get my fat at other times in the day by eating nuts, so...

Another thing about salads for me,is they gotta be simple. I can't stand tomatoes, celery, raw bell peppers, anything like that in my salads. For me, it's gotta be lettuce or other greens-all kinds go, baby spinach, arugula, green leaf, Boston, romaine etc-, lots of grated carrot, and depending on the season an addition of radishes (sliced), fennel (sliced), sugar snap peas, lightly sauteed mushrooms, roasted parsnips, cooked beans (chickpeas, red, black) & roasted brussel sprouts (with soy sauce), are OK. Oh and roasted red peppers, I tried it for the first time tonight and really liked it.

For THV I don't have many dressing recipes, but I did make one for my salad tonight, though it was so simple, it's not gonna be put in THV, though I will share it with you:

Remember, I used about 4-5 cups lettuce, 1/2 cup grated carrot, and a bunch of roasted red peppers, so this makes a good amount of dressing.

1/2 cup fresh squeezed OJ (I found that after I squeezed the orange, I was obsessed with having to eat all the membranes and pulp left in it because I didn't want it to go to waste, I'm weird right?)
1/2 TSP dried basil, crushed between your fingers
1/2 TBS Dijon mustard
1/4 TSP dark sesame oil
pinch of sea salt

Whisk everything but the sesame oil together. Drizzle in the sesame oil while whisking. Beat until cream-ier.

The only thing I had a problem with the dressing was it was too sweet. I ended up sprinkling a pinch of sea salt over the top of the salad, which just made the balance perfect. The other nice thing I thought of about the dressing is that if you were eating it with spinach, the vitamin C would help your body absorb the iron right?

Hempiness

Yesturday before my rock climbing class we stopped off at the health food store (down the street) to see if they had any millet/amaranth (which they didn't), but they did have these little sample packs of Living Harvest Hemp Protein, on sale for 85 cents. They had the chocolate and vanilla. I'm a big fan of vanilla (chocolate too), so I got one of those. I'm gonna try it next week, for breakfast on wednesday (I could use the protein and extra calories for my rock climbing). I'm thinking of blending it into a smoothie with some bananas and blueberries? Pineapple might be good too....

Poem

OK fellow bloggers, I have a request.

A while ago I wrote a poem called My Name Is ED, and it's about my struggle with an eating disorder. Well I entered it to poetry.com's contest...didn't win but they nominated me for a new contest called Poets Choice...rate my poem, where you do just that, rate someones poem. If anybody on here would be nice enough to vote for my poem.

Here's the website
http://www.poetry.com/voteforme/poemvote1.asp?PID=11726522

I would be so grateful if any of you awesome bloggers *yes I'm sucking up* would vote for my poem.

Thank you!

Garlicky Tomato & Black-Eyed Pea Stew

For lunch I was wanting some soup/stew, so I finally made this stew that I'd been thinking up in my head for a few days.


Basically it has Roasted Garlic crushed tomatoes (so good), more garlic, black-eyed peas, Italian seasoning, peppers, onions, nutritional yeast, spinach and olives. It was very good, but it needs some more work, it didn't have enough flavors.

Almond French Toast + Mango

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days...I haven't had much to blog about. OK so for breakfast this morning I decided to make my *drum roll please* Almond French Toast!!! why is this such a big deal you ask? because it's awesome. Basically it's like a normal french toast recipe, but veganized, and it has almond extract instead of vanilla! It also has orange zest, cinnamon, and flaxy goodness. I haven't yet found a good gluten-free bread recipe, so I buy Ener-g bread at the local health food store, and it's perfect for my french toast, because it soaks up the batter really good. Why is this also good you ask? Because then it's super flavorful.







And on the side I had some fresh mango.

On other news... my guinea pig is pregnant. Now before you go loco on me about how breeding is bad (I know...All our cats, dogs, pigs, ferrets, horse (the male at least) are also spayed/neutered), this isn't my fault. You see, I had a guinea pig, her name is Lera, and Lera was lonely. So I looked for another female guinea pig for Lera. Eventually I found an add in the paper for guinea pigs. Some people were breeding and selling them, but they were getting out of the business, so they were selling them off. That's how I got Lola. They assured me she hadn't been near any males. But now a month later, she has just been getting bigger and bigger. At first I thought she was eating too much, but then I started to wonder, could she be pregnant? And yes she is. I think she'll be having her babies soon, because if you feel her belly, you can actually feel the babies. I'm excited and nervous. I just hope that she doesn't have like...10 piglets or something. A few is ok (I'm planning on keeping them)

Stay tuned and I'll keep giving updates on her.

Lera



Lola (she doesn't like to have her photo taken)

Celebrate

Happy Chinese New Year Everybody! (and if I have the wrong date, I apologize)

Stir-fry with Sweet Potato

I was being lazy for lunch, so I took the 2 bags of stir-fry mixes I bought yesturday (1 was Sugar Snap Pea Stir-fry and the other was Asparagus), mixed them together, picked out the green beans (I hate cooked green beans), then heated a large skillet, added some of the veggie mix, and some fresh mushrooms. Cooked until tender, then added some gluten-free soy sauce* and baby spinach*, cooked until the spinach was wilted then plated it. On the side I have a japenese sweet potato, which I cleaned, stabbed, and microwaved until tender. Simple but yummy

oh and of course you can't forget the seasonings. Fresh pepper and ground flaxseed

Shopping #1

*(fridge)Japanese eggplants (front), giant carrot, more carrots, green bell pepper, cooked chickpeas, portabellas, asparagus, cooked quinoa, soy milk + more*


Sorry there was no posts yesterday. I had to go to work with mom so that we could do some of our Re-stock Shopping (once a month we do a large re-stock shopping trip, so the freezer and cabinets get restocked, then we buy fresh groceries every week), and then I had rock climbing last night. So yesterday we went to the Oriental Grocer, The Apple Crate (small health food store), and Sam's Club, then this morning we went to Wal-mart (yes I shop at wal-mart, do not judge me). Here was the load. I also got some extra pantry stuff for storage just in case of ice storms/ hurricanes/ other natural disaster (like tomatoes, beans, tofu etc...)



3 medium Japanese eggplants
1 HUGE carrot + 2 pounds carrots (bagged)
4 boxes shelf-stable firm tofu*
1.5 pounds fresh baby spinach*
1 pounds portabella mushrooms
3 pounds roasted cashews (they didn't have raw)
12 pounds frozen strawberries
2.2 pounds fresh asparagus (it comes in 2.2 pounds bundles at Sam's Club)
2 pounds bananas
12 pounds Japanese sweet potatoes (the white ones)
12 oz quinoa
1 pound wild rice
7 fresh dates


*oranges, kiwis, apples and limes*

9oz dried figs (I'd never had them before and they are awesome!)
2 loaves Ener-g Tapioca Bread
4oz liquid plain Stevia (they didn't have powdered)
10 oranges (on sale for only 32 cents each)
2 jars (16oz) roasted red peppers
1 pound split peas
2 pounds small red beans (16g fiber for only 60 calories! wow that's a lot)
4 pounds lentils
6 cans diced tomatoes (low sodium)
4 cans tomato sauce (low sodium)
6 red delicious apples
2 limes
2 very under-ripe mangoes
5 kiwis
1 pound frozen corn-on-the-cob
1 pound frozen Sugar Snap Stir-fry (broccoli, sugar snap peas, yellow squash, green beans, red peppers, carrots, yellow peppers, water chestnuts)
1 pound frozen Asparagus stir-fry (asparagus, broccoli, yellow squash, cauliflower, red peppers, sugar snap peas)
1 bottle Glutenfree soy sauce


*pencil thin asparagus*


*giant carrot. i set my cutting knife next to it to show how big it is*


*Japanese eggplant*


*(freezer) corn, asparagus stir-fry, sugar snap pea stir-fry, quinoa, blueberries, Foods Alive Dijon flax dressing, Ener-g tapioca loaf, sesame seeds, peas/edamame, red beans, split peas + more*

Getting in your flax

flaxseed flower

I read about this awesome idea the other day (I can't rememebr where), where instead of having salt in your salt shaker, you put in ground flaxseed! I thought it was such a great idea so I wanted to share with you. Just take a salt shaker (make sure the holes are big enough for the flax to get throuh), fill with flaxseed, and keep on your table (or wherever you eat), sprinkle onto soups, stir-frys, smoothies, dips, salads (top with dressing first), mashed potatoes, cooked veggies (when thy're hot, the flax will stick), abked goods like bread and muffins (before baking) and whatever you can think of.

whole flaxseed

Coconut & Curry Saute

So far todays food has been great. For breakfast I made this really great smoothie. It had lots of frozen strawberries, Stevia, Vanilla extract and water. It tasted so good, like strawberry ice cream! I would've taken a picture, but I had to go to the doctor's and was in a bit of a hurry.

So lunch: Broccoli, fresh spinach*, ginger, peas, portabella mushrooms, green bell pepper, quinoa*, curry powder, soy sauce, and some shredded unsweetened coconut*. Just toss it all in a pan, cook until the veggies are to your liking. And the best topping: fresh pepper, lots of it. I was gonna add some avocado, but I figured there was enough fat with the coconut.

Spinach & Mustard Sandwich

Here was lunch for me today:

A sandwich made of http://Ener-G.com Tapocia bread, mustard* (* = organic), baby spinach* 1/4 a large portabella mushroom, 1 tiny pink lady apple and 1 tiny kiwi.


Here's a slice of bread slathered with mustard and topped with baby spinach:

Here's it topped with the mushroom (lightly sauteed in a non-stick pan)

And the finished meal. Simple yet delicious.

Sesame Dijon Tofu

Here was dinner tonight. I made some roasted broccoli, tossed with a 1 TSP soy sauce and some of my Sesame Dijon Tofu (Which will be in THV). The tofu is basically mustard, soy sauce, vinegar, dark sesame oil, garlic, and chili powder all mixed together and then you marinade the tofu in it. It's super good, but you gotta get the measurements right or it can be too strong. Normally I'd add some quinoa or brown rice to complete the meal, but I really wasn't hungry so...

My first post!

Yay this is my first post! I'm in the process of writing a gluten-free and vegan cookbook, so I'm going to be posting pictures of things that are going to be in the cookbook, and things that aren't. I'll also post my Food Adventures! (trying new foods basically) and shopping trips, and things like that. So here goes:



For breakfast this morning I decided to make a kinda breakfast rice pudding. So I simmered some leftover cooked brown rice & wild rice, with soymilk, orange zest, ground cinnamon, and vanilla extract until all the soymilk was absorbed, then added some Stevia, and topped it with some Fruit Bits (chopped dried apricots, plums, peaches, apples, cherries, raisins and golden raisins), then served it with a side of a sliced Golden Delicious Apple and a Cara Cara Orange



If you've never had a Cara Cara Orange it's pink inside, like a grapefruit, but tastes like an orange. This was my first one, and I was a little disappointed, it was more deep orange than pink: