A New Direction

Sorry I have been absent a few days. I had to take a little blogging break. Unfortunately, my perfectionist (read: anal retentive) tendencies makes it difficult for me to just sit down, whip up an entry and post. I have to go over everything with a fine-tooth comb at least a million times ... so I am going to take this blog in a new direction ... more of a picture blog. Plus or minus some quips and blurbs here and there. I will post about once a week.

This past Saturday we went to the LA Times Festival of Books with some friends to hear Alicia Silverstone (my vegan guru) speak about her book, The Kind Diet. I was so excited to see her in person ... her book has literally changed my life!


Me & my AAH at the book festival.


Alicia Silverstone, my vegan guru. She's super cute!

Afterwards we had an early dinner at Native Foods in Westwood. Um ... yum! I am sold on tempeh ... can't wait to find a recipe and make some at home.


"Gandhi Bowl" @ Native Foods.


Sweet Potato Fries @ Native Foods.

What I've been eating the last few days ...


First attempt at a Macro-B breakfast: miso soup w/ quinoa, arame & pumpkin seeds.


Artichokes with Quinoa.


Banana Oat Pancakes w/ strawberries, blackberries, Earth Balance butter, flax oil & maple syrup.


Watercress Hummus Wrap. Substitute watercress for red peppers in recipe.

And just for fun ...


Our neighbor's new pitbull puppy, Tiger.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day to all of you!

I celebrated by meeting up with my Bestest for a sushi lunch. My first sushi run since going vegan. I thought I'd be really tempted by all the amazing rolls on the menu, but I sort of pre-planned what I was going to order in my head and I think it helped. A veggie roll & an avocado roll, paired with the edamame & miso soup they brought out was plenty! Even better ... I ordered the rolls with brown rice instead of the regular white, sushi rice ... I have to say it was great! The brown rice gave the rolls a nice texture and a bit of a nutty taste ... really, really good! But most importantly ... my lunch companion was great and our lunch conversation was great ... there really is nothing like dishing to one of your favorite people in the world. Thank you for listening MLF. I love you!


Edamame


Vegetable Roll with brown rice & soy wrap.


Avocado Roll with brown rice.

When I got home from lunch I received some fun news ... one of my girlfriends from high school had her first baby today ... Earth Day is his bEarthday. How cool is that?! Congratulations K-Ron! I love you!

I'm looking forward to more Earth Days as the years pass and hoping that we, as caretakers of this Earth, become more aware of our responsibilities. I look forward to celebrating this day with my kids one day ... and hopefully passing on to them that this planet is our only home and we only have one ... we need to be good to our earth, to our animals and to each other. I'm still learning and taking small steps ... but as Lao-Tzu said ... a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.



Breakfast: LARA bar (Gingersnap)
Lunch: Edamame, Vegetable Roll, Avocado Roll
Snack: Pomelo
Dinner: Granola Bar, wheat crackers
Dessert: Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (2)

Please ignore the fact that I ate a granola bar & wheat crackers for dinner ... then washed it down with cookies for dessert. I will get back on track. Sigh ...


Me and my beloved Kitchen.

Tofu, Tarts & Spring Rolls

I can't believe it's freezing and raining ... 48 hours ago AAH and I were having a lovely dinner in our backyard with friends.

I made a really easy recipe from The Kind Diet, Ginger Baked Tofu. It's reeeeally easy & reeeeally delicious! I served the tofu steaks with simple sides of plain brown rice & swiss chard. The tofu recipe is super flavorful so the rice & chard balanced it out nicely.


Me, the chef!


Ginger Baked Tofu, Swiss Chard, Brown Rice


The dinner table.


Ambiance.

GINGER BAKED TOFU (from The Kind Diet)

Serves 2-4

1 lb firm tofu
1/3 cup shoyu (soy sauce)
1 Tbspn toasted or untoasted sesame oil
2 Tbspns minced fresh ginger
1 Tbspn finely chopped garlic
1/4 cup brown rice vinegar
2 Tbspns umeboshi vinegar
1/2 tspn crushed red-pepper flakes (optional)
1 tspn brown rice syrup (optional)
Finely chopped scallions for garnish (optional)

Cut tofu in half width-wise, then slice in half again. You will be left with 4 tofu "steaks".

Pour 3/4 cup of water into a bowl. Whisk in the shoyu, oil, ginger, garlic, vinegars, red-pepper flakes (if desired), and rice syrup and pour over the tofu, covering it. An 8"x6" dish works perfectly. Marinate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Either drain the baking dish of the majority of marinade, or place tofu on a baking sheet & baste with the marinade. Reserve the remaining marinade.

Bake tofu for 15-20 mins. Turn the tofu pieces with a spatula, baste again with the marinade, bake for 10-15 mins longer. Garnish with scallions & serve warm.


Apple Tart.

For dessert my friend Lauren (shout out!) made an AH-MAZING apple tart. You can find the recipe here.

BTW, does anyone know the difference between a tart & a pie??? Just curious.

Monday's eats:

Brunch: Vegan rice & beans (from Whole Foods) w/ chard
Snack: Pomelo
Appetizer: Guacamole & chips (Food Should Taste Good brand, so good!)
Dinner: Ginger Baked Tofu, brown rice, swiss chard & a side salad
Dessert: Apple Tart (uuuuhhhhmmmm ... YUM!)

Tuesday's eats:

Brunch: Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes w/ sliced strawberries & flax oil
Snack: Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie (The V-Chip)
Lunch: Vegan rice & beans (Whole Foods)
Dinner: Spring Rolls (3) w/ dipping sauce
Dessert: Pomelo

Today's eats:

Breakfast: Cereal w/ rice milk
Snacks: Quinoa & hummus, vegan chocolate chip cookies (2)
Lunch: Spring rolls (3) w/ dipping sauce
Snack: Pomelo
Dinner: Oskri Bars (Sesame & Molasses)

I made these crazy-good Spring Rolls last night for dinner. I came across the recipe on a segment of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Did you know she is vegan? I love Ellen ... I think she is hilarious, but now I heart her even more. Funny and vegan ... now that's a combo! Here's a little something from her website about why you should go vegan.


Spring Roll filling: basil, mint, cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, scallions, carrots, avocado, soba noodles.


Spring Roll.

As a side note ... I need to cut back on the processed foods (choc chip cookies, sesame bars) ... although the brands I'm choosing are better than regular, nasty stuff ... it's still processed junk. I've been slacking in that area for the last few days. Must do better. That being said ... here's the delicious cookies I've been snacking on ...


Happiness in a bag.

A Lazy Sunday

I had grand plans of making Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes this morning ... but alas, we woke up at 11:30 and had to get AAH out the door by 1:00. So back to old faithful ... cereal. I did whip up some Red Pepper Hummus & quinoa later in the day and made a wrap out of that. I am obsessed with wraps right now. Good enough for a lazy Sunday.



Whole Grain Cereal w/ Bananas & Rice Milk.


Hummus Wrap w/ quinoa, onion sprouts, red peppers & cucumbers.

Brunch: Cereal w/ banana slices & rice milk
Snack: Pomelo
Lunch: Hummus & Quinoa Wrap
Snack: Red pepper slices & Red Pepper Hummus
Snack: Bobo's Oat Bar (Original)

My Weird Eating Hours

My husband has a weird schedule ... thus, I have a weird schedule. I'm a Stay-At-Home-Wifey so I guess I could keep any kind of schedule I want, but it has turned out that I keep my husband's.

You may have noticed that when I post my menu for the day sometimes it starts with breakfast and sometimes it starts with brunch/lunch. I rarely skip "breakfast" ... but when we wake up at 10:30, 11:00 ... sometimes even noon ... I feel weird calling it breakfast. So on those days I call it Brunch or Lunch. Same with my snacks and lunches and dinners ... sometimes my snacks are my lunch, etc. My point is that you should eat on a regular basis at regular intervals ... no matter what your schedule is. I know that one of the "rules" of healthy eating is to not eat after a certain time ... say 7PM or 8PM ... but for me that is hard to do because I don't usually go to bed til 2 or 3 in the morning. If I wake up at 11:00 and try to cram in breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks by 7pm I'd have to eat practically every other hour ... I think that would make me feel sick.

Just listen to your body ... it will tell you when it is hungry and when it's full. Sometimes I wake up famished and immediately devour something ... other times I'm not hungry at all and don't eat for an hour or more after waking. I haven't noticed anything adverse from my unusual eating hours and I am still able to lose weight. So unless you're cramming a gallon of ice cream down your throat (dairy free of course!) right before you hit the sack ... I think you are fine. Like my dear friend Rose would tell me ... DON'T WORRY (insert super cute Chinese accent)!

Today we woke up at 10:30AM ... quickly headed out the door to the Farmer's Market (they are only open til 12:30) ... came home and unpacked all the goods. So my eating day started more around lunch time ... and I just ate my dessert about an hour ago (10:30PM) ... I'll most likely be up for another 3 hrs so everything still has time to digest.


Yummiest Wrap Ever!


I heart my pomelos.

Lunch: Super Amazing Delicious Wrap! (avocado, tomato, cucumber, onion sprouts, pumpkin seeds & caramelized onion wrapped in a sprouted, whole grain tortilla).
Snack: Pomelo
Snack: Vegan Rice & Beans (pre-made from Whole Foods), Swiss Chard
Dinner: Salad w/ cucumbers, tomatoes, olives & pumpking seeds
Dessert: Asian Pear & Oskri Sesame Bar (Molasses & Fennel)

I just discovered the Oskri Sesame Bars today at Whole Foods ... omg, they are amazing! You must try it!


An amazing rose from my MIL's garden.

My Huzzz-Band

I ate too much today. Not actually too much as in quantity, but as in my eyes were bigger than my stomach. Since I've been eating healthier my body has adjusted by getting full faster at each meal and with less food. But after spending an hour at Borders perusing vegan cookbooks I was so hungry ... drove home and immediately downed a huge pomelo, a bowl of Sweet Potato-Lentil Stew w/ quinoa & a slice of Peanut Butter Pie ... oh, in like 15 mins flat! Those items are not unusual for what I would eat in a typical day now ... but spaced pretty evenly throughout the entire day. Ugh ... I feel so bloated and sick now ... uuuuuuuuuuuugh ... that was about 7 hrs ago ... I still feel nauseous. I can't look at anything food related for the rest of my day. Well ... I might be eating some wheat crackers as I type this ... but whatever ... that totally doesn't count.

So ... I'm going to talk about something else today. In my first posting I promised I would also write about my life in general ... I am beginning to see that all the separate components of life are really just all intertwined together (apparently it has taken 34 yrs for this light bulb to come on) ... that everything effects everything else. And yes ... my new vegan way of eating is affecting everything. My weight, yes. My skin, yes. My health, yes. My way of thinking, yes. My home, yes. My marriage, yes. My outlook on life, yes. My spiritual leanings, yes. My future, yes. Really, honestly ... all because of what I've been putting into my mouth. I look forward to sharing this with you guys, with my husband and with any little rug rats that I may spring forth from my loins someday. (Ohhh yes, I plan on raising little Vegan Bundles of Joy and I'm very sorry for just using the word LOINS).

With that being said ... my husband ... I am going to sing him some praises now! I may very well have The. Best. Husband. In. The. World. He is amazing. Not because he is perfect or because he is the perfect husband ... but because he is perfect for me. He is always loyal and supportive, he is always my best friend, he always tries his best to make me happy ... and he never asks for much in return. He loves me no-matter-what ... even when I am being terribly unlovable ... and I have been very unlovable many times throughout the last 3 years. To say that marriage was a hard pill for me to swallow would be the understatement of the year ... but my husband is a rock and I am the luckiest woman to have him. Oh ya baby ... times-are-a-changin'.


My All-American Hero (and our babies).


BFF's Fo Life Yo.

Yesterday my AAH (All-American Hero) finished up some landscaping in the front of the house. He brought me outside to show me and I started blubbering like a baby. Not because it is some spectacular Extreme Home Makeover, but because I loved that he had done it all for me. He always tells me that he wants to make the house nice for me so that I will love it and be happy here ... and when I saw what he did I just melted. He has done amazing things with our backyard too ... but seeing the front of the house ... the "Home" part of it ... the part that I see every time I pull into my driveway ... I was just so giddy. I cried with joy. Now that I think about it ... I don't think I've ever cried with joy before ... so I was definitely havin' a moment! I told him what I loved most about it was that he had done it himself. There are lots of nice houses and yards around us ... but the fact that my husband did it all, from the design to the labor ... it meant that much more to me. I love it ... really, really love it! I can't wait to see what it looks like in a year or two when everything starts to mature and bloom. For the first time I can really imagine starting our family in this house ... and that is saying a lot!!!


The front of our house when we moved in, July 2006.


The front of our house as of yesterday, April 2010.


The newest additions ... can't wait for it to fill in!


Cute new shrub ... Red Butterfly Milkweed.


Our baby Japanese Maple.

Cheers to you BB ... iFAT!

Brunch: Oatmeal w/ dried fruit, almond slivers, rice milk & flax oil
Late Lunch: Pomelo, Sweet Potato-Lentil Stew w/ quinoa & Peanut Butter Pie
Snack: Wheat Crackers


Oatmeal w/ dried blueberries, apricots, slivered almonds, rice milk & flax oil.

Some Good Eatin'

I've been enjoying some good eats the past few days. One of the things I've discovered about home cookin' is that you can make a big batch of something one day and it lasts you for quite a few after. The Sweet Potato-Lentil Stew I made last Friday has been feeding us for 6 days! When I made meals before (going vegan) it didn't seem to last as long ... I don't know why ... maybe I am making that up in my head??? It seems like the healthier food I've been making is much more satisfying, keeps me full longer and so I don't need to eat as much and it is lasting longer ... ? Well, whatever the reason ... I am loving it!

Monday's eats:

Brunch: Oatmeal w/ strawberries, almond slivers, rice milk & flax oil
Snack: Pomelo
Dinner: Sweet Potato-Lentil Stew over couscous & chard
Dessert: Peanut Butter Pie


Oatmeal with strawberries, almond slivers, rice milk, flax oil.

Tuesday's eats:

Breakfast: Scrambled Tofu, quinoa & chard
Snack: Asian pear & blackberries w/ a little lemon juice
Lunch: Scrambled Tofu & a pomelo
Dinner: Black Bean Wrap w/ avocado, onion sprouts, tomatoes & olives
Dessert: Peanut Butter Pie


Scrambled Tofu, Quinoa & Chard.


Asian Pear and Blackberries.

Today's eats:

Breakfast: Whole grain cereal w/ sliced bananas & rice milk
Lunch: Caramlized Onion & Grapefruit Salad, guacamole & chips
Movie Snack: Trail mix (raisins, dried blueberries, cashews, peanuts, almonds)
Dinner: Sweet Potato-Lentil Stew over quinoa topped with pumpkin seeds
Dessert: Peanut Butter Pie


Caramalized Onion & Grapefruit Salad.

I've obviously been enjoying the Peanut Butter Pie I made ... keeping it vegan & keeping it in moderation (1 slice will do ya!) is key.

Just a couple notes ~

I am currently obsessed with this cereal. I could eat it morning, noon & night.

The recipe for the Caramelized Onion & Grapefruit Salad is from Giada at Home (not a vegan cooking show). So the dressing contains honey. I know a true blue vegan does not consume honey ... I'm not there yet. I don't have an affinity for bees (not that it's a good excuse) so I have not looked into how bees are treated in the honey making process. We are using up the last of our store bought honey and will be switching to honey from the local Farmer's Market ... at least we know that the small beekeepers probably treat their bees better ... and this small step makes me feel better about it. Also, I've read that honey spikes your blood sugar like regular processed sugar so if you do eat honey, keep it in moderation and try to find alternatives.

The trail mix snack I had today I just threw together myself. My husband and I went on a little Wednesday afternoon date to see Date Night ... although I was tempted to treat myself to some candy ... I decided it was not worth it. 1) the candy & ice tea my husband bought cost as much as one movie ticket(!) and 2) the snacking part of watching a movie is just a habit for me ... so I tried to be smarter about it and just pack my own healthy treat. It was pretty good ... even though I lost half the bag when I dropped it on the floor. Oops. Five second rule.