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05-18-2008, 04:20 PM | #1 |
Rose Garden
Encircling Mountains
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: High above a great and beautiful canyon in a Golden State city...
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Recipes and Pics of creations to keep me accountable in my vegan eating...
In honor of my no longer being pregnant, I'm going back on a low-fat vegan diet similar to the McDougall plan or Eat To Live plan. I've got a good start on losing weight since I didn't gain that much during this pregnancy (9 lbs) and am a good 8 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight.
So, I need accountability. But in order to be accountable, I have to make it fun and fun to me is making food and eating it, good food. So, to keep ya'll entertained, I'm going to be posting as many breakfasts, lunches and dinners that I can, with pictures and recipes included. I hope this will not only keep me on track, but will inspire YOU to try something new. Think of it as a blog, but I'm too lazy to do a blog, so it's just a thread. Feel free to interject comments and threats to keep me motivated. Each day I'll do a new post and add to it through the day. Enjoy, Jen D. (ETA: change title)
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Привет! Меня зовут Джен! Hi! My name is Jen! May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks - Gandalf |
05-18-2008, 04:25 PM | #2 |
Rose Garden
Encircling Mountains
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: High above a great and beautiful canyon in a Golden State city...
Posts: 19,063
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Re: My accountability in food (aka: lotsa recipes to come)
Today was my first attempt at making a real breakfast since Elijah was born. I decided on fried tofu, hash brown waffles, toast and white grape juice.
The fried tofu is a meal that is easy to make and very delicious. You can vary it quite a bit with ingredients and make it complex or simple. I usually use a block of firm or extra-firm water-pack tofu, drain the tofu and cut it into 1/2-3/4 inch chunks. I heat up a frying pan and put a small amount of oil in it (sesame oil is GREAT for this) and heat it on high. I've found that cooking tofu on high keeps it from sticking as bad. My spices today were curry, salt, garlic granules and some dehydrated onions. I've also used dill, turmeric, paprika and whatever other spices seemed interesting at the time. When cooking tofu on high, make sure to stir it often to keep it from burning. I like to get it nice and toasty, a little more cooked than what shows in the picture. The hash brown waffles are very good and easy, providing you have a way to shred lots of stuff. Here's the recipe: Waffle Iron Hash Browns 8 oz potato -- scrubbed and grated 3 medium carrots -- scrubbed and shredded (I actually just do a "whatever" mix of both potato and carrot to equal 4 cups) 1 TB Ener-G-Egg Replacer -- mixed with 1/4 cup water 1 TB nutritional yeast flakes 1 TB flour 1 TB dehydrated onion flakes 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp garlic granules 2 TB chopped fresh or 1 TB dried parsley (Optional) Preheat a lightly-oiled or sprayed, non-stick waffle iron (I use a Belgian waffle iron, but the other kind would work as well). In a mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients together well. Pack about half of the mixture into the hot waffle iron. Cook for 10-12 minutes until brown and crispy. Eat immediately. Top with ketchup or applesauce. These will freeze but won't really crisp up all that well when you defrost. For Lunch, I had kimpura gobo, which is a Japanese salad with burdock root and carrot. I first had it up at the Briar Patch Co-op up in Grass Valley where they have an EXCELLENT chef in the deli who makes some incredible Japanese salads. Obviously, she's not giving me the recipe, but I've done some looking online and found an approximation of what I get up in Grass Valley. You can find burdock root at most natural food stores. Here's how I made it. Kimpura Gobo 3 burdock roots, scrubbed well and soaked immediately in cold water to keep the color. 2-3 medium carrots scrubbed Soy sauce (1-2 TB?) Sesame oil (1-2 TB)? Mirin (splash, maybe 1-3 tsp) Rice Wine Vinegar (1-3 tsp) Honey or Maple syrup (1-3 TB) Red Pepper flakes (just a sprinkle, optional) Sesame Seeds (for garnish) Shred root and immediately resoak in cold water. Shred carrots. Place burdock root into frying pan on high and sauté for 1-3 minutes, add all the seasonings and sauté another 1-3 minutes. Add carrots and sauté for another minute or less (you want to maintain the crispiness of the veggies). Sprinkle on some red pepper flakes while cooking. Garnish with sesame seeds just before serving. Serve either hot or cold. This can also be made raw. If you want to do it raw, marinate the veggies overnight and drain, saving the marinade for another batch. I have saved the marinade for over a week at a time. I prefer it cooked, but it's pretty good either way. OY! Dinner was magnificent, almost unbelieveable. Here's a pic of my plate. I had an open-faced sandwich on a slice of french bread (actually had TWO of them, they were so good.) Avocado, tomato, lettuce, red onion and a slice of worthington vegetarian mock chicken with vegannaise. From top clockwise, There was a rice salad (recipe below), a green salad (I did put pear vinagrette on it), and a couscous salad my dad had made (recipe listed on Tuesday for lunch). The middle is a boxed pasta salad my dad had made, got some stuff in it I don't normally eat so I didn't have too much of it. Here's the rice salad recipe: Rice and Pea salad 3 cups cooked rice (I prefer brown long grain for this) 2 - 3 cups frozen petite peas 1 cup sliced celery 1- 6 ounce can slices water chestnuts a grated carrot or two toss with seasoned rice vinegar (basically seasoned rice vinegar is just rice vinegar with sugar and salt in it, if you want to make it easy) It was a glorious meal finished off by a vegan peach gelato (my mom was given a mix by an Italian friend last year and we finally decided to try it out) YUM!
__________________
Привет! Меня зовут Джен! Hi! My name is Jen! May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks - Gandalf |
05-18-2008, 04:27 PM | #3 |
Rose Trellis
Join Date: May 2005
Location: California
Posts: 2,799
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Re: My accountability in food (aka: lotsa recipes to come)
MMMMMmmm! Great start!
Looking forward to reading |
05-19-2008, 10:11 AM | #4 |
Rose Garden
Encircling Mountains
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: High above a great and beautiful canyon in a Golden State city...
Posts: 19,063
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Re: My accountability in food (aka: lotsa recipes to come)
Breakfast was a hurry because we were still looking for the dogs (they'd gotten out the night before) and my midwife was coming and came early. So, I popped three vegan pancakes into the toaster for myself and one for DS and topped them with strawberry jam that my parents had made last week and some peanut butter and "sugar snow". This was the result.
I make the pancakes ahead of time, usually once a week. I modified a recipe from The Seven Secrets Cookbook by Neva and Jim Brackett. It's a Seventh-Day Adventist cookbook and has some EXCELLENT recipes in it for lowfat vegan food. Here's my version of the recipe: Pancakes: 2 cups flour (any kind will do, book recommends whole wheat pastry, but I don't have that so I use unbleached white) 1 tsp salt 2 cups soy milk or nut milk (I make up cashew milk in the blender to save money and cut the soy) 2 TB honey (I just squirt in honey till it looks "good") 1 TB baking powder Mix it all together and cook like a regular pancake. They have not stuck to my non-stick pan yet so I don't use ANY oil or spray for them. We top them with all sorts of stuff but peanut butter and applesauce or jam is a favorite. They freeze well and if you make them small enough, just pop into a toaster when you want one. Great for busy mornings. For lunch I ate leftover salads. Dinner was refried bean tacos and tamales that my parents had made at Christmas and froze. They were not vegan, had cheese and green pepper. I will be making tamales again soon and will post the recipes when I do. I have made fat-free vegan tamales several times and they are incredible. I am going to try to find the couscous recipe when my dad comes home. It was his recipe. Thanks for looking. Jen D. Jen D.
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Привет! Меня зовут Джен! Hi! My name is Jen! May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks - Gandalf |
05-19-2008, 10:37 AM | #5 |
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Re: My accountability in food (aka: lotsa recipes to come)
Cool thread!!! Can't wait to see all your pics and read the recipes. I need to be better about my low-fat eating too. Keep 'em coming!!
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05-20-2008, 03:58 PM | #6 |
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Re: My accountability in food (aka: lotsa recipes to come)
Made your pancake recipe for dinner tonight (yes, we eat breakfast for dinner ) - SO GOOD!!!! My DS loved them with peanutbutter, bananas, and a touch of maple syrup. I had some left over to freeze, but next time I think I'll double the recipe so I can stock my freezer for those busy mornings you talked about. Great job!
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05-21-2008, 11:54 AM | #7 |
Rose Garden
Encircling Mountains
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: High above a great and beautiful canyon in a Golden State city...
Posts: 19,063
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Re: My accountability in food (aka: lotsa recipes to come)
Tuesday food:
For breakfast, I made french toast out of the Quick & Easy Cookbook by Dr. McDougall. It is one of our favorite meals. I used extra french bread that was given to us after Elijah was born. Nutty French Toast (from the Quick & Easy Cookbook by the McDougalls) 1/4 cup cashews 1 cup water 2 TB chopped dates 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 tsp cinnamon dash of tumeric about 6 slices bread Cashews go into blender with half the water. Process them until smooth, add the remaining water and all ingredients except for bread. Process until very smooth. Pour onto a plate and dip the bread slices into the mixture. Cook on a nonstick griddle for 2 minutes on each side, until browned on both sides. For Lunch, it was more of the same salads, nothing new. Dinner was extravagent. I made spaghetti with a from-scratch marinara and a large garden salad. Marinara sauce (measurements are totally approximate) 2 stalks celery 3 carrots 3 cans (14 oz) crushed tomatoes 1 can (14 oz) tomato sauce 1 can (little one) of tomato paste garlic 1 onion basil (fresh or dried) oregano (fresh or dried) sugar salt I finely mince the carrots and celery and place them in a frying pan with just a tablespoon of water or so. Cook until the water is gone and the carrots and celery are just slightly sticking to the pan. Throw that into a deep saucepan. Next, take the onions and throw them into the frying pan. We're going to carmelize them without oil. Add just a bit of water (maybe a tablespoon or two), keep the stove on high. Let the water saute down till it's gone and let the onions stick just a slight bit, add another 1-2 tablespoons water and stir to unstick the onion. You'll notice that the onions start to turn a slight brown. Repeat this process once or twice until the onions are nice and honey colored. They will be sweet at this time, usually, too. Toss those into the saucepan with the carrots and celery. Add some crushed or minced garlic (anywhere from 3-5 cloves). Add the tomatoes and rest of ingredients except for the salt and sugar (do a couple pinches of oregano and basil for this, you might add more later. Let this cook on medium-low for as long as you are able. I'm talking 1-3 hours, if you want (alternatively, a crockpot on low will do a good job at cooking this as well). You can also just heat it up and eat it at that point, but the longer it gets to heat together, the better the sauce will taste as the flavors combine. I don't measure any of the spices for this. I add them as I taste it. You will add a LOT more sugar than you think you'll need. The acidity in the tomatoes will be cut drastically by the sugar. I've used honey and/or maple syrup for this before and it has worked just fine as well. Add sugar, then salt, then taste. If it's acidic, add more sugar. If it's just kinda bland tasting, then add more salt, I usually taste it up to 4-5 times just checking the flavor as it cooks. When I do spaghetti, I do a lot of "add-ons" to it. In other words, I make up another batch of carmelized onions and put it in a bowl, some sauteed mushrooms (with garlic), some steamed or sauteed zucchini (with garlic), steamed broccoli, steamed chard, olives, etc. I just put them all in little seperate bowls so people can add stuff that they want to their pasta. This bumps up the amount of veggies going into everyone's system AND it uses up things in the fridge that need to be eaten. Enjoy! Jen D.
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Привет! Меня зовут Джен! Hi! My name is Jen! May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks - Gandalf |
05-21-2008, 12:01 PM | #8 |
Rose Garden
Encircling Mountains
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: High above a great and beautiful canyon in a Golden State city...
Posts: 19,063
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Re: Accountability in food with pics (aka: lotsa recipes to come)
Wednesday
Woke up this morning and it was cold. Thought about making oatmeal, but for some reason, settled on Malt-O-Meal. (I know, oatmeal would have been better for me ) So, we had Malt-O-Meal AND I found 6 bananas that needed to be eaten and made vegan banana bread muffins with them. This recipe is one of my favorites (as evidenced by the wear/stains on the paper I have it printed on) Banana Bread (or muffins) Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease or spray an 8X8 cake pan, loaf pan or muffin tin Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl: 2 cups flour 1/4 cup sugar or to taste 1 TB baking powder 1 tsp salt or to taste 3/4 tsp baking soda Mix the liquid ingredients together separately: 3/4 cup hot water 1 TB + 1 tsp vinegar 3 bananas, well mashed When oven reaches temp, combine the liquid with the dry ingredients. Mix well, but do not over-mix. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 25-30 minutes: toothpick test for doneness. Pop out of the pan to cool completely on a rack. YUM!! I think we're going to have some leftovers for lunch, but haven't totally decided yet. Jen D.
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Привет! Меня зовут Джен! Hi! My name is Jen! May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks - Gandalf |
05-22-2008, 12:10 PM | #9 |
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Re: Recipes and Pics of creations to keep me accountable in my vegan eating...
I'm really enjoying your food blog here!!
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05-22-2008, 12:33 PM | #10 |
Rose Garden
Encircling Mountains
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: High above a great and beautiful canyon in a Golden State city...
Posts: 19,063
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Re: Recipes and Pics of creations to keep me accountable in my vegan eating...
Thursday
Regular oatmeal for breakfast. Nothing really special. I totally neglected to take a picture of it. We have eaten oatmeal a lot this year because it's cheap and it's good for you but I started craving more for breakfast when I was pregnant. We're going to try to eat more oatmeal again. I do like steel cut oats. I LOVE steel cut oats. We're going to get some and start eating those because I believe they're far better than the regular oats. For lunch, I ate leftover spaghetti. It was lovely. I'm not sure what I'm going to have for a snack later. MMMMMmmmm, dinner. I didn't have to make dinner. Tonight, my friend (the pastor's wife) brought over a meal for us and it was TOTALLY vegan and low fat. She has a cookbook of mine and went through and found one of the ones I'd marked that I liked (I write in all my cookbooks to help me remember what was good. So she saw a recipe for "Cuban Potatoes" and made it and brought it for us along with some corn bread. I was SOOOOO thankful. Here's what it looked like (sans cornbread 'cause I ate that too fast). Here's the recipe. Cuban Potatoes (From the Quick and Easy book by Dr. McDougall) 2 lbs small red potatoes 3 14.5 oz cans chopped tomatoes 1 medium onion, chopped 1 red or green bell pepper chopped 1 cup chopped green olives 1/2 cup raisins 1 TB soy sauce 2 tsp fresh minced garlic 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp ground oregano black pepper to taste Preheat the oven to 275 Cut potatoes in quarters, put in saucepan and cover with water an cook for 10 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of water Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Put the potatoes in a casserole dish and pour the tomato mixture over the potatoes and mix it all up. Cover and bake for 60 minutes. ** My friend also added cauliflower to this and it was excellent. Let me tell you. Ain't nothing like friends that cook from your cookbook and bring you the food! SWEET! Jen D.
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Привет! Меня зовут Джен! Hi! My name is Jen! May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks - Gandalf |
05-22-2008, 01:40 PM | #11 |
Rose Garden
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 4,222
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Re: Recipes and Pics of creations to keep me accountable in my vegan eating...
You're making me hungry!
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05-22-2008, 08:22 PM | #12 |
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Re: Recipes and Pics of creations to keep me accountable in my vegan eating...
Wow! Can I come eat at your house? ( And bring my DH and DD.)
Keep going, the pictures are great and I look forward to trying recipes. |
05-23-2008, 11:12 AM | #13 |
Rose Garden
Encircling Mountains
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: High above a great and beautiful canyon in a Golden State city...
Posts: 19,063
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Re: Recipes and Pics of creations to keep me accountable in my vegan eating...
Friday: Had pancakes today! YUM! Made a bunch to freeze, trying to stock up before DH goes to work. I'll probably make something exciting for breakfast either Saturday or Sunday b/c we have company. I need to keep myself laying low a bit, though as I'm only 2 weeks PP and I'm bleeding a bit again AND I've been cleaning house most of the morning. We'll see. I'll probably have the leftover potatoes from last night and then tonight, we have some food being brought to us again from some church members. I know it will have meat in it so my mom, Cameron and I have to kinda fend for ourselves a bit, BUT, we'll see what we end up eating.
Jen D.
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Привет! Меня зовут Джен! Hi! My name is Jen! May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks - Gandalf |
05-26-2008, 09:14 AM | #14 |
Rose Garden
Encircling Mountains
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: High above a great and beautiful canyon in a Golden State city...
Posts: 19,063
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Re: Recipes and Pics of creations to keep me accountable in my vegan eating...
I'm not posting, probably until Thursday because we have folks in town and I'm eating all sorts of things I shouldn't/wouldn't normally eat
I'll be back on track after Thursday so look for some great updates, especially now that I'm feeling more on top of moving around. Jen D.
__________________
Привет! Меня зовут Джен! Hi! My name is Jen! May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks - Gandalf |
05-26-2008, 12:37 PM | #15 |
Deactivated
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 8,363
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Re: Recipes and Pics of creations to keep me accountable in my vegan eating...
Wow, mama. . . a new baby, a toddler and all this. You're a superhero.
And it all looks SOO good!! |
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