Five Weeks on the Circuit!

Well another week has come and gone - and it has been another successful week!
I have no weightloss to report - only because I refuse to weigh myself on my scale at home
which has been consistently useless in this process. I am going to use mom and dad's scale, which means I won't know any numbers until Easter weekend - which is fine with me!

This week went by okay - I walked to work and back most days and am loving this spring weather!

Food wise it was a fairly easy week because my husband has been away most evenings, so I have just been eating what I want (I don't have to think too hard about what to cook!)

I think Monday night we just had a stirfry, Tuesday night I made brown rice pasta with some
chopped asparagus, frozen peas, chopped tomato, chopped garlic, salt, ground pepper and veggie mozza tossed in. I had a plateful, left the rest for my husband's dinner, and when he didn't eat it - that's what I had for dinner on Wednesday night too. The whole week I have been having a big plate of steamed greens (broccoli, asparagus and bok choy) for breakfast, and then a big salad for lunch (baby greens, romaine, tomato, carrot, walnuts and avocado, with a lemon wedge). It's amazing how well walnuts and avocado go together - its a lovely salad that I could really get used to eating frequently!

For dinner on Thursday night my husband was actually home that night - so we went to the Outback for dinner. I was not too worried about it because I know they do offer a salmon plate.
My husband automatically ordered the cheesy fries (as we always used to do) - but I didn't have a single bite of it. I really wasn't interested. I had one slice of their fresh-out-of-the-oven rye bread which was quite nice. I did order the grilled salmon, with steamed veggies and a plain baked potato on the side. I often am ordering extra lemon wedges with this type of meal, because you need to flavor things up you know? Interestingly, when the salmon got to my table, I didn't say anything, but I thought it was over cooked (I don't like it burnt or very dark on the edges) - and it is interesting, when you are choosing what you eat so carefully - you really start to get choosy about how it is cooked and seasoned too. It seems before I started doing this - I would just eat whatever was put in front of me, but now I am getting kind of picky - and I like it that way!

For dinner on Friday I made another brown rice pasta stirfry to use up some eggplant and zucchini that was in the fridge - but remind me next time to make sure the garlic is sauteed too (I just put it straight into the bowl where everything was getting tossed.) Bad idea - the whole dish had a really bitter overtone to it.

Also on Friday I went and did the shopping for the week - there is a local produce that has asparagus on for 1.49 right now, as well as HUGE broccoli heads for .99 and cheap, nice tomatoes also. What I do when I get home, is I just wash and chop produce for about an hour.
I've kept three big tubs that the baby spinach comes in, and fill it up with chopped asparagus, chopped broccoli, chopped bok choy, baby spinach and chopped romaine. That way my breakfasts, lunches (and some dinners) are quick to throw together.

They also had blueberries on for .99 and strawberries for 1.49 so I have been snacking on blueberries/strawberries or bananas in a little soymilk. I had a bowl of blueberries and bananas topped with a handful of hemp granola and soymilk for breakfast this morning. Also at this market - I have found a very nice thick/dense/thinly sliced bread that is yeast/sugar/gluten free - so I keep that in the freezer in case I get the urge to eat bread (I eat almost no bread at all these days). So for lunch today I had:

Annette's Gourmet Vegan Sandwich 1

Take two big slices of tomato, and grill them in some olive oil,
then made a sandwich out of:
dense bread
baby spinach
veggie mozza
2 grilled tomato slices
mashed avocado mixed with a little olive tapenade (optional)

Grill the whole sandwich like you would a grilled cheese sandwich.
Be sure to have lots of napkins and a fork on hand when eating, as
this sandwich is extremely messy!

IT WAS DIVINE - LOVED IT - MUST DO THAT AGAIN.

For dinner, I popped a frozen pizza in the oven for my husband, but I hadn't had many vegetables so I made myself a stirfry of broccoli, bok choy, asparagus, sliced carrot, garlic, olive oil, chopped tomato walnuts . I grilled up one slice of that bread and put veggie mozza and garlic salt on it for a little "garlic toast". Divine!

Next weekend is Easter Sunday and I plan on bringing lots of good vegan things to eat.
I'll let you know what happens that weekend and also my weigh in!

Interesting Book

Tonight I have been reading a book called "Eat to Live" by Dr. Fuhrman.

He is really giving more science about cancer studies, etc. that show a strong
correlation between eating animal protein and processed foods and all kinds of cancer.
His recommendation is to eat a vegan diet, but he particularly emphasizes that
we need to eat large quantities of green salads and lightly cooked vegetables
to get their protective qualities. He also emphasizes that there is no nutritional
value in olive oil, but the caloric level is really high.

As a result, I think I am going to make a few more changes to this regimen.

I am going to include more variety of dark green vegetables in my morning
breakfasts - but I am going to steam them instead and perhaps have more.

For lunches I am going to start bringing a big salad of greens with some beans
and perhaps nuts, seeds or avocado. For supper I am going to start having a
big salad before the actual dinner as well.

We'll see what happens!

Another Week has Already Gone By!?

This week went by quick and it was a pretty interesting one - I am still having broccoli/rapini/spinach stirfry in olive oil for breakfast. This week there was some cheap asparagus on sale - so I threw that in too. I just keep chopped greens in tubs in my fridge
so that it's easy to cook them up each morning.

On Monday I had greens for lunch too - but for supper I made what I think are awesome veggie burgers:

Annette's Awesome Veggie Burgers

2 potatoes, boiled and mashed
1 package veggie ground round
1 onion chopped into a puree in the mini chop
2 carrots grated in the mini chop
2 cups of fresh parsley (most stems removed) then chopped in the minichop
3/4 cup of oatmeal
ground black pepper, celery salt, cajun seasoning, oregano, onion powder
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup psyllium flakes

You could also put tomato paste.

Mix all these ingredients together with your hands until it is very well combined
and is sticking together.

Form into patties or smaller meatballs and fry in some olive oil until browned
and cooked through.

We had these as big patties, but I think they would be great as little meatballs
because the crunchy crust it the best part.

I made some "french fries" out of potato wedges dipped in rice milk and my usual
coating mix (see previous blog entries). Put these on a cookie sheet coated in a little olive oil in a 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes (until soft inside - but flip once so the top side gets crisp).
I also made some coleslaw to go along with it - that was chopped carrot, chopped cabbage,
a little chopped onion and some tofu "mayonnaise" (see recipe in a previous blog entry.)
It was not too bad.

I brought a veggie burger with greens with me for lunch the next day and then
we had a nice tofu and veggie stirfry with rice for dinner the next night.

The next day I decided to pull out my Indian food cook book to see if I couldn't find
a recipe to make. I am thrilled to realize how many vegetarian options India food really
has to offer! It is exciting!

I actually ended up making Vegetable Korma with Coconut rice
and an appetizer of Onion Baja:

Onion Baja

2 onions sliced extremely thin
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
salt and pepper
2 cups of chick pea flour
1/2 cup water ( to desired consistency)

This makes almost like a pancake dough - but it has all the onion slices mixed
through it. So you just take a spoon full of the mixture and drop it into
hot olive oil and cook both sides until quite brown (you have to make sure that it
is cooked all the way through - if you're not sure, pull it open and see.)

Coconut Rice

1 can coconut milk
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup basmati rice
1 cinnamon stick

Cook on high in the microwave for 10 minutes, then on low for 20 minutes.
About 10-15 minutes through, double check that there is enough water in the dish
if not, add up to 1/2 cup more of water.


Vegetable Korma

Take 1 can coconut milk and soak 1/2 cup raw cashews (can also use ground almonds)
for 1/2 hour in it. After that blend into a fine milk in the blender or mini chop. Set aside.

Stirfry in some olive oil
2 carrots, sliced
2 cups green beans
1 chopped onion
1 cup frozen corn
2 cups cauliflower

When these are barely tender, take them off the heat and set aside.

Toast 1 tbsp of coriander seeds, then grind in a coffee grinder until fine.

Sautee in 2 tbsp of olive oil - 1 pureed onion, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chili powder
4 cardamom pods, 1 tsp curry powder, 2 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
2 tsp finely chopped garlic, as well as the toasted ground coriander seeds.

When the onions are soft, add the vegetables and milk mixture back into
the pan, and combine. If it needs thickening, add a little cornstarch or arrowroot flour.


This dish turned out great and I look forward to trying more of the options in that cookbook!

On Thursday night we actually ordered chinese takeout and I actually ordered all vegetarian options: we had vegetarian spring roll, mushroom fried rice, vegetables with shrimp and cashew, and a vegetable with rice noodle mixture - it was great! It is fun to find vegetarian
fast food/ junk food - it is great to have options!

Friday night I had a bit of a disaster experiment - I had found wheat/gluten free bread maker
bread mix at the bulk food store and had put that in the bread maker. I was going to turn it
into pizza dough. So I put olive oil in the bottom of a glass baking dish, put the dough in there, then put some veggie mozza and lots of roasted veggies on top (I forgot I had no tomato sauce
on hand). Well first of all it was very hard to guage how long it would take to bake. I took it out after 40 minutes and it was still very doughy. I left it in for another 20 minutes, but although it
was cooked - it had formed a great tasting but hard to remove from the pan CRUST on all sides of the pan that was hell to clean up. I think I had better just stick to making it into bread next time!

Today we stopped at an old favourite buffet for breakfast - MAN was that a mistake! We went in and all they had to choose from was: 6 types of sugary boxed cereals, 3 half slices of toast that had been sitting there for an hour, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fried potatoes, oatmeal,
fruit salad and some mini muffins! What a joke! There was not a vegetable in sight! So basically I paid 8 bucks for some fried potatoes, a half a slice of hard as a rock toast and a bowl of oatmeal with fruit on it. Then they charged us $5 for two glasses of orange juice!

That makes me a little nervous for our brunch buffet outing planned for Easter Sunday - that one costs $16.50 and I am a little doubtful that there will be much choice of anything to eat there either!

Oh well - I will go just to enjoy the company!

The best news of all is today I got back to my parent's place - and I am down another 3 pounds this week! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I am ON TRACK and loving it!

See you next time!

ANOTHER GREAT WEEK!

Well I have not posted on here all week - I think it is because I didn't come up with any
incredibly new or inventive creations this week - just recycled some of the old ones.

Every day this week I have had my stir fryed broccoli/rapini/spinach in olive oil with almonds
for breakfast. Also my aunt gave me a heads up about some cheap asparagus in town, so
I tossed some of that in too each morning. I have actually kept one of those plastic bins
that you buy baby spinach in (the larger quantity packs) and I just keep washed, chopped
broccoli and rapini in that bin at all times so it makes it quicker. I had my confetti salad for lunch every day until about Thursday, then I ended up bringing stir fryed greens with me for
lunch on Friday.

Let's see - on Monday night I had some left over organic tortilla chips, so I just put a can of
kidney beans in the blender, and cooked those up with onions, olive oil and mexican spices.
I put a scoop in the middle of each plate with chips around it, then spread some veggie mozza
over the scoop and put it in the microwave for a minute to melt it, then topped the plate with
chopped spinach and salsa - it tasted pretty good.

For Tuesday night supper I just made a veggie stir fry with tofu and rice.

Wednesday night supper was interesting because that is the night we went out
to Red Lobster with my aunt. I was REALLY GOOD. I ordered a garden salad
and asked for lemon on it (although they poured a vinagrette over it - to my chagrin).
Then as my main dish I had the salmon, broiled and my side order was steamed veggies.
The only thing I did have was ONE of those biscuits. Interestingly, it didn't really taste
that good to me - I don't know whether they had overcooked them, or whether my
taste buds are changing. The other thing that was really interesting to me - is I HAVE NOT
eaten ANY BUTTER or margarine at all since I started this (I have only olive oil when I
need to use it). BUT as I was eating my steamed veggies - my mouth really tasted really
overwhelmingly greasy and I realized that they had put butter on the veggies.
I have to remember next time to make sure they use olive oil, if anything. It is really interesting when you are not eating animal fat for awhile and then do taste it again -
how overwhelming the grease is. Olive oil and vegetable fats are really much lighter
and less greasy to the palate I realize. I wonder if that is a statement about their effect
on the body itself in trying to process it.

Another interesting note is that after having eaten one biscuit made of white flour - when I got
home after about two hours, I got a craving to eat something sugary (I had my chocolate soymilk and granola) - but quite honestly - that is the first real craving that I have had in
three weeks!!!! I am really beginning to be convinced that most of the food that is on
the shelves in our stores is really a poisonous toxic waste dump that is TRULY ADDICTIVE.
I cannot overstate this! I have not had any wild wacked out cravings in the evening like
I did when I was eating my usual diet. Even before I started on this regimen - I ate only
whole grain bread and pasta, lots of veggies, only lean meats, one percent milk - and also
we RARELY had junk food in our house. Prior to Christmas, the worst we were having was
ordering pizza on Friday nights. Even so, no matter what day of the week or what I was eating,
I would often get cravings to eat WHATEVER at night time, and these cravings ranged from
the general urge to snack (then I would have popcorn or a piece of toast and peanut butter)
to huge uncontrollable cravings (more so when I was younger) to order lots of greasy fried food.

Since I have been eating this new way, I swear to god, I do not get uncontrollable cravings, and
most evenings after dinner I don't really even think of food. I think that eating the fibre and nutrients in veggies helps make you feel fuller, and it doesn't put any addictive toxins in your body that might otherwise give you the urge to snack on crap.

That evening, actually, we were watching a show about super morbidly obese people who
are homebound, etc. After watching that show, and feeling my own white-flour induced craving for sweets - I really realized how truly addictive most 21st century reconstituted "foods" are.

Wow! There's my rant for the day!

Anyhow, on Thursday night we had the vegan pizza (recipe on previous post) - so Arthur was happy with that, then on Friday night we had stirfry veggies, rice noodles and tofu!

Today I got my treat of a falafel sandwich and hommous again - so I am happy!

I also weighed myself, and by mom's scale I'm down another 3 pounds since last week
YIPPPPEEEEE


Talk to you again soon!

EVEN THE WEEKEND WENT WELL!!!!

Well I am back from our weekend outing to my parent's place and I am happy to report that, not only did I do really well over the weekend (at my mom's otherwise food happy house!), but according to my mom's scale (which is more accurate than mine at home), I have lost a total of 23.5 pounds since Christmas, and this morning when I got out of the shower I was three pounds lighter than I was the day before by that scale!!!!!!! I was really happy - and we will be going back to mom and dad's next weekend, so I will get to weigh myself by that scale again next weekend and the weekend after!

So Saturday morning I had my broccoli, rapini, spinach, olive oil and almond stirfry as usual. Then I went out and did a few errands like putting gas in the car, going to the library, etc. As I was going through downtown, I had the urge to stop at a Lebanese cafe to give myself a treat of a falafel sandwich. GREAT CHOICE - this is a new restaurant, very cute inside, very clean, with a lovely selection of classic lebanese food at very cheap prices. For example, my falafel sandwich was only 2.99 - it had hummous, tabouli, lettuce tomato and seasonings on it. Then he gave me a little garlic sauce for dipping, and I also bought a container of hummous from him also - only 2.99.

I brought the hummus with some carrot sticks over to my mom's for afternoon snacking and I also brought the lasagna over for dinner. Mom cut up some celery sticks (and put out a bit of pate, crackers, olives, etc. - but I stuck with my hummous and veggies - it was a very lovely hummous too!

Mom made a salad to go with the lasagna - and even my picky sister kept her mouth shut, tried it and didn't mind it! Everyone seemed to be pretty happy with it! Next time I will omit the rubbed bay, as it made the sauce have a little bitter undertone. Other than that, the whole thing could have benefitted from a little bit more watery sauce. The veggie cheese slices also should be put in the layers but not on top, as they browned up a bit too much. I would also make the sauce a little saltier and a little sweeter. Otherwise - using the pesto to help season and hold the tofu together was a terrific idea and really turned out great!

For breakfast, mom made oatmeal with soy milk and she also put some chopped nuts on the table to sprinkle on top. She also fried up some potatoes, onions and peppers in some olive oil with spices and so that's what I had while everyone else had those things along with scrambled eggs and toast. I was very happy with it.

I had left over salad for a snack in the afternoon. For dinner on Sunday, I had the last piece of lasagna, while my mom made a quick meal of lots of things I can't eat and really didn't have the desire to eat, including battered frozen fish, hashbrown casserole and coleslaw. I had a bowl of the plain cauliflower, which was fine. I really didn't feel too deprived.

The FUN thing is that tonight I put together a veggie salad for my upcoming lunches this week that turned out LOVELY!

Annette's Vegan Confetti Salad

Boil Until JUST Tender (DO NOT OVERCOOK) (separate pots would be best)

2 potatoes, cut into quite small cubes (make sure these are not over cooked)
10 small broccoli florets
2 cups frozen green beans (make sure these are cooked until tender)
1 cup each frozen corn and frozen peas

When you take these off the stove, immediately drain, then cover with cold water twice. After they are cool, drain very well, and add to the big bowl below:

In the meantime, chop the next ingredients and put into a big bowl:

1/2 of an orange or red or green bell pepper
10 baby carrots sliced fairly thin
1/2 zucchini, quartered, then sliced thin
2 savoy (or regular) cabbage leaves, sliced very thin and cut in 1 inch long pieces
1 tbsp very finely chopped red onion

Also sprinkle in (optional)

1/2 cup cashew pieces
3 tbsp sesame seeds
3 tbsp hemp seeds


Sprinkle the veggies with lots of salt and ground black pepper and ground dill week.
Clean, and snip one big bunch of fresh chives into tiny pieces into the big bowl also.


Tofu Mayo Dressing

1 pkg silken tofu
2 tbsp olive oil (to taste)
juice of 1 lime (to taste)
juice of 1 lemon (to taste)
1 tsp dijon mustard (to taste)

Blend all ingredients in the blender until a thick cream is formed. Taste and adjust the seasonings to your own tastes. (Should taste a little like mayonnaise, not the sweet kind
unless you like it that way).

Pour over top of all the veggies and mix together with two big spoons until all the ingredients are well combined. Serve cold.

(use your favorite vegetables - whatever you like, cooked or uncooked in this recipe)

That's it for now - see you tomorrow!

One Great Week and a bit of Disappointment

Well I have to say that I really did have a terrific week - I really love this way of eating and
I just feel happier and healthier as a result.

HOWEVER I did weigh myself this morning and I didn't lose any weight this week.
That is a bit discouraging. Although I am doing this out of more motivation to get
really healthy, I was really hopeful about the weight loss effects too. For awhile today
I had the tendency to feel defeated and to think "Why am I doing all this without any
weight loss result?"

But you know what, I finally ended up making a great vegan dinner for us, and I also walked to and from work today - and also spring is coming - that means lots of warmer weather and dry sidewalks so that I can probably walk to and from work every day next week. I am looking forward to that, and hopefully I will have better results by next Friday.

In the meantime, let me tell you about today's creations:

For dinner I made:

Annette's Coconut Thai Stirfry With Noodles

2 cups hot cooked brown rice fettucini (this time I broke them in half and put them in the water one by one, because last time I had about 3 bunches that gobbed together).

1/2 package tofu, cut into thin strips, prestirfryed in olive oil and then set aside
sliced baby carrots
chopped onion
chopped broccoli
frozen peas

chopped chives, garlic, juice of 1 lemon and 1/8 teaspoon of chili paste mixed together and added near the end

1 can coconut milk added at the end, and thickened with a little cornstarch.

This dish actually turned out to be lovely - it had a nice creaminess to it which made it really
taste like comfort food. My husband seemed to like it as well.

So tomorrow we are going to visit my parents for the weekend, so we are going to be there
over the course of possibly lunch, dinner on Saturday, and breakfast/brunch and dinner on Sunday night.

I told my mom what we have been up to, and offered to bring a vegan lasagna for dinner on Saturday night. She was up for that, and actually sent me an email asking me what other foods we have removed from our diet - so maybe she will use this as an excuse to do something creative too - she is a great cook, but really makes huge quantities of food and all very rich comfort foods - which is why we are all really so obese to begin with. But it was her and dad who originally listened to these cds and passed them on to us - they have tried to stick with some aspects of the regimen, but no where near the degree to which we have been doing it. So I am really happy that she is trying to be supportive. Lord knows we really face alot of temptation when going home!

Here is the recipe that I put together for Gluten Free Vegan Lasagna:

Tomato Sauce:
olive oil
2 jars organic tomato sauce
1 can kidney beans, ground up
10 baby carrots, ground up
1 large onion, ground up
fresh parsley
3 cloves of garlic
dried oregano, marjoram, parsley, McCormick's cajun seasoning,
ground black pepper and a little celery salt

Pasta:

Brown Rice Lasagna Noodles

Filling (done in the mini-chop)

Walnuts
Pine Nuts
2 bunches of fresh basil leaves
big bunch of fresh parsley leaves
2 big cloves of garlic
olive oil
salt and ground black pepper

After it forms a fine paste, add it to a bigger bowl in which you've taken
1 package firm tofu and squished it up into particles about the size of cottage cheese.
Mix it all up very well and adjust seasonings.

Grease a 12 X 9 baking pan with olive oil, then put tomato sauce, then noodles, then filling, then layer of baby spinach leaves, then some veggie mozza squares, repeat the layers except over the next layer of spinach leaves, put the rest of the tomato sauce and then more veggie mozza.

I really hope this turns out! I will let you know - I will probably post on Sunday or Monday with the results of our first trip away from home on this new regimen.

Have a great weekend!

ITS FRIDAY!

Tomorrow is weigh in day! Yay! I never thought I would say that I can't wait for weigh in day!
It really sounds crazy - but I am sure that I have lost more weight. At least I hope so!

Today I made the final adjustments to the regimen. I have taken sugar, mushrooms and peanuts entirely out of the equation (this means no more soy milk, granola or homemade trail mix for me - at least for awhile until the rashes on me have died down.) I also started taking the lactobacillus and I hope that will be effective as well - I was so itchy this morning I was ready to cry! Things feel decidedly better this evening though - I really hope it continues and gets better and better.

However, the consequence is that I am now officially eating stirfryed broccoli and greens (with olive oil and almonds) for breakfast. The amazing thing for me was that I was not hungry at all this morning between breakfast (8:20am) and 12 noon. I attribute it to having no sugar in the morning to give me a sugar low later in the morning.

For lunch I had another bowl of chili, and for dinner I made my superb italian toss:

Annette's Superb Italian Toss

2 cups hot cooked brown rice rotini

Stirfry these ingredients in 2 tbsp olive oil (add in the order below, cook for 4 minutes before adding the next ingredient):

1 carrot peeled and sliced
1 head broccoli chopped
1 onion chopped
1 eggplant cubed
1 zucchini sliced
1 green pepper chopped
1 clove garlic
salt and pepper

While the stirfry and pasta is cooking, add to a mini blender:

2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup walnuts
fresh parsley if desired
4 tbsp olive oil (to desired consistency)
1/2 tsp salt

Blend well until it becomes a fine paste.

Open a can of white kidney beans, rinse twice in cold water, then soak in hot water for a few minutes. Drain the beans and put into a very large bowl. Drain the pasta when al dente and add to the big bowl.

If you want, tear up a couple sliced of veggie mozza on top of that. When the veggie stir fry is cooked but not over cooked, put the veggies into the big bowl also, and spoon out the pesto (I reserve about 1-2 tbsp to put in the freezer for other uses. Using two big spoons, mix the whole mixture together until very well mixed and the pesto coats everything. Serve!

This is a really yummy dish - probably the best vegan dish I make.

Now it is time for me to go find some new and exciting recipes because I am out of ideas for tomorrow night's supper.

Have a great day and I'll let you know what the numbers are tomorrow!

On a Roll!

Hello everyone!

I had another really great day!` I am loving the "no cravings for bad foods" feeling that I have while being on this diet! It is great and I am averaging about 1600 calories a day without feeling overwhelming hunger or cravings!

I had granola with soy milk and banana for breakfast today, with a bowl of my vegetarian chili for lunch. For dinner I baked salmon in a crust of ground flax, ground almonds, cornmeal and spices (McCormick's cajun seasoning, onion powder, celery salt and ground black pepper is my favorite spice combination as it is quite close to KFC spices! haahaha)

If you read my last posting, you can see the scalloped potato recipe. It turned out okay - it looked great, smelled great, but really tasted quite bland. I think next time I will try to do the sauce differently, put veggie mozza slices on each layer, and add more seasonings. Oh well - it was my first try!

For a snack I had my old stand by- a bowl of frozen corn nuked in the microwave for 5 minutes.
Not a bad snack I don't think!

The one thing that is still bothering me health wise is that I have a rash that just won't go away. So I decided to make a few more changes today and for the next few weeks to try to completely clear my system of its yeast overgrowth. I am going to get rid of the granola, soy milk and fruit, as well as the peanuts and raisin mixture that I sometimes snack on - because these are still putting sugar into my system which will keep the yeast growing. I also went to the drug store and bought some Lactobacillus

I'll let you know how it goes!

Green Bliss

Hello Again!

Today was a great day for me. I am feeling great - except my neck was bothering me today - but then I went for a massage and now everything feels much better and I am feeling great now!

This morning I had my granola with blueberries and soy milk.

I was at a meeting during the lunch hour at which quiche was served, and I actually didn't have any, but instead went back to my workplace afterwards and had the vegetarian chili that I had brought with me. Strangely, by the time I got home (about 5:45 or so) I was feeling like I had low blood sugar for some reason. I was always under the impression that beans really helped you hold your blood sugar levels constant. The only variation on the chili was that it has pearl barley and red lentils in it. I wonder if any of these can cause blood sugar fluctuations.

I actually didn't snack at all during the day today which was a good thing because when I got home I had some cashews to tide me over while I was making dinner (rice, tofu and veggies stirfry). The stir fry turned out pretty well - the one thing I am really learning is that tofu tastes much better if you cut it into thin strips and pre-stir fry it first to give it some crispiness.
I sprinkled almonds in the stir fry.

Then I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things, including more eggplant, I also needed soy milk, bananas and canned tomatoes. One thing I am often disappointed that the Price Chopper grocery store near us often runs out of stock of SOY NICE Vanilla - which is my favorite soy milk. Today again they didn't have any on the shelf and so I took a look at the SO GOOD label and got a real shock at how many chemicals they put into their product including fructose - which we are really supposed to avoid at all costs. The other thing is that I have tried SO GOOD before, and the taste is just not as good as SOY NICE. So bizarre - you'd think with them pumping it full of stuff it would taste better. The other thing I noticed is that even the store brand of soy milk has less chemicals and sugar in it than SO GOOD. So I bought the store brand original for cooking, and for the first time picked up SOY NICE chocolate flavor. It is really lovely actually - it has such a mild flavor, just like the vanilla.

Then I went to the Bulk Food Store (my new best friend) and picked up some nuts, raisins, granola, brown rice flour and potato flour (looking for recipes to use these right now) and made myself a bowl of granola mixed with nuts, pumpkin seeds and raisins. It upped my calorie intake for the day big time (I'm surprised at how many calories there are in a 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds!) - so I don't plan to be doing that much.

I also opened up my green goddess dressing (see recipe in previous entries) and it looked like it was on its last legs, so I decided to try my hand at vegan scalloped potatoes for tomorrow night's supper:

Annette's Vegan Scalloped Potatoes

Grease a small baking dish with canola or olive oil.
4 potatoes sliced thin
1/4 onion finely chopped
1 cup green goddess dressing (see recipe below)
2 tbsp spelt flour
salt and pepper

Put a thin layer of potatoes on the bottom of the dish, top with a few chopped onions, salt, pepper and a sprinkle of flour. Spread some green goddess dressing over the layer.
Repeat until all ingredients are gone. Pour rice milk over the whole thing to wet down the flour.
Top with 2 slices veggie mozza. Bake in 300 degree oven for at least an hour and a half, or until
potatoes are soft.

We'll see how it turns out!

See you tomorrow! (weigh in is only 3 days away!)

Another Successful Day!

Hello again!

Today was a pretty good day - physically I was feeling pretty good - feeling pretty energetic and happy actually (hmm is this a trend? On the third day of vegan eating the system gets cleared out and energy levels start to rise?)

For breakfast I had my granola with banana and soymilk. I actually didn't have time for lunch today, and so just had my seed/granola/nut/raisin mixture while running around to meetings.
I wasn't able to eat my lunch (stir fryed greens with almonds and kidney beans) until about 4pm!

For dinner we had the casserole I put together last night: brown rice rotini mixed with Annette's Vegan spaghetti sauce (ground kidney beans, carrots and onions as the base) topped with veggie mozza. I must say that I am pretty impressed with how nicely that veggie mozza melts as a topping to some of these casseroles and things!

I am now eating a piece of my pumpkin pie which was still in the freezer from the other day. I still haven't decided if I really like it or not - to me it is just not quite sweet enough.

Also, those crackers that I made out of the leftover pizza "dough" from Sunday night - really taste great the next day!

I can't wait to weigh myself this Friday - I hope the numbers were as good as they were last time.

Finally, I put on a pot of chili for my lunches for the rest of the week:

Annette's Vegan Chili

1 tbsp olive oil
1 chopped onion
1 can red kidney beans drained
1 can pinto beans drained
1 can tomato sauce
1/4 cup red lentils
1/4 cup pearl barley
2 tbsp McCormicks cajun seasoning
1 tbsp chili powder
1tbsp onion powder
1 tsp celery salt
fresh ground black pepper

I usually put some Kraft BBQ sauce in my chili as my mom always used to do, but I
don't really trust it to be used in this regimen. I think it probably has too much sugar.

See you tomorrow!

Another good day

Hello everybody!

Today was a pretty good day. My husband did really good - he had the meals that I made and seemed to enjoy them! Amazing for him! Now if only he would wean off of coffee - he could give his body a truly alkaline environment and see what changes will happen! Unfortunately he still has his coffee and toast in the morning - and so this is going to make him crave acid creating foods - for example, he had a really healthy lunch - but then he had another gigantor coffee in the afternoon. Interestingly, I was watching TLC this morning and they had the veterinary show on - and a vet student was taking care of two dehydrated calves. She ran blood tests and determined that their blood was much too acidic and so she had to put them on a hydration + mineral/salts regimen to rehydrate them. I wonder why we don't run human blood tests to determine pH levels to help all the acidic people walking around!?

This morning I had my bowl of hemp granola with blueberries and soy milk.

For lunch I made greens (broccoli, rapini and spinach) with olive oil, served with my version of onion baja:

CJ's Variation on Potato Onion Baja:

3 cups hot mashed potatoes (made with rice milk and a little salt)
1 onion very finely sliced
3 heaping teaspoons of chickpea flour (to desired consistency)
1/4 cup rice milk
1 tsp finely ground coriander
lots of fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp celery salt

mix together and make into patties - I fried these in canola oil, but they might bake well also.


I am finding that this regimen really requires alot of creativity and alot of really fresh foods. I also have always done alot of cooking - but this time round it is taking more of my time because all the veggies take a lot of prep.

So for dinner, I decided to make pizza (or my variation on it!).

First, I made a spaghetti sauce of ground carrot, ground red onion, ground canned kidney beans, chopped green pepper, spaghetti sauce (probably has unwanted sugar and things in it - so in the summer I might make my own) garlic, italian seasonings and olive oil. Most of the spaghetti sauce I mixed together with cooked brown rice rotini and put in a casserole dish for tomorrow night's dinner (I also bought some veggie slices mozzarella and put some of those on top for a cheesy flavor).

For the pizza crust, I made the almond pie crust on Dr. Young's website: www.phmiracleliving.com/
However, I omitted the stevia, vanilla, coconut butter and spices from that recipe,
doubled the recipe and added italian seasonings, onion powder, celery salt and 4 tbsp canola oil in place of the coconut oil.

I used 3/4 of the mixture - pressed it into a greased 9X9 glass baking dish. Covered it with a few spoonfuls of the spaghetti sauce, and then my topping:

Stir fry together until browned:
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cubed eggplant
1/2 zucchini sliced
4 mushrooms
1/2 red onion chopped
1/2 green bell pepper chopped
oregano
thyme
salt
fresh ground pepper

I put this mixture on top of the spaghetti sauce, and then topped it with some soy mozzarella slices, and baked it in the oven 350 degrees for 20 minutes. It turned out great and my husband really enjoyed it too.

With the rest of the crust mixture, I added some sesame seeds, some more celery salt and some more onion powder and seasonings, mixed these altogether and pressed together some little crackers which I baked on a greased cookie sheet at 350 for 10 minutes. My husband loved these too!

I also made more green goddess dressing (in a blender: 1 pkg silken tofu, juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 cup rice milk (to desired consistency), fresh chives and parsley chopped, 2 tbsp leftover pesto (which I had in my freezer), salt and fresh ground pepper.) I am thinking that this will be good to have on stand by in case I need salad dressing, something to dip veggies into, or something to top steamed veggies with.

The great thing about this regimen is that even though sometimes I do get hungry - I don't get wildly wicked uncontrollable cravings to eat/snack. Tony Robbins said that your body has cravings for acid causing foods, when there is alot of acid already in your system because the body is trying to cope (actually I forget the reason that he gave for why we have food cravings). But I do notice that with this way of eating, I don't get crazy food cravings.

One thing I have noticed is again, after only 2 days of doing this regimen carefully, the itching
on my ears has significantly died down. One thing I am trying carefully to do here is avoid yeast, sugars and wheat flour to try to cut down on the yeast levels in my system, which have resulted in me getting lots of little recurring rashes/redness (ears, scalp to name a few).

The other silly thing that I will mention is that while I was in the grocery store today, as I was walking by the meat department, I was repeating in my head "let's have some carrion", and when I was walking in the baking aisle "poisonous sugar laden chemical factory" - it is like a mantra to try to get me to not look at meat and baked goods in a way that will make me get the desire for them. You gotta do what you gotta do. I won't make these assertions outloud because most people have fully bought in to the system and I don't believe in forcing my opinions down other people's throats. However, if I do lose alot of weight doing this - if people ask me how I did it, I will tell them for sure.

See you tomorrow!

Day Two of the Rest of My Life!

After this morning's heart burn induced early rising, I decided to alkalize my body right off the bat. For breakfast I had a stirfry of olive oil, broccoli, chopped rapini, baby spinach and almonds. Interestingly, the heartburn has been completely gone ever since!

For lunch I had two bowls of my All-Vegetable Soup (recipe below) (makes about 6 servings):

1tbsp olive oil
1 chopped onion
2 cups tomato juice
2 cups water (or more as needed)
1 sliced carrot
1 cup each of frozen green beans, frozen peas and frozen corn
1 can sliced beets
2 garlic cloves
1 cup canned beans (any kind)
1 cup left over cooked quinoa or other grain
1 tbsp McCormick cajun seasoning
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp celery salt
lots of fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

This soup turned out wonderfully - I love cinnamon in savory foods - it really helps
to add richness to the broth.

For a snack I had a couple of handfuls of hemp granola (I bought it at the bulk food store
and it tastes great and thankfully is not high in calories and fat like most granola - only 140
calories in 1/2 cup.

For dinner I made gluten free vegan pad thai (for two):

2 cups cooked brown rice fetuccini or other long brown rice pasta
(if you want to avoid the gluten) The timing on cooking this type of pasta is tricky
if it is not cooked it is really tough, but over cooking it makes it slimy fast.

2tbsp olive oil
6 oz (150 grams) firm tofu, cut into thin strips and pre stir fryed in olive oil, then set aside

Stir fry these ingredients together in the remaining olive oil in the order set out below:
1 sliced carrot
1 cup frozen green beans
1 cup snow peas with the ends removed
2 green onions washed and sliced
2 garlic cloves chopped
1 can baby carrots, drained

Toss vegetables, tofu and noodles together with:
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/8 tsp of red chili paste
few dashes of fish sauce
1 stevia packet

Garnish with lots of finely chopped peanuts


I also gave a try to a tofu pumpkin pie (see recipe for filling
and crust at http://www.phmiracleliving.com/)

The pie was pretty good - the spice measurements that they give are not quite right,
next time I would either cut the nutmeg and cloves in half or use pumpkin pie spice -
as one of these spices was giving a bitterness to the pie. The crust is great! (Although
we don't have access to coconut butter, as listed in the recipe - so I used canola oil). I actually
was able to find all of the necessary ingredients at the Bulk Food Store - so I was really
happy about that.

I also made an ad hoc topping of coconut milk, banana, vanilla extract and 2 stevia packets in the blender mixed with 3tbsp of psyllium - the topping was very runny and ran right over - so I stuck the whole thing in the freezer and we had it as a frozen dessert. Next time I should look up the actual topping recipe that they recommend.

It is really not too bad and I can think of some fun things to do with the elements of this recipe (ie. coconut cream pie, banana cream pie, strawberry pie, add a little cocoa powder or raisins to the crust recipe and make little cookies, etc.)

Other than that I had to bring the car in for an oil change and it turned out to be a whole day work-over, so I walked to and from home (about a 40 minute walk in the very cold wind.)

I also had a real discussion with my husband about whether or not he would like to join me in this adventure - and he wasn't too happy about it (for the most part I have been cooking 2 meals every night ). What I asked him to do was to give me 5 days to change his diet and see
how he likes it (really how his body feels). He said he was willing to have whatever suppers I make, but he will not under any circumstance give up his coffee in the morning (he has a super cup that holds about 6 cups of coffee that he takes with lots of cream and sugar - I just recently got him down to using 2 percent milk in his coffee), but the main thing is that I really have an all-or nothing approach to this diet (you can either take all necessary steps to fix your cells, or you don't) . SOOOOOO his cells will be forever floating in acid and die young. What else can I do? Actually, interestingly, when we were at home last when dad gave me the cds - we did a PH strip test - mine was about 7 -7.5 (and that was on my old diet). My husband's was more white than the lightest yellow indicator (indicating his body is just full of acid at unhealthy levels)!
I think this is why he has very acidic breath all the time, even if he just brushed his teeth, why he has only about 1/4 of his teeth left in his mouth, and also why he is prone to be irritable/angry for no reason. I think it is very interesting and I would love to see what would happen if he were to get off all the junk entirely.

Now I am going to do some surfing around to see if I can't find any more good recipe ideas.
The one thing that I really love about this way of eating is that it feels like Eden - you really
feel like you are feasting on the best the earth has to offer. It is also great to know that with all the feasting you are still not taking in the kinds of calories you would in any other way of eating.
I also do not crave any bad foods at night time like I always used to.

One final thing that I have to mention is that in becoming a vegan - I have this sense that I am finally LIVING what I believe. I have always been an animal lover and a nature lover - loved the garden and vegetables. In particular, I have always admired our female ancestors for their
ability to use herbs to improve health, and I generally have a Mother Earth approach to spirituality - so this way of eating really has brought my physical self into harmony with my spiritual self.

Eden Vegan just getting off the ground

HELLO WORLD!

I live in Canada and work as a librarian.
I recently was given the Tony Robbins Living Health
cd set from my dad - who is a big fan of Tony Robbins.
Mom and dad learned alot from the CDs (they decided
to cut out alot of meat, and also to eat more greens)
and they decided to keep them if any of their children
would be willing to take them home and listen to them
as well. So I did.

I listened to them every day for about a week while I was
getting ready for work in the morning.

At the end of listening to them, I decided to try to make
a life change.

In the meantime, I have overhauled my diet.

I have decided to go on a strictly plant-based diet.
That means: no milk, no eggs, no meat, no animal
products whatsoever. I have also cut out yeast, wheat flour,
refined sugar, caffeine, salt (cut down) and alcohol.

I started this diet on Monday February 26.

The first few days I had couscous with lentils and spinach
for breakfast, broccoli and chickpeas for lunch, and I
made vegetable stew with pumpkin the first day. This was
not very appetizing (especially with no salt - because I
am a big salt addict) although I have been eating broccoli
with chickpeas for lunch many days to try to control my
blood sugar (I have had hypoglycemia for most of my life),
so I am used to that.

On Tuesday Feb. 27, I developed scaling red patches on my scalp.
I discontinued the new shampoo I was using, to try to
remedy that. Some things I've read suggest that the body pumps
out toxins in the first few days of detoxifying.

After the third day, I noticed a truly elevated mood
- I just felt alot more energetic and happier - less
irritable. I can't really explain that part of it.

On Friday morning March 2, I woke up after having done this for five days, and weighed myself. I had lost 10 pounds. Tony Robbins cites a woman who did this sort of diet and lost 50 pounds in 6 weeks. He interviews a Dr. Robert Young, who studies the blood, and attributes weight loss under this diet to the body reverting to a more alkaline state in which all kinds of inflammation, minerals and fat are no longer needed to buffer the body from the toxins and acid associated with sugars and cooked meats.

I also noticed that the itching and scaling of my ears died down significantly by Friday, and the red patches on my scalp were cleared up.

Really interestingly was the fact that my GP put me on the water pill for borderline high blood pressure about 3 months ago, and on the Wednesday February 20, before this diet I was at the OBGYN's office - they took my blood pressure and it was 150/90

At my GP's office the Thursday night March 1st, after I had been doing this diet for 4 days - my blood pressure was 110/70!!!!

Now about a month ago, my friend took my husband and I out for our birthdays, and so
we made plans to take her out for her birthday on Friday, she paid for us and celebrated with us, so I wanted to make sure we reciprocated, so:

On Friday night March 2nd after doing the vegan diet for 5 days, my husband and I took her out for dinner - for all-you can eat perch, chicken, french fries coleslaw and buns. I ate lots of everything, my approach before this point has been "I will do vegan 360 days of the year and the other 5 days, enjoy myself." However, after eating all of this greasy food, I really felt that there was alot of grease in my mouth that I could not break down - for about 15 minutes afterwards. I also had a pepsi when we were at the racetrack after.

In the night after eating all of this, I woke up at 4:30am and could not sleep. (which is why I am on here typing!) I had heart burn and acid, not entirely refluxing, but at the top of my stomach which was doing alot of churning around, and this was keeping me awake. Tony Robbins in his CDs says that eating alot of this kind of food causes the blood to thicken, clog up and be sluggish, so that less oxygen is getting to the system and we become enervated. Ultimately eating these big meals puts alot of pressure on the system to process it and I think that at some point he says that this can affect our sleep - what I really notice is that the plant -based diet moves through the system much more quickly - this chicken and grease is still sitting in my stomach at 7:18 the next morning.

Now that I think about it, before I was on this diet, I would wake up at least once in the night, if not more than once and sometimes be awake for awhile. I feel like while I was eating vegan however, I was sleeping through the night without getting up much - or if I was, I was able to fall right back asleep. I was also feeling more energized in the morning.

Another really interesting thing I did notice is that, before I went on this diet, I was waking up every morning with a stuffed up nose and a mucous ball in my throat. I thought I was developing an allergy to our long-haired cat, who we keep in our bedroom at nighttime. However, while I was on the diet, I was no longer waking up with these ailments. Interestingly - this morning after eating all that crap - it happened to me again that I woke up with a stuffed up nose and throat.

Another reason why I was having trouble sleeping was because my ears were ITCHING like crazy again in the middle of the night - after eating CRAP!!!!

To me, these differences are really stark and really hit it home for me how much of
a response my body has to eating bad foods.

Before I finish this post, I just wanted to mention that after surfing the internet for gluten free vegan recipes I realize that there is alot more I can do with what I'm eating. My menu for the upcoming week includes flax granola with blueberries and soy milk for breakfast, all-vegetable soup and salad made with spinach, cashews, and beans with a dressing made of silken tofu, rice milk and herbs, for lunch - and perhaps veggie ground round tomato sauce on brown rice pasta, or mashed potatoes made with rice milk and dark green veggies with almonds, all kinds of stirfrys with nuts or tofu or both, and also chilis, stews, hummus, baba ghanouj for snacking, thai stirfry with rice noodles, tofu and peanuts, stirfryed italian veggies with pesto, white beans and brown rice noodles, etc. I also carry a nut and seed mix with me for snacking.

These are my observations so far. I actually can't wait to get back to "day three" state of happiness and energy that I was able to achieve last week.

Also I should mention that I take a vitamin supplement and salmon oil supplement daily to supplement for any reduced iron or calcium intake.

I'll keep you posted!