Some cooking adventures

I have been a buzy bee in the kitchen. Okay not really, but I have been trying to be a little more adventurous. Here is what I have been working on:

So This is just a sandwich, but I finally bought some vegan mayo. Veganaise. Its not bad actually. Its a little sweet kind of like miracle whip which I prefer anyway. I got some tomatoes in my bountiful basket and bought some Porobello mushrooms



I also got some Tempeh, its kind of weird if your not used to it, but I really like it.


I grilled it up so it was crunchy.


Threw all those on some vegan bread and ate some left over spaghetti squash and had the best dinner ever!


Also I finally put to use my dehydrator that BFFH gave me for my birthday.
They always give a ton of apples in the bountiful basket. I am not a huge apple fan, so I was thinking about what I could do with all these, and I decided to use my gift. They turned out good for my first go. I should have left them on a little longer, but I had no idea.


But I also put some bananas on there too. It did NOT END WELL. I have no idea, but I think I have to leave them on for like two days? But I was worried about leaving them while I was at work. I might try it again over the weekend when I will be home.



I saw that at Trader Joe's they have banana's dried out like this, and you can put peanut butter on them like a sandwich. Yeah again NOT SO MUCH. I guess something to look forward to when I get to SoCal. In the mean time, its all about trial and error.... and a little comedy thrown in too.

Awesome Awesome

So, just a little update and happy news.... to me at least. I managed to convert BFFE to vegetarianism! Well not just me, but its a funny story really. She works where I do and one day she came in without something to do, normally its no big deal to read a book while working. I know right, best job ever! Anyway I handed her my The Kind Diet book by Alicia Silverstone. So far so good. She will admit to a few slip ups, but I will admit to those too. To Error right? Anyway speaking of Error BFFH and BFFE and I went to lunch on Saturday. I had cheese on my pizza, and ice cream later that night. While both were awesome neither one of them were vegan.
On a side note. There is this vegan cheese that I have been hearing about. It is suppose to revolutionize the vegan market. Unfortunately you could only buy it in stores, and the closest place was SLC. Well I am not doing 3 hours of driving for cheese. So anyway I found this place on line where I could get it shipped to me. So I ordered it. Then later that day I went to Freddy's that same day and saw some in the veg section. I was so annoyed, but luckily I was able to cancel my order. I have not tried it on pizza yet, but that is my next cooking adventure. I have thrown it on my salad and it was good, but just to eat.... not so much. I think it might be an acquired taste? So the jury is still out.
Anyway happy day, the sun is shinning, and I think its going to be a good summer.
Have a great one!

Working Out?

I hate when people say they went jogging. I hate that word. You went for a run. What is this the 80s? Running is the new jogging from 20 years ago people, also when I think of jogging I think of Richard Simmons in little short shorts wearing a head band and 300 pound ladies following behind screaming "Woo" to all his annoying "motivational" cheers. So stop saying jogging..... I guess would be the main theme of this tirade.
Anyway on to more important things.
I quit my gym. Yep. No more Curves for me. The thing is, I was never going and now that I am working 4/10s I was really not going. They have the most stupid hours there too, and the lady that owns it borders on annoying....okay not just borders.
Next week my friend A and I are going to start walking, plus I think I might try to work on using some of those expensive dvds that I ordered and are collecting dust. So I gotta get back my turbo jam from SILD. Also BFFH told me you can get workout dvds on Netflix. Cool! So I think all of that will help me get into shape for my 5k that I am hoping BFFH forgets about. Hello swimsuit weather!

Vegan Day 13 update

So almost half way through the month. I have another confession. If I am not thinking about it, I will make a mistake, case in point. I forgot to order a soy white chocolate mocha at Starbucks. I didnt even think twice until my co-worker asked if he could taste the soy version. Oops! Then I popped in a piece of milk chocolate when my niece offered. Don't misunderstand. I can have chocolate, just not milk chocolate. I have had some non milk chocolate and I like it, so no problems there, I just have to remember. Other than that I am finding this an easy goal.

Vegan day 6

So week 1 is coming to a close, and I am doing fine. Okay I had a little mishap. Devil thy name is cookie. I got over it though. However here are some things that I have noticed with Vegan week. First of all, I am really not suppose to be eating dairy anyway, my body does not like it. But since I am aware of what I am putting in my mouth, my body has been rejoicing. I have not had to take my medicine all week. So that is awesome! So awesome in fact, that I am seriously thinking about vegan for life, starting now. I know what you are all thinking. What will you eat? Well when I go to my moms house..... a lot of salad. When I go out to eat...... a lot of salad. Just kidding I am sure I will be able to find things that I can eat. I will just have to see how it goes. Plus I will have to learn how to bake some Vegan treats. I can't live my life without chocolate and cookies.

June Goal

So this is a big big goal. I have been thinking about it for a while but I think June is the perfect month to do this. So including the goal to be able to run for 10 minutes, I am going to work on my diet more and have a vegan month! Yes 100% vegan for 30 days. That might mean that I don't go to my mom's house for 30 days because sometimes her food is hard to say no to. It really shouldn't be that hard for me because I mostly eat vegan anyway. I do however like my occasional ice cream and buttered mash potatoes. But luckily in this day and age there are great alternatives. Also its fruit and veggie season. My favorite. My Fred Meyer store here has an excellent vegan and veg section that I shop at a lot, but now I guess I will have to shop there all the time.
My ultimate goal is to be 100% vegan all the time, but It might have to wait until I get to California where the resources are abundant, and I won't offend my Aunt Mary when she makes me fruit pizza with cream cheese.
So BFFH Vegan day every day! Come see me.

Hey Remember

This blog? I kinda forgot about it, but I am going to start posting up here again. I need you lovely ladies to help get my tush in gear. I think its been a couple of months since I have last went to the gym. Silly right what the heck am I paying for? Also a group of gals down here go walking in the summer, so I am excited to get that going again. So I set a new mini goal. I need to be able to run for a full 10 minutes by the end of June. BFFH and I still have to do that 5k and right now I could drive that, but nothing else.
How is everybody else doing? Any health goals for you?

I have a confession....

I like to cook. There I said it. I like it, and I am kinda getting good at it. I would feed you if you came to my house, and I wouldn't be afraid of killing you! I think I might even be better than my sister who used to be awesome at cooking. She had tried my food and has raved about it. The thing is, I keep it pretty simple, but I am working on it.
In my Bountiful Basket a couple weeks ago I got an eggplant. What the heck? Before I tell you what I did with the eggplant I want to start a discussion. So I was talking to somebody the other day about how if your parents don't like something you probably haven't even tried it. Like my mom does not like artichokes, I think I was well into college the first time I had one of those. I LOVE THEM. It makes me wonder what my kids wont eat....besides meat. I have a friend who is very careful about what food she gives to her little boy. He is a very healthy eater. In fact a funny thing that happened the other day was that they had gotten the kids pizza at the daycare he goes to, they also gave the kids some cut up carrots along with the pizza. Most kids just went strait for the pizza and didn't even touch the carrots, or a few tried some after the pizza, but my friends little boy went strait for the carrots first and only had a little pizza after that. I thought that was so great. Train them young I guess.
Wow long story long.
I got this eggplant and did not know what the heck to do with it. After researching some recipes online I found something I thought I would give a try. I changed it a little bit. Even though it doesn't really look that appetizing, it was yummy.


I cut the eggplant and coated the slices with olive oil and some salt and baked them for about 30 minutes on 300. ( Some of the slices I cut to thin and they got a little too crispy)


Meanwhile I got out my most favorite Christmas present ever. I use it a lot. Santa would be so proud. I threw in a few cloves of garlic and some olive oil and let the food processor do its job. If I was making this for anybody else I would use less garlic, but I like it. What I forgot to take a picture of was all the other stuff I put in this baby. I threw some tomatoes, mushrooms, carrots, and Parmesan cheese and mixed it together as well as the eggplant when it was done baking.


Then I got some of this bread. I forgot what its called, and put my concoction on each piece. Then I threw it in the oven for 20 minutes.

I took it out and threw some mozzarella cheese on it and set the oven to broil to melt the cheese.


And this was the end result, yummy and relatively healthy appetizers.

Update

So far the cleanse is going good. I have already dropped a few pounds, so I am back on track with the weight loss.
Something I have discovered though is that I really like eating this way. Especially the raw way. I think I might just continue it, just not to the extreme. I haven't missed all the processed foods that I normally eat.

Detox

So, I posted on Saturday night about wanting to do this 5 day cleanse and then I took it down. Why you ask? Well....
So I set a schedule starting with an all water fast on Sunday. I was doing good all yesterday, I even went to a couple movies so that I wouldn't be tempted to eat, so I get home and its getting close to 9:00pm and I caved and had some artichokes. But not just artichokes, but artichokes dipped in butter (vegan butter-as if that excuses anything) and garlic. By the way, garlic smell is not a good look on anybody. I guess I know how to keep my annoying boss out of my office today.
So anyway I kinda botched the fast and made up my mind to not do the cleanse. But it totally rubbed me the wrong way all night. To error is human right? So I am going ahead with the cleanse as planned.
So before you get all freaked out by what I am doing, its a good one. I am not taking any celebrity endorsed products or medicine, just a program that I made up by doing some research.
Sunday- Water all day (oops except for a couple of artichokes)
Monday and Tuesday- Just juice. So when I say this, I mean I ground up a bunch of fruits and veggies into my food processor along with some distilled water. Today's juice is all about the carrots, celery, mango's, strawberry's and a banana thrown in. It was yum and surprising filling. I had to make a big batch because of work, so the other half is in my mini fridge here by my desk.
Wednesday-Friday is an all raw fruits and veggies. That just means nothing cooked.
I also can have as much water as I want this whole week. Hopefully this cleanse will get my body feeling refreshed and get my diet back on track.
Wish me luck.