Vegan Hawaiian Haystacks

This dish is nothing short of phenomenal! I found the recipe from this woman on facebook who lost 100 lbs eating plant strong. It's Hawaiian haystacks. Usually this has cream of chicken soup (I've mixed mine with sour cream), chicken and those crunchy noodles on top. This version is much healthier. It does have some soy sauce, so sodium, but not that much.

Vegan Hawaiian Haystacks
brown rice
mushrooms
canned pineapple
sliced olives
chickpeas
green peas
red onion
celery, diced small
thinly sliced carrots
unsweetened, shredded coconut
soy sauce

Cook your rice and top as you like with toppings cold or at room temp. You can add other things like tomatoes or green bell peppers or cashews or whatever you think would be good. Just drizzle a little soy sauce on top, you could use low sodium soy sauce.  I found my unsweetened coconut at Winco in the bulk section, it was shredded very fine. Brent loved it and the kids liked it. I thought it was pretty great, and so easy too. I'm all about easy, if you haven't noticed.

Bagel Sandwich

Look at this! I swear if I had to live my life eating only one kind of food, it would be deli food. I'm a simple girl. This delicious bagel sandwich has hummus, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, olives, red onion and mustard. It would be vegan if I could find a bagel without honey, but I couldn't.

Lo Mein Noodles

I haven't posted anything in a while. I didn't realize it had been so long.

Here we have some nice lo mein noodles. It's just brown rice spaghetti with veggies, cashews and black beans. Cook the veggies in sesame oil and mix some sugar, ginger, corn starch and soy sauce together to make the sauce. Easy peasy.

This is how it is

I went to Arizona to see family. I ate roast and hamburgers. I came back and ate beef stew for Zoe's birthday, because that is what she wanted. So we've decide we are mostly vegetarian. I am not ready to be vegan. That is too much right now. I think I could do all vegetarian but I'm not going to do that yet either. This is what we've agreed upon: We eat vegetarian and vegan at home. When we are with family for dinner we are going to eat what is offered. I still want turkey for Thanksgiving, I still want my chicken salad sandwiches for Christmas. Maybe I will have the pork enchilada at Cost Vida once in a while. We eat a little cheese, eggs and milk. Not as much as before though. Having meat once in a while is certainly better than every day. Call me weak and mean to animals and all that, I don't care. I still enjoy cooking vegetarian and vegan. But I'm not ready for 100%.

"Meat"

A while back I ran into this pin on pinterest for black bean burgers. Here is the recipe:

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup quick oats
1 egg
2 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix it all up in a food processor. Make into burgers and fry or grill (I use an indoor grill) or however you want to cook a burger.

So I made the burgers and they were good! I think I took a picture but I can't find it. But I was thinking, what else can I do with this recipe?  So I decided to make spaghetti and "meatballs". To do that I followed the recipe and threw in a little onion and Italian seasoning. Instead of "balls" I made bite size pieces and baked them @ 350 for ten minutes, turning them over after 5 minutes. Tasty!

Then I decided to make tacos with them. The same baking process and base recipe except I left out the garlic cloves and pepper, threw in a little minced onion, a dash of garlic powder and some taco seasoning. Also good! I love tacos so this was a pleasant surprise. I used to make chicken tacos a lot. I didn't mind ground beef that much but I never liked to eat it because e coli, of course and it's kind of full of saturated fat. So it was nice to have a taco with something actually, sort of meaty instead of just throwing beans in and calling it good. And all of these recipes are pretty healthy if you don't count the little bit of cholesterol from the one egg. Oh, and spray the pan before you bake them too.

Taco "meat". It looks kind of like no bake cookies, haha.

Potatoes and Eggs

What we have here is a simple meal. I mixed regular potatoes with sweet potatoes (5:1 ratio, about) to make mashed potatoes. I mixed in some garlic powder, milk, spread, and salt. The rest is black beans, spinach and watermelon. Healthy!

I used to make eggs with stuff mixed in for an easy dinner. I'd use about ten eggs and add ham, cheddar and some veggies. This is the healthier version I've come up with: I only used 4 eggs and about five potatoes, half a sweet potato, peppers, olives and mushrooms. To make the potatoes I cut them and boiled them for about 15 minutes. Let them cool and cut into bite size pieces. Mix with a little oil, salt pepper and basil. Bake @ 350 for 30-40 minutes. Flip them halfway through. Much easier than trying to fry in a pan. Scramble the eggs and saute all the veggies and mix it all together.

Creamy Vegetable Chowder

I love making soup! I don't know why. There was a time a few years ago when I had never made homemade soup. I remember being on the committee for Super Saturday, this craft-a-palooza thing for the women at church. I wasn't really even supposed to be there because I was the compassionate service person but somehow that was sort of part of the enrichment committee so the relief society counselor asked me to come, saying I could just help out a little, I didn't really need to do much. Okay, so I came. The woman in charge was young and super high strung. They discussed everyone's responsibilities and then got to the plans for the lunch that would be served. She looked at me and said, Do you want to be in charge of the lunch? It's a really big job! Nothing was more convincing to me, a person who did not relish being in charge of anything for a large group of people, than being asked by this perpetually manic woman if I wanted the job, immediately being followed by it's a big job. There's also this thing at church where every woman is sort of expected to know how to be an event planner. As I wasn't raised in the church I never quite caught on to this concept. Another woman saw the look of terror in my eyes and took mercy on me by volunteering to do the job. I was going to be her helper. I would have had the good sense to be humiliated by the whole situation but as I was just so relieved, it didn't occur to me. I don't know where this is going exactly but the lunch was all about soup. I helped out with any responsibilities the woman in charge would pass my way but I didn't bring a crock pot full of soup because, a) I don't have a crock pot and b) I didn't make homemade soup. But now I do! I love making homemade soup now, especially on a cold autumn day like today.
I'm in the middle of making this and I'm not sure it's going to turn out good or not. I've made this recipe before, actually I did a cooking class with my daughter and her friends a few years back and we made this soup. It was really good but I want to make it healthier so I replaced the chicken broth with veggie broth (I don't know if that is really healthier but it keeps it vegetarian). Then I added white beans for protein and a sweet potato for more nutrition. Okay, I just sampled it. It's pretty good.

Creamy Vegetable Soup
1 1/2 cups dry white beans, sorted, rinsed, cooked
1 small clove garlic, chopped (or use garlic powder of a commensurate amount)
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cups chopped celery
2 cups chopped carrots
2 tbs smart balance spread ( or oil of your choice, or leave it all out if you want)
5 small- medium potatoes, cut into small pieces
1 small sweet potato, shredded (I used the kind that looks more white not orange, the orange kind may be a yam, I'll never get that straight)
1 cup frozen corn
3 cups skim milk
4 cups vegetable broth (again, I used the Rapunzel granules, 1 heaping tbs mixed with 4 cups water)
2 tbs cornstarch, mixed in part of the cold milk
3 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Saute the garlic, onion, carrots and celery in Smart Balance spread. Add everything else, bring to a boil and turn down to simmer for about 1 hour or until you think it's done.

Soup and Sandwiches!

Saturday we had soup and sandwiches.We have so many tomatoes in our garden so I've been trying to come up with ways to use them. I decided to make some tomato soup. I found a recipe and then adapted it to what I had on hand, adding some lentils for protein. It was a success. I will make this again soon.

Tomato Lentil Soup

3 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes

2 cups hot water

1 tbs vegetable broth granules (I use Rapunzel brand)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp Litehouse Freeze-Dried Italian Herb Blend

2/3 c lentils, sorted and rinsed

1 tsp cornstarch mixed in 1/4 c cold water

Put it all in a pot, bring to a boil and reduce to low heat. Cover and cook for about 1/2 hour, stir occasionally. Lentils should be soft.

We also had broiled veggie sandwiches. I love these. We used to have them with provolone cheese but I didn't even miss it. You just broil the mushrooms and green bell peppers and stick the rolls in there until they get toasty. Add some lettuce, tomatoes, red onions and Italian dressing. Messy and delicious!

Lasagna II

I made lasagna again. This stuff is insane! Different ingredients this time around. It turned out great! Now it's not as yummy as traditional lasagna. Cheese guys! Cheese is an amazing thing. But it will kill you if you eat too much. So it doesn't have that stringy, gooey thing going on that cheese brings to lasagna and other things, but it's still good. I'm not going to use any of that fake soy cheese stuff. First, it sounds gross. Maybe it's not, but it sounds nasty. And hello? Processed like crazy. That's not good folks. Now, I'm no stranger to processed food, but that's not what we were going for here. Although, I do use jarred pasta sauce and pre-made polenta (don't tell anyone.)

So here are some nice pics and then the recipe for my Vegan Polenta Lasagna.

Vegan Polenta Lasagna

1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed

Litehouse freeze-dried Italian Herb Blend

garlic powder

2 small or 1 med. zucchini (cubed)

2 large handfuls of fresh spinach

1 large kale leaf

1 large tomato, peeled and chopped

1 24 ounce jar pasta sauce

1 18 ounce package organic polenta, sliced

1 medium sweet potato, boiled and mashed

1 large tomato, thinly sliced

1 small eggplant, peeled and sliced (I didn't peel it but I would next time, it's kind of tough)

2-3 tbs almond meal

1 tbs nutritional yeast

salt

First layer: rinse the garbanzo beans and mash them in a food processor, mix in about 1/2-1 tsp of freeze-dried Italian herbs, 1/2 tsp garlic powder and 2-3 tbs water. Spread until smooth in a lightly sprayed (Pam) 9x13 glass casserole dish.

Second layer: mix the zucchini, spinach, kale and tomatoes together with a pinch or two of the freeze dried herbs, spread on top of the garbanzo beans. spread 1/3 to 1/2 of the jar of pasta sauce on top of the veggies.

Third layer: slice the polenta so it is about 1/4 inch thick or a little less. Place polenta slices on top of the sauce in a single, even layer (like in the picture). 

Fourth layer: cube the sweet potato into 1/2-1 inch cubes, boil for about thirty minutes in lightly salted water. Mash with a splash of soy milk (or whatever plain milk you want) and a sprinkle or two of garlic powder. Spread sweet potatoes on top of polenta.

Fifth layer: spread the rest of the pasta sauce (pour in a few tbs of water in the bottom and shake with lid on to get the bit at the bottom) on top of the sweet potatoes. Thinly slice a tomato and place slices on top of the sauce, sprinkle with a little more herbs.

Sixth layer: peel and slice an eggplant and place in rows on top of the tomatoes and sauce.

Mix together the almond meal, nutritional yeast, a couple of sprinkles of salt and 2-3 pinches of garlic powder. Sprinkle on top of the eggplant.

Baked, covered with foil @ 350 degrees for 30 minutes then uncover and bake about 15 more minutes, until hot and bubbly.

*Prep time was about 40 minutes with my 13 year old daughter helping.

Vegan Lasagna

I finally made vegan lasagna. The Engine 2 guy has a recipe that looked kind of good but it had a bunch of veggies I wasn't interested in so I made up my own recipe, being inspired by his recipe.

Layered like so, from bottom to top:

homemade garlic, basil hummus

lasagna noodles (brown rice)

lightly sauteed yellow onion (1/2 med.) and medium zuccini (diced) mixed with some chopped spinach

1 jar marinara sauce

lasagna noodles

mashed sweet potato (1large with a little garlic powder and salt, cooked about 45 minutes)

lasagna noodles

2/3 jar marinara sauce

a couple tbs nutritional yeast (approximately)

slightly ground up unsalted cashews (about 2/3 cup)

*cook at 350 for 45 minutes

More Food!

All plant dinner.

This split pea potato soup was really good. I didn't have very high expectations for it but it was quite tasty. I hope I can remember the changes I made to the recipe (I always do that) next time I make it. What I remember: split peas, carrots, celery, potatoes, vegetable broth granules, garlic powder? basil?

*Edited. I added the recipe after making it a second time.

Split Pea Soup recipe:

3 cups split peas, sorted and rinsed

3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into small pieces

3 celery ribs, chopped

1 medium or large onion, cut into small pieces

3 medium or 4 small potatoes, cut into small cubes, leave unpeeled

1-2 tbs garlic powder (use to your liking)

1 pinch pepper

1 to 1-1/2 tsp salt

3 tbs Rapunzel vegetable broth granules

a dash (or 2) of dried thyme

about 8 cups of water

In a large stock pot, saute the carrots, celery and onions for a few minutes, until slightly soft. Add water split peas, potatoes, seasonings and broth granules. Bring to a boil, then turn to low and simmer for 2-3 hours. Stir occasionally. This tastes even better as leftovers the day after making it.

Our garden

 

We are champion tomato growers! You should taste those cherry tomatoes. But we are terrible at growing almost everything else. Our strawberries are so so and our grape vine and and nectarine tree are showing promise though.

Vacation Blues

We went out of town last week. Vacation! It was fun, we saw some of the California Redwoods-did this trail called the Boy Scout Trail that had a giant tree at the end of it (almost the end and it was actually two trees that grew together to make one giant tree.) We also spent a lot of time on some beautiful beaches in Southern Oregon. I highly recommend Harris Beach.

I had carefully planned what to eat, packed a bunch of healthy snack for the road and spent most of that road trip eating grapes, apple slices and carrots along with a Lara Bar and fruit leather here and there. We weren't gong to eat out much because it's always a pain with a gluten free teenager along for the ride and our new plant strong diet. So I even brought some canned goods and stuff for some yummy veggie bagel sandwiches with hummus. And we did eat some of that stuff but we also ordered pizza from Domino's on night one (they offer gluten free so Isabella talked us into it.) It was just olives and pineapple but there was cheese, I'm not going to lie. Brent did quite well but me...not so much. There was also ice cream at one point. Again, not going to lie. Oh well, you don't have to be perfect all the time. But now I'm having a little trouble getting back on track. I'm not eating horribly but it could be better. I'm definitely not on the plan. Maybe if I post this picture of the last recipe I made before the trip:

 

This, to be honest, doesn't look that good. But it was pretty good. I found a vegan shepherd pie recipe (something I've never even made in its original, hamburgery form) and adapted it to what I had. So I made mashed potatoes with the peels. I did add a little Earth Balance spread to it along with soy milk, salt and garlic powder. They were really good. The rest of it is frozen veggies (corn, carrots, peas and green beans), a can of rinsed kidney beans, about 8 ounces of chopped up mushrooms, herbs and spices (like thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper) and a gravy made with water from the boiled potatoes, Rapunzel dry vegetable broth and a couple tbs. of corn starch. I would make it again. It would be really good in the winter. 

 I actually made it for two nights but the second one didn't turn out as good. I think you have to use potato water instead of plain water to make the gravy good and the mushrooms aren't so good after they sit overnight in the pie. So make it fresh, use potato water in the gravy and eat it all the same night.

 This is why I risked cheating. Worth it.

Happy Fourth!

I wanted to make something festive for Independence Day so I mad this Red, White and Blue Salad. All right, I guess it isn't really red, white and blue unless you count the cucumbers as white. Okay, I guess we can do that. So, it's just a big salad with romaine lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes (red), dried cranberries (more red), blueberries (blue!) garbanzo beans, and pecans. Topped with a vinaigrette.

Crazy Casserole!

Brent's family made this meal called crazy casserole when we were dating. It's basically a taco salad with doritos. Don't ask me where the name Crazy Casserole came from. I have no idea. I adopted it to my own dinner menus because who doesn't like taco salad? I changed the ground beef to chicken though, because that's how I roll. Now I've adapted it to the plant based lifestyle. It starts with a layer of tortilla chips (healthier than doritos, of course), then refried beans. Then, instead of chicken, I got a frozen veggie mix that has corn, peppers, onions and black beans. Mixed in a little garlic powder, chili powder and cumin and heated it up. On top of that goes lettuce, tomatoes, olives, salsa and guacamole. We didn't miss the chicken, doritos or cheddar cheese.

Muffins

I made up this recipe. It's a keeper. I'll write it down now so I don't forget. They taste kind of like bran muffins, which I like.


3/4 c natural peanut butter, like Adams
1 c applesauce
1 large ripe banana
1 slightly heaping tsp cinnamon
1/3 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups quick oats
a handful of raisins

Cook for about 20-23 minutes at 350 degrees in a lightly sprayed muffin pan. Enjoy!

The Last Day of Month One

We made it through a whole month of this new healthy thingamajig! I really haven't been hungry that much and have only had cravings a few times. I haven't had optimal energy at all times but I'm still working the kinks out and I'm really happy with how it is going so far. I'm down eight pounds too. I don't expect to keep up the two pounds a week pace though.

"Ice Cream"

 

Oh my goodness, this was so good! I've seen this recipe floating around the internet here and there and decided to try it. I chopped up a couple of ripe bananas and a bunch of strawberries and froze them, then put the bananas in the food processor, then added the strawberries. Actually, I have a mini food processor so I did it in small batches and transferred it all to a metal bowl a little at a time (I don't know that the metal bowl was necessary but it felt right) then used a hand mixed to mix it all together for a few minutes. I added a teaspoon of vanilla too. Then I put it in the freezer for about a half an hour. It was thick like ice cream and tasted so good! I'm going to have to keep my freezer stocked with sliced up, ripe bananas now.

Pizza!

The kids had pizza with cheese, pineapple and olives. Brent and I had this delicious veggie pizza. We've got sauce, green bell peppers, red onions, mushrooms and olives on a wheat crust. We decided to just top half of it with nutritional yeast and ground up pecans. It was so good with those toppings! I will definitely put it on the whole pizza next time. I had four pieces and figured it was around 500 or so calories for the whole meal. Not bad.

Spaghetti

These beautiful sauteed veggies went on top of spaghetti with kidney beans (for protein) and jarred marinara sauce.  I love me a good sauteed mushroom! We always use kidney beans instead of meat anyway. The veggies really make the spaghetti since you can't use parmesan cheese on top.

Breakfast-y food

Another smoothie. This one had spinach, chia seeds, pineapple, mango and strawberries.

I did put a teeny bit of syrup on these pancakes and it wasn't real maple syrup. They weren't too bad. I made up the recipe with Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour (about 2/3 of a cup), almond meal (about 1/4 cup), frozen blueberries and water. Topped with strawberries. They were quite heavy, slightly bloat inducing and I just can't get past that vague bean taste from the Bob's gf flour. It has chickpea flour and fava bean flour, which makes it healthier (though it has starches in it too) but it comes at a price.

It worked! sorta

So I have this weird thing for chicken salad sandwiches. I usually make them for Christmas dinner and once in the summer. I've had this image in my mind for a while. How could I give up meat and never have my delicious chicken salad sandwiches again? So I wondered if I could replace the chicken with something else. Perhaps chickpeas and cashews. I went to Whole Foods the other day and picked up some vegan mayo. You really aren't supposed to have a lot of fatty stuff like oil and mayo, but once in a while...

I had the vegan mayo and I thought I'd give it a go. I was just really curious about how it would turn out. I mixed it all up and it smelled really good, just like it usually does (it's the tarragon). Everything was ready so I opened the vegan mayo. It did not look right....It did not smell right...I mixed it in the salad mix, hoping for the best, and it most certainly DID NOT taste right! Turns out I don't eat vegan mayonnaise because it is disgusting. At least the brand I bought is disgusting. So what do I do now? My beautiful fake chicken salad was now ruined. Then I thought, what if I rinse it all out? There was nothing in there that couldn't go under the faucet: celery, grapes, pecans, chickpeas, red onions, tarragon, cashews, lemon juice. It would all make it through the wash. Okay, lemon juice wouldn't but I could add more, no problem.

I rinsed it all out, added more lemon juice and put it in the fridge. Today we made the sandwiches for dinner. Added mustard, tomatoes, lettuce and spinach. It was very crumbly but it really did taste pretty good. Not as good as the original chicken salad, I'm not going to lie to you. But it was still good, and now even more healthy without the mayo. I was thinking maybe next time I will leave out the cashews, because I don't really think they were necessary and it already has pecans, and mash up the chickpeas like hummus and add everything else in. Then it would stick together better. The kids even liked it but I promised Zoe I would still make chicken salad sandwiches for Christmas ('cause she loves them too.)

Fathers Day

So I told Brent I didn't know what to make for dinner on Father's Day since all the usual options were out of the question. He told me he wanted a burger and went to the internets and found the recipe he wanted to try. He wanted to try this recipe for "spicy bbq chickpea burgers" and told me I must STICK TO THE RECIPE! Because I usually don't do that. Though we did leave out the pepita seeds. (I had to look that one up, I guess it's the Spanish word for pumpkin seeds.) Oh, and I left the optional kombu out of the chickpeas. I just used canned chickpeas anyway. It turned out pretty good! A little squishy in the middle but pretty tasty. A little on the spicy side, of course. It was just nice to eat a burger!

She also had a recipe for oven baked fries that I made and let me tell ya. That is the best recipe for oven baked fries I've ever tried! Tomorrow I'm going to try it with sweet potatoes. Then we finished the meal off with a gluten free, vegan apple crisp. It was a little too sweet, I think my taste buds may be getting used to less sugar. Hmm.

Becoming burgers! Doesn't it all look pretty?

I also got this for Brent for Father's Day. I usually get him some candy with whatever I get him and this is on the okay list (in moderation, anyway) because it's 72% cacao. I had a piece too. I don't like to get all cliche about chocolate but c'mon, you have to have a little chocolate once in a while.

three weeks gone by

Ha! You probably thought I'd given up and abandoned the plan, but I am still here!

I got this recipe for "oat snackles" from here. They weren't too bad. I used sweetened coconut because that's what I had and I used plain old sugar instead of maple syrup because who do you think I am? A Rockefeller? They all want you to use pure maple syrup but sorry guys, I'm sticking with sugar 'cause that's what I have and it's cheap. They were okay, a little too sweet. Too much of that refined sugar I guess.

Baked potato and homemade vegetarian chili. Kind of an unappetizing picture but it was good enough.

And, blackbean, corn and green chili enchiladas. Thumbs up!

We survived another week!

There were a few low blood sugar moments. I thought I was going to die one day outside the grocery store only a half an hour after dinner (slight exaggeration). Some banana and peanuts did the trick though and keeping an apple or nuts and raisins on hand at all times is recommended! I also realized I have a slight B12 deficiency but that started before the new eating plan began. I had doctor confirmation of this, not just my self-diagnosis. We made a tasty "sorta sorbet" one night with a banana, frozen strawberries and pineapple and a little soy milk and water. I forgot to take a picture. A Subway sub on wheat loaded with veggies and mustard is good stuff. Lastly, I had enough energy to make it through 4 hours of standing up at the They Might Be Giants concert last night so I am not withering away to nothing. Yay!

Beans and rice (and corn) with salsa, spinach, canned beets, and dinosaur kale. Also called lacinato kale but I prefer dinosaur, of course.

We finally ate some tofu! In a yummy stir fry. Added some cashews to it too.

Quinoa salad. Quinoa, garbnanzo beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, red onion, olives and Italian dressing mixed in. Served on a bed of spinach. Also, strawberries (we eat a lot of strawberries) and tortilla chips with guacamole and salsa.

I guess we aren't being absolutely strict on this Forks Over Knives thing. I made pumpkin bread the other day with my gluten free baking mix that has milk in it and eggs in the recipe. I ate a couple of pieces, Brent abstained. I've also had honey a couple of times and oil is being used now and them. I still think we are doing good though.

Week one is done! (almost)

We've made it through the first week of this. It's been a good week but there have been many really hungry moments so I'm going to have to work on that. Here are more pictures! One reason I like the pictures is because I can go back at any time and find a whole slew of ideas, lest I forget.

What is that pile on that plate? Well it's quinoa and lentils sprinkled with roasted almonds and nutritional yeast, of course. Not bad, a bit dry though.

This was so good around day five when I was starving and needing a treat. I saw it on facebook. It said it's supposed to taste just like a Frosty at Wendy's which, of course, is not true but it was still pretty darned good. In the blender I put plain soy milk, ice cubes, cocoa powder, a banana and vanilla. The next night we made it again after we went hiking and added a little chia seeds for extra healthiness.

Fruit salad. Yummy, yummy. (We watched the Wiggles a lot when the kids were little.)

Just a simple burrito with canned, no fat, refried beans. Added a little garlic powder, chili powder and ground cumin and put it in a whole grain tortilla. Baked it in the oven for about 10 minutes. Topped with salsa, guacamole (yes, a lot of guacamole) and olives. Yum!

What do I want?

What do I want to see on this blog in a few months? I want to see someone who has lost twenty pounds. Let's get that out of the way from the get go. People always say we should be happy with our size, we can't all be size 1! We have the right to love ourselves as we are. That is all SO true! But the reality is if you weigh too much, in my case 20-30 pounds too much, you don't feel so good. It is taxing on your body. That is the case for me anyway. So I do want to lose 20 pounds. I also want that weird, bloaty feeling of late that the doctor couldn't blame on anything in particular to go away. I want this lower back pain gone. I want the recurring fibromyalgia-like symptoms to go away. I want the cracking knees to stop cracking. I want fewer injuries when I exercise. And I want the junk addiction gone and new healthy habits formed that will stay. I don't know if I will get all of this. I don't know if I will last until next week. But I won't dismiss the idea of these things happening. It is possible.

Observations

Just a small observation. I don't know how long I will keep this up. Hopefully, through the summer and beyond. My kids told me the other day that we eat healthier than any other family/kids they know. This would be Pre-Forks Over Knives. That is true and not true I suppose because I have a major junk food addiction and I let my kids join in all too frequently. But I've never let my kids go crazy with soda and other things and have done well with dinner many days of the week and lunches for school I do all right. I've never had an open pantry policy where kids can overindulge all they want. I've told them you can have one not so healthy snack after school and healthy snacks (fruit, nuts, string cheese, etc. I know, string cheese is debatable.) I haven't been near perfect but they've noticed my efforts.

They also told me we are the biggest environmentalist they know. Again, many would put me to shame. My good friend in Seattle isn't nearly as liberal as I am but just living there that comes more naturally to her I think. And the bar is set very low here for the most part.

The point of this is they are noticing. Noticing things that matter. I get down on myself for my parenting ability a lot. But they are picking up on things that matter, that we should take care of our bodies, we should take care of our planet too, we should believe in equality for all people. It is getting through. I should celebrate this small victory because I don't give myself enough credit. That and they are going to be (already are) amazing people.

3 days down

So yes, I will be posting lots of pictures of my food. I think it helps me keep going and I can look back on it as a reference for the future.

More Meals

So here we have lunch: hummus, veggies and natural peanut butter, applesauce and cinnamon on wheat toast. Actually good, not gross.

Baked apples with cinnamon. 2 hours @ 250 degrees.

For dinner: watermelon, spinach, collard greens, brown rice spaghetti, jarred sauce, kidney beans and ground cashews instead of cheese.

Time to start already?

So we started today and I have some lovely food pics. The food was good but to be honest, I'm really craving some dessert right now. Still, it was a good first day.

Breakfast was oats (not oatmeal, I like to eat it cold and uncooked like cereal) with cinnamon, flax seed, bananas and soy milk. I like soy milk. Who knew?

Lunch was apple, almonds and raisins and this smoothie that had a little soy milk, flax seed, banana, blueberries, pineapple and collard greens. The soy milk is sweeter than the plain yogurt I usually use. I'll have to use a little less next time or less banana. Doesn't it look good next to those tulips Brent gave me for our anniversary? 18 years, baby!

Look at this beautiful Memorial Day dinner! Homemade baked beans, corn on the cob, potatoes, veggie and fruit kabobs.