This past week of vegan eating has consisted mostly of grains, veggies, fruit and soymilk. I feel lighter and more energetic from not eating meat or dairy and have found I'm eating less food overall. I don't snack as much and feel full faster from eating high fiber meals. My cravings for sweets has decreased quite a bit and while I did buy some soy ice cream for an after dinner treat...I don't feel like I "have" to have it.

So far, I haven't relied much on recipes form cookbooks or blogs, but have taken ingredients that I like and tried to create meals around them...some being more successful than others.

Breakfast:

• Typically, I make oatmeal and add in some honey, peanut butter and soymilk
• Today, I experimented with a recipe I found on Vegan Yack Attack for Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal, which was VERY rich. I used steel-cut oats instead of old fashioned and canned pumpkin instead of fresh. Not sure if I would try this one again...
• The leftover pumpkin for the oatmeal came from a previous breakfast, pumpkin pancakes. Again, not my favorite recipe. Next time, I would add in cooked oatmeal to make the texture less rubbery (not how I want to describe my food, regardless of how healthy it may be).
• And the one morning I didn't want oatmeal...I blended together a peanut butter and banana smoothie using a scoop of pb, 2 frozen bananas and some soymilk...it was delish!

Lunch/Dinner:

This past week, I started working at SeaWorld and have put in long days (relative to what I'm used to) and as a result dinners turned into lunches and lunches into dinners.

•  My favorite purchase this week was a bag of uncooked tortillas which makes for fresher, doughier tasting wraps/burritos. I made fajitas with beans and rice, stuffed them with roasted sweet potatoes, onions and rice, and snacked on them plain. Each tortilla is has about the same caloric content as a piece of bread. 
• I also experimented with quinoa this week. My first attempt was to mix quinoa with romaine lettuce, avocado, frozen raspberries and a white basalmic dressing...not a huge fan. I think quinoa goes better with spinach and the salad was too mushy witht he avocado and raspberries. My second attempt was much, much better. I mixed in cucumber, tomato, red onion, parsley with the quinoa and added bit of lemon juice and olive oil for a delicious and filling salad. 
• Last night, I attempted to make my own hummus as I had purchased a cup full of dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans). After soaking the beans overnight and cooking them for a few minutes on the stove they then sat in the fridge for a few days while I tried to figure out what to do with them. Tons of recipes call for chickpeas, but I'm not sold on them yet. So I threw them in the blender with some water, lemon juice, garlic, tahini and salt. The hummus isn't as good as Trader Joes roasted red pepper or spicy hummus, but it passed the taste test and I'll be having more today with carrots for a snack. 
• Speaking of snacks, I've been packing a bag of veggies (this week carrots and sugar snap peas) as well as a bag of fruit (this week grapes) to take to work. I also splurged and picked up some carrot cake muffins from People's Co-op which have been a healthy afternoon treat!

Dessert:

• My friend Mollie gave me some bite-size coconut chocolate chip cookies and I bought some So-delicious soy chocolate and peanut butter ice cream...definitely not the same as treats with milk/cream/eggs, but still satisfy the sweet tooth!

Two more weeks to go on my vegan adventure! This week I hope to try some more exciting recipes and eat more dark leafy greens! 

Vegan Blogs...a running list

I've stumbled across a few great blogs while searching for Vegan recipes...take a peek if you're looking for a more plant-based diet!

Website

Website

Website

Website

POST PUNK KITCHEN

http://www.theppk.com/

Pumpkin Pancakes Vegan Style

Day 2 of my Vegan Adventure....

I've had some Organic Pumpkin from TJ's in my cupboard the past few months and thought I should finally put it to use. After a little google search I cam across Vegan Housewives, and a recipe for pumpkin pancakes.

After tasting the first few, I decided to add a bit more pumpkin, spices and sugar. I think next time I try them I'll add some cooked oatmeal and oat flour as well. I could really taste the whole wheat flour which I'm not used to quite yet. 

Some inspiration for keeping on the diet, "This is not a diet. This is a way of life. A way to enjoy food. A way to feel healthy, clean, energized and pure. It's time to reclaim your mind and body. If you feel like you are 'giving up' your favorite foods, keep in mind that you're not giving up anything. You are simply empowering yourself to make educated, controlled choices about what you will and won't put into your body."

Going Vegan...for 3 weeks

Perhaps not for life...but at least for the next 3 weeks.

Why? Multiple documentaries and books have inspired me to try a plant-based diet, omitting animal products that contribute to heart disease, high blood pressure, cholesterol and cancer. To start with, I watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, which is all about a guy losing tons of weight and reducing health risks through juicing fresh fruits and veggies...for EVERY meal! Now that's a little extreme and not really my taste, but the take home message for me was the need to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables in my diet and cut out the fried/fatty food.

Then one of my good friends told me about the documentary, Forks over Knives, which promotes a plant-based diet that omits animal protiens/products that have been shown to correlate with increased cancer incidence. A vegan diet will not only decrease your risk of developing cancer, but will also drastically lower your cholesterol, risk of heart disease, and diabetes. After watching the film, I was intrigued, but not quite ready to commit.

I was flirting with the idea of trying the diet for a few weeks, when my vegan friend, Mollie and I made dinner one night. We made a recipe from a cookbook by Alicia Silverstone, who is a well-known vegan...she is a bit extreme and even chews up food and spits it into her baby's mouth. Click here for a video from ABC. Jimmy Kimmel frequently asks parents "prank" their kids and upload videos to youtube for special segments on his show...his lastest..."Hey Jimmy Kimmel, I Silverstoned my Kids!" too funny!

Back to the original purpose of my post....

The dinner that Mollie and I made was delicious and more nutritious than a typical meal I might make. I liked it because of the variety of flavor and it was light...it didn't sit in my stomach and make me feel heavy and full. So after another week or too of flirting with the idea I checked out a book from the library, by Dr. Neal Barnard and was convinced to try a three-week vegan diet. I'm scheduled to get my cholesterol checked next week and hope to have it checked again in a month to see if my cholesterol levels decrease at all (I have atypically high levels due to familial inheritance).

I plan on posting along the way, so check back in for inspiration and recipes!