Friday, November 28, 2008

Gobble Gobble


Thanksgiving Wrap Up

Well, first of all, I hope everybody out there had a wonderful thanksgiving!

Yesterday, after posting, I made my vegetable soup (Mexican Butternut Squash Soup--recipe off MSN.com with a few modifications; add potatoes and carrots, and cook in a crock pot.) and my Sweet Potato Mash (recipe from Kristen's Raw holiday food recipe book). My food processor is really small, so to make enough sweet potatoes for both dinner at Mom's and the church dinner we were helping at, I had to run 6 batches! It took forever, but oh well.

Then I got ready and we went over to the church. It's not a church we go to, but hubby was asked by someone where he works if he'd like to help out and he said yes. So we took our sweet potatoes and were supposed to help serve. It was a great idea, but I don't do well with too many people I don't know. I'm basically a hermit. Also, we stayed for the first 2 hours and served only 3 people--and they were all volunteers, too. There just weren't many people there. And there was so much food--I really hope they had somewhere to donate the leftovers. We took our sweet potatoes home with us and they hadn't even been touched except by me (I had a small serving because I was bored and getting hungry).

So then we went over to Mom's. She did turkey (a 19 pound bird for 5 people eating off it), stuffing, potatoes and gravy. I did bread and pumpkin pie (made on Wednesday) and soup and sweet potatoes. When we got over there, she asked me to make the gravy. I cringed, but went ahead and did it. Then I mashed the potatoes for here (using soy milk and vegan margarine) and we ate.

No one said anything when I passed over the turkey, stuffing or gravy. We had a really nice meal--my folks, my 2 kids, my hubby and me.

After dinner, when Mom and I were cleaning up, she asked me to take the rest of the meat off the carcass and I declined. She said that was fine and asked (for the first time) why I had quit eating meat. So I told her about the book (Skinny Bitch) and how I had done some more research on my own and how now, I just can't even stomach the thought of eating meat now. And how if a few fewer animals are bread and/or killed every year because I choose not to eat them, then that was just so much the better with me.

During dinner, Dad brought up how beautiful wild turkeys were and how domestic turkeys don't even resemble the wild ones much anymore. So I piped up that it was because the only reason domestic turkeys even exist is for meat--so all of their wonderful qualities have been bread out in favor of stupid fast growing meat. I think my attitude surfaced because he quickly changed the subject.

At Fred Meyer, I got some Soyatoo! soy whipped topping. It was just like the canned stuff made from cream. So I got whip cream on my pie, too. (Thanks to my friend for showing it to me!)

When we got home, I put the rest of my sweet potatoes in the freezer so we can have them 4 more times. I put the rest of my soup in the fridge for lunch today, and then we sat and vegged on the couch and watched TV. Just before bed, we had a piece of son's left over B-day cake and then went to bed early.

This weekend, we are planning on going over to see my sister and doing some shopping and goofing off. She lives about 4 hours away. Her birthday is next week so I made pumpkin muffin (from Vegan with a Vengeance) for her for her birthday.

I guess I should say we were planning on going. Daughter is feeling a little puny this morning. puked and runs once. I hope it's from eating too much yesterday, but if she's still feeling poorly, we won't be going.

I also have a friend moving her shop today. My hubby did the plumbing on the shop she's in now and she's asked him to help. So after I get around to getting dressed, I'll go help her move and when he's done with the deer, he'll come over and help with the plumbing. (If daughter is too sickly, we may end up taking shifts staying here with her.)

Well anyway, that's all that's going on around here.
Ciao for now.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Blogging From a Mobile Phone

Here I am. It is a little after 7 on Thanksgiving morning and I am blogging from a telephone! This new thing is pretty cool.

It is a little time consuming, though--I type much faster on a ful size keyboard.

I actually need to learn how to use the camera, so I'll get off here and do that before I go in to start making my soup and sweet potatoes.

Ciao for now.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Almost Thanksgiving

It's the day before Thanksgiving and my son's birthday. I wanted to take Friday off, but had stuff that had to be done this week so I busted my tush to get it done. And I had to get some of my cooking for tomorrow done, too. So this morning, I got up early and got started. I had son's birthday cake in the oven, bread rising, and was sitting at my desk starting work by 8:30.

Well, I got it all done. I made cake, bread, and pumpkin pie today and got my work done. (I'm so proud of myself.)

Son turned 12 today. He and hubby went hunting this morning and he got his first deer--they'll eat good this winter. Daughter went over to my mom's and they made Thanksgiving decorations today. We went out for son's birthday dinner to a tepanyaki place--I had veggies. Then my folks came over and son opened presents and we had cake (vegan devil's food-recipe from vegcooking.com) and vanilla ice cream (vegan-recipe from Ani Phyo's book).

I like a green smoothie for breakfast--usually a piece of fruit, a vegetable, a small handful of almonds and ice and water. I usually use spinach or green cabbage for the veggie but I'm out of both. So yesterday I used apple, red cabbage, and almonds. It was so good! It was such a pretty shade of lavender, too.

We got our new phones, today. Mine is so cool. It does e-mail and Internet and has a GPS as well as text and phone. I need to learn how to use it better, though. I guess I'm pretty pathetic, tech-wise.

Well, tomorrow morning, I'll make the veggie soup and the sweet potato mash and then watch the parade and then off to serve lunch at the Agape center. Then we'll go over to my folks and have dinner with them.

This has been pretty rambly. I think I'll go look at some of the other blogs, now.
Ciao for now.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Whole Wheat Quick Bread


So last night, I realized that I only had half of a pita bread left; nothing at all in the way of vegan breads, otherwise. (We do have a loaf of store bought whole-wheat, but it has dairy.) So I decided that I needed to make some bread this morning.


Well, I got an early start--dropped the kids off at school and then was going to get the bread rising before starting work. I looked in the baking cupboard and (horror of horrors!) I only had enough yeast left for one batch of bread. Usually that wouldn't be a problem, but now it is because I didn't want to go to the store before Friday and I need that yeast to make bread for Thanksgiving.


So anyway, I decided to try a whole wheat quick bread. It went together super quick (thus the name "quick bread", right?) and tastes really good. (I just had a piece with vegan margarine and organic jelly.) This is a totally made-up recipe and it came out good, so here it is:


Whole Wheat Quick Bread


2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup gluten

1 Tablespoon turbinado

1 teaspoon salt (actually, a bit less than that)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder (a bit heaped)

1 3/4 cup water

2 Tablespoons olive oil


With a fork, mix the dry ingredients. Stir in the oil and water. Pour into an oiled loaf pan. Bake at 325 for 45 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean). Let cool for a few minutes and then run a knife around the edge of the pan and turn the bread out to cool on a rack.


How's that for easy? Now it does have the texture of a quick bread--no one's going to be fooled into thinking its a yeast bread, but it will definitely make for great toast or sandwiches.
(I'm kind of proud of myself.)
Ciao for now.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Cell Phone trade-up time and general rambling

Don't you hate it when your cell phone company suddenly decides they aren't going to provide service anymore? But of course, they will help you get switched over to the company that is taking their accounts. Argh!

It might not be bad if they just switched you over and the cost and the service and everything stayed the same, but, of course, that's not how it works. So today, I stood at the kiosk at the mall trying to get switched over. Of course we had to get new phones and the new plans were different, and they had to fill out a bunch of stuff on the computer, and on and on and on. I started at the kiosk a couple of weeks ago and they didn't really know what they were doing. So last week, I went in to a regular Verizon store and got it figured out what we needed--but, we needed to do it all through our current company to avoid the activation fees, and the deposit, and get the new phone discount, etc. And today, I went back to the kiosk and got it taken care of (I hope).

The new phones are supposed to come via Fed-Ex next week. I upgraded my plan and my phone so I'll have to learn how to use everything, but I'm hoping it'll be good.

I also had to go shopping for my son's B-day present from my folks. Mom called and asked if I'd go shopping for her. So I did since I was going to be at the mall anyway--of course it took several calls to her while I was shopping, but we finally got it all figured out.

When I went out, I actually went out for lunch and then to get file folders that I needed for work--I never got the file folders. Oh well, there is always Monday.

Hubby and son are on a scout camp-out tonight. Daughter loves my homemade french fries so I have both sweet potato and Yukon gold potato fries in the oven right now. I haven't a clue what we are going to have with it.

For my fries I just peel the potatoes I want and cut (I cut them into rounds instead the traditional shape). Then I place them on a cookie sheet spritzed with olive oil and spritz a bit more over the fries. I bake at 350 for a while, flip them and bake until they are fork tender. I don't have how long it takes because I usually just follow my nose--when I first start to smell them I flip and when the smell really good, I take them out.

I also made some dehydrator bread from a recipe I got off of GoneRaw.com. It's good, but it came out more like a granola than a bread. I think the reason is that my food processor didn't chop the sprouted wheat very good. I doubt I'll make that one again.

Well, I think it's time to get the fries out of the oven. They smell really good.
Ciao for now.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Thursday Lunch

Yesterday's food (all vegan):
Breakfast Coffee w/ Soy Milk
Green Smoothie
Lunch Spinach & Nut Cheez Sandwich on Whole Wheat
1/2 of another sandwich on a Whole Wheat Pita
Snack Apple
Dinner Seitan, Spinach & Nut Cheez Sandwich on 1/2 a ww pita
Cauliflower
1/2 a ww pita w/ Agave
Snack cup of Decaf w/ Soy Milk
2 Date Balls

Today (so far):
Breakfast: Cup of coffee w/ soy milk
Green Smoothie (used apple instead of banana--I will
definitely make it that way again. Very good!)
Lunch: Broccoli salad
1/2 a ww pita with Tahini

The Seitan that I made yesterday afternoon was very good. My hubby even ate some (of course he slathered his with nut cheez). It came out like a salami; the seasonings were even similar. Thanks, Post Punk Kitchen!

When I told kiddos what was for dinner, they both complained. I told them "fine, the food is on the counter, you put it together however you want." I was impressed--son had 1/2 a spinach and nut cheez pita, seitan by itself, and cauliflower; daughter had cauliflower, seitan, a pita, and tasted the nut cheez (she didn't want the spinach and that's OK because she did have cauliflower). And both put a big pile of margarine on their plates to dip use on the cauliflower. And of course both of them put agave on a piece of pita for desert (that's where I got the idea). Hubby did a plate of butter with some cauliflower, a piece of seitan with a gob of nut cheez, and a pita with tons of butter and agave.

So how do you get kids to eat decently when their daddy eats like crap? I can't seem to convince hubby that he needs to be an example for the kids. And his idea of cutting down is using 3 spoons of sugar in his coffee instead of 4 or using 2 TBSP of butter instead of 2.5. He just doesn't get it. He is on blood pressure meds, and diabetes meds, and is quite overweight. He is also of the attitude that doctors are there to take care of him so he doesn't need to take care of himself. Since he doesn't want to take care of himself for himself, I try to get him to do it for the kids. I also try to lead by example; if I am active and eating right and have good foods available, I think maybe he'll catch on. (He is a little due to the "laziness factor"; it's easier to eat what's already there than to have to make your own food.)

But then again, he didn't stop smoking until he had a bad health scare and decided that he'd rather be a live non-smoker than a dead smoker. I hope it doesn't take a scare to make him take care of himself--heart attacks and strokes don't always give you second chances.

Enough of the ranting. I saw a recipe for "oatmeal raisin muffins" on VeganDad's blog. I think I'll try them. I also have wheat sprouting for some dehydrator bread that I got a recipe for on goneraw.com.

I haven't figured out what's for dinner yet, but I had better not worry about it now. I should get back to work.

Ciao for now.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Wednesday lunchtime


I'm back! It has been a busy morning! I only got around to lunch here just a few minutes ago. Then I made some Seitan and got it in the oven (from the Post Punk Kitchen's website) and now here I am!


The nice thing about working at home is that I can do things around here when I take a break--for instance, I would never be able to start dinner during my lunch break if I worked in an office. I think I would also feel guilty about blogging on breaks, too.


Last night, after the kids got home from Karate, everyone wanted pudding. The pudding mix looked to be vegan (except sugar of course) so I had daughter make it with soy milk--it turned out pretty good.


I made some pita bread yesterday, and have some Cheddah sauce from lunch yesterday, so for dinner, we are having a steamed veggie (probably cauliflower because daughter likes it) and pita-bread sandwiches with cheddah sauce, seitan, and spinach for fillings. That sounds good to me, and I know that the kids will at least eat the cauliflower.
The picture is of a praying mantis we had on our pumpkin vines in September, by the way. I like blogs with pictures so thought I might add some to mine.
I'm back to work now.
Ciao for now.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

It's Tuesday

I made it through Monday--I didn't have time to post, but that's because it was a really weird day. I called hubby around 8:30 to remind him that he needed to pick up our daughter from school because I'd be at an orthodontist appointment with our son and he said he'd be home soon anyway.

It turns out that last week, his department had been doing touch up painting. They guys he works with warned him not to do too good of a job or he'd be sorry. Well, he did a good job because that's what you are supposed to do, right? And his area had too many touch ups so he had to paint the whole wall so it would look more uniform. And he couldn't paint while there were people there, so he was sent home and had to go back to work at 7:30 and paint. How's that for rewarding mediocrity? The guy who does a good job gets sent home and has to return to work from 7:30 until midnight and then has to show up the next day at 7 again. The guys who do a poor job get to continue doing a poor job.

It made me mad!

Anyway, since he was home, I took off a few hours and we went Christmas shopping form both kids and birthday shopping for my son. And then we went to lunch at a Thai place that had a really good vegan green curry on the lunch menu. Then we came home and hubby slept while I worked.

Then, I took son to his ortho appointment. They showed us a clay model of his mouth, and all the weird pictures they took, and examples of the braces and appliances he'll need, and we talked about cost (OUCH!). He starts with spacers on December third and gets his full braces on December tenth.

Then, hubby took the kids to piano and I took the puppy to puppy class. She is such a little freak! She does so good with all of the stuff at home and can't pay attention to save her life at class. The trainer says she's a typical sporting dog puppy.

When I got home, hubby was back at work and the kids had already had dinner. I got told that "Daddy didn't make us eat your leftovers, we got popcorn chicken and sandwiches". Yeah, Daddy. That's the way to keep you kids nice and healthy--feed them dead fish in chicken embryo sauce and dead poultry. I warmed up leftover curried veggies over pasta.

Although I have to admit, it was nice to finish the evening just me and the kids. I hope that's not bad to say, but sometimes, that's how it is.

My food intake yesterday was horrible! It was all vegan, but I had too many cookies and date balls. It's weird but some days, I just can't seem to get filled up. (I guess it's a fall back to my fat days.) My scale showed me up one and a half pounds from yesterday--I know I didn't eat 5,250 calories in excess of my caloric needs yesterday but I also know that when I do eat too much, I kind of retain water. In fact, I can feel it in my fingers today.

People say you shouldn't weigh every day, but for me it is a help. I see the scale as a tool to help keep me on track. I'm not strictly limiting portions or counting calories anymore, and the scale tells me when I need to watch closer. For now anyway, I need to weigh everyday if I want to maintain my weight loss.

Well, I'm going to go get some lunch and then get back to work. Food today so far has been:

coffee with soy milk
smoothie (1 banana, small handful of walnuts, 2 dates, big handful of spinach, ice, and water--it was very good.)

For lunch I'm going to make Rhio's broccoli in cheddah sauce and dinner will be the leftovers daddy didn't make them eat last night. (I'm such a mean mom!)

Ciao for now.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Sunday Night

It was a pretty good weekend, I guess. Let's see if I can remember what all we did......

Friday, after son's violin lessons, we went out to Barne's and Noble. I got Ani Phyo's raw cookbook. Then we went to dinner--the waitresses at Perkins look at you really weird when you order a chicken salad, hold the chicken and the cheese.

Saturday, daughter had her trumpet lesson and then we did a lot of shopping--I think we were out of everything. We went home for lunch and to relax for a while then hit Walmart, went out to dinner, and then over to my folks. Dinner was at a Chinese place that didn't seem to know what tofu was; the waitress said they had "egg-fu". Ha-ha-ha, not. They did have a stir fried veggie dish that was good, though.

Over at my folk's house, my dad started in on meat--talking about how he was sure I like a good steak (NO) or a good hamburger (NO) etc. He was trying to get at how there were plenty of places to put feed lots and dairies that wouldn't bother people with the smells. (Well, let's see. I'm sure no one would be offended by the the amount of green-house gasses that are being farted out of each of those bovine behinds. And I'm sure no one would mind that those animals are eating so much that pounds and pounds of corn, etc. are being re-routed away from hungry people so other overfed people can have a good steak or a good hamburger or a glass of milk. No one would be offended at all.) Sorry, I've got a bit of a soap box on that.

Today, I froze pumpkin so we can eat it through the winter, I cleaned the fish tank, Hubby trimmed the trees and we all picked up limbs. That's about all.

Today's food:
Breakfast: cup of coffee w/ soy milk
smoothie out of Ani Phyo's book
Lunch: Seitan and Spinach with Veganaise on Whole Wheat
left over veggies from last night's dinner
Snack: apple
cookies and soy milk
Dinner: pasta with a curry veggie sauce

After while, I'll probably have a couple of date balls (donut holes out of Ani Phyo's book).

That's right, yesterday, I also made date balls. They are actually what Ani Phyo calls donut holes. I know my husband, though. If I made something like that and called it "donut holes", he would take one taste and decide he didn't like them because they weren't like "real" donut holes. So instead, I called them what they were--date balls--and he thinks they are great. They are sooooo good.

By the way, the cookies I had today, they were vegan except for the sugar. I would be willing to guess that the sugar would be cane sugar which would probably be filtered through bone char. I just don't know how to get around that so I just do the best I can most of the time.

Well, I had better get moving. I've got to get my daughter out of the tub so I can get kids to bed (and then get me to bed).

Ciao for now.

Friday, November 14, 2008

It's finally Friday

Well, I made it through to another Friday. One of the gals at the office is leaving early this afternoon, so it will give me a chance to go do a couple of errands, too.

Puppy class went really well last night. It was just me, the pup, and the instructor. (We did a make-up class since we missed the official one on Monday.) Seems I've been teaching the pup just as I should, but once we got there and were in the arena (or whatever she calls her work area), Little Girl couldn't remember anything. "Oh boy! I'm in a new place and there are such great smells here! And if I pull hard enough on this leash, I'm sure I can get over there--cough cough!" etc. She did finally settle down and we worked on a couple of new things. When we got home, she proudly showed them off to the rest of the family as if she had been paying attention in class and working really hard--the smarty-pants little show-off.

yesterday's food:

Breakfast: 1 cup of coffee w/ soy milk
green smoothie
Lunch: Seitan & spinach w/ veganaise on whole wheat
butternut squash soup
snack: apple, almond butter, and some pumpkin seeds
Dinner: butternut squash soup (yes again--we still have leftovers)
Snack: peanut butter and agave on 1 piece of whole wheat

Ciao for now.

Thursday, November 13, 2008


Today is going better than yesterday did. Although there have been work frustrations galore. Oh well, that's life. I can deal with work frustrations--it's family and personal frustrations that get me down.


The pup (the famous "Little Girl" for which I named this blog) starts school tonight. She's a 4 month old German Shorthair Pointer. Her name is Little Girl because my hubby is stubborn. We picked her out the day she was born and visited her once a week until she was 8 1/2 weeks old when we took her home. He kept calling her the "little girl". We kept trying to get him to come up with a real name. He was stubborn so here she is with the name of Little Girl for life.
Anyway, she starts school tonight with me as her handler. I had a really good time when I did puppy school with our 10 year old German Shepherd cross. I want the pup to be well trained--hubby wants to be able to take her out into the field and have her mind. Since the kids and I are the only ones that really work with her, I'm not sure how well she will ever mind him, but she is smart so maybe she'll figure it out. Her biggest problem is that she is a puppy--sometimes she has ADHD (or whatever you call it in hyper dogs) and has the attention span of a gnat; sometimes she gets it into her head that she needs to concentrate on something (the cat or a fly, for instance) and you can't distract her.
She does "sit" and "come" pretty well. We are still working on "down" and "off". And "heel" is just starting. She has also been about a month without an accident so I'm hoping potty training is down pat.
Let's see, to change the subject--food today:
Breakfast:
1 cup of coffee w/ soy milk
1 green smoothie
Lunch:
Seitan and spinach w/ veganaise on whole wheat
small bowl of butternut squash soup (leftovers from last night)
I'll probably have an apple for a snack when I go get the kids, we'll have the leftover soup for dinner, then who knows what for an evening snack.
We tend to eat dinner early--like about 5 or so on most nights so we all need an evening snack. We're almost out of fruit, but I do have some frozen strawberries so maybe we could do a smoothie. That would be good.
Well, back to work now,
Ciao for now.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Dinner Frustration

I am sooooo frustrated right now. For dinner I fixed Mexican Butternut Squash (I got the recipe on msn.com). I have made this soup twice before to rave reviews--once as per the recipe and the second time with added potatoes and carrots. This time, it was as per the recipe with seitan (recipe from the Urban Vegan's blog) added. I decided to add some protein so it would be a complete meal with a piece of whole wheat bread.

Daughter ate 1 piece of Seitan, 2 bites of squash, and her bread. Son ate a few bites of veggies, the broth, and his bread. Hubby ate a few bites of veggies, his broth, and his bread. I am the only one who ate the soup! I thought it was really good.

Peeling and cubing a butternut squash ought to be an iron man event and yet I did it so my family would have a good healthy dinner and no one liked it. I get so frustrated that they won't do healthy! If it was just the kids, I would just chuck everything else in the house and they'd either eat or starve, but with a hubby that doesn't care about nutrition (or his extra weight or his diabetes or his high blood pressure) it makes it hard. I can't force him to eat right and he buys crap for the house. If he has it, he lets the kids have it, too.

I worry so much about my daughter. She's overweight I don't want her to go through what I went through as a fat kid. And I don't want her to have self-esteem issues caused by my constantly harping on her. So I'm trying to go low key by going healthy and active for the whole family. I've told hubby that's what I'm doing (as well as doing it for me); he acts like he's on board until it actually comes time to eat healthy or move. I don't know what to do.

My food today was:

1 cup of coffee w/ soy milk
Green Smoothie
Seitan & spinach sandwich on whole wheat
pumpkin soup
1 banana
butternut squash soup w/ Seitan
1 piece of whole wheat bread w/ vegan margarine

Later I'll have:
1 apple
sunflower seeds.

I think it was a pretty good day--all vegan.

Work went pretty well today, too. I've got quite a bit to do tomorrow, but that's often the case. I worry about work sometimes--with the economy and all. I don't really think my company is going anywhere, but we are having a few economic issues. And to be honest, I have a good job! I get to work from home; I'm available for my kids; I set my own hours as long as I get everything done in a timely manner; the boss is giving me more projects--it's perfect. Maybe that's why I worry--you know the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". I've had this job for a year and a half. I don't think it's going anywhere, but I worry anyway.

Well, I'm off. Hubby should be home soon from taking son to scouts and daughter is practicing piano. Think I'll read for a few minutes.
Ciao for now.

Lunchtime on Wednesday

My conference was pretty good. I went up on Monday (a 2 hour drive) and had dinner with a friend. We went to a place called Mai Thai--we shared edamame, I had a green curry with Tofu, and for dessert we shared black rice with coconut creme. I was pretty impressed with the waitress--I asked for the vegan red curry and she came back to tell me that the chef couldn't do the red curry completely vegan tonight, but he could do the green. Would I like to have the green or could she help me find something else? It would have been so easy for her to just bring me the red curry--I'd have never known there was meat broth in the sauce--but she took the time to let me know and offered me alternatives. It was very good and the service gets excellent marks as well.

At the motel, I had some fruit and plain oatmeal off of their buffet for breakfast and a banana for a snack. For lunch, I had requested a vegan alternative--everyone else got a pasta buffet; I got a great salad made up of all kinds of raw vegetables cut into really tiny squares over a bed of shredded leaf lettuce served in a cabbage bowl. It had a really light vinaigrette over it. I think I definitely got the better end of the deal over the other participants. For an afternoon snack, I had raw sunflower seeds (out of my purse) and an apple.

Then I had to drive home. I had rain the whole way--I HATE DRIVING IN BAD WEATHER! When I got home, I had a piece of whole wheat bread with a little almond butter and jelly on it. I had to have something--I was starving and the kids were just leaving for karate so we wouldn't be able to have dinner for another hour and a half!

For dinner we had stir-fried teriyaki veggies and sauteed teriyaki marinated tofu (hubby and daughter had hot dogs and cottage cheese instead of the tofu).

My veggies are so easy. Here's what I do:

Cut up into like sized pieces whatever veggies you have in the house (we had zucchini, onion, carrot, yellow bell pepper, celery).
Put a little oil in the wok and heat (I use soybean oil).
When the oil is hot, put the veggie in and toss for a few minutes over the heat.
Pour in 1/2 cup of teriyaki sauce (I use kikoman--just like the soy sauce but teriyaki), toss the veggies some more, and turn down heat.
continue cooking until the veggies are as done as you'd like them. (I like them crisp, but hubby likes them pretty much well done so I do them somewhere in between for us).

tofu:
drain, press, and marinate extra firm tofu (I marinated in a bit of veggie broth and teriyaki sauce for about 20 minutes).
lightly oil small fry pay and fry tofu on both sides (about 3 minutes per side or just until lightly brown.

My son really liked the tofu. And by the way, I buy a block of the extra firm tofu and cut it into 3 steaks. They are a little fatter that way, but that's how I like them.

I was so tired last night, I fell into bed as soon as we got the kids in bed. A 2-hour drive, sleeping in a hotel bed, then an all day class, then a 2-hour drive in the rain had taken their toll on me.

Well, I'm back to work, I had a sandwich--seitan with vaganaise and spinach on whole wheat--and now I'm ready to work again.

Ciao for now.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

A really great weekend

Cooking wise, it was a really great weekend.

Saturday morning, the kids wanted pancakes. Son, in particular, wanted pumpkin pancakes. So here is what I did:

1 cup wheat
2 cups soy milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Turbinado
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Here's how: grind wheat in the vita-mix. Then add soy milk and run for a couple of minutes (not on high--high tries to cook it in the vita-mix. Add the rest of the ingredients--baking powder last (in fact, I usually stir in the baking powder with a wooden spoon instead of blending). Cook just like regular pancakes.

They were a big hit. We had leftovers for the kids to toast so they can have pancakes for breakfast for a couple more days. I like mine with a bit of vegan margarine and a drizzle of molasses.

For dinner I made "Sweet Potato Mash" from Kristen's Raw Holiday recipe book, steamed broccoli, and a "Magic Loaf" from the Vegan Lunch Box blog. My son really likes the Sweet Potato Mash; in fact, he asked for it again tonight.

Breakfast today was a smoothie while the carnivores ate bacon & eggs (the smell stuck around the house for way too long). Lunch was a bean-loaf sandwich w/ veganaise on a tortilla.
Dinner was a bean burger, mashed potatoes (mashed w/ a bit vegan margarine and soy milk), gravy made w/ soy milk, and cauliflower. (Son got his sweet potatoes last night so daughter got her potatoes & gravy tonight).

We also got most of the winter clean-up done around here. I can't believe how many leaves we have! We still have to do a little more, but we kind of got stopped because it ended up raining last night and all day today.

Since it was raining today, we ended up spending some time wandering around Costco, Wal-Mart, and Barnes and Noble. There was a book there I'd like called Raw Food Real World.

I'd like to move more to raw. I think I'd do better nutritionally. Like right now, I have totally vegan pumpkin cookies in the kitchen that I can't seem to keep my hands off. I think I'd feel better, too. I seem to still get into vegan baking and some of the things I make are sinful.

I like to do a green smoothie for breakfast. For lunch, I do a salad, or carrot/zucchini noodles unless I have leftovers. For dinner, I always try to do something at least someone in my family besides me will eat. For snacks I like to do fruit or veggies (unless I have cookies).

Right now, I've got one kid playing the Wii and one in the tub. Hubby made us a smoothie for a bedtime snack and he's in putting the dishes in the dishwasher .

Tomorrow I've got a lot of work to do, plus I need to leave right after the I get the kids home from school. I have a CPE class Tuesday and I hate making a 2 hour drive at 5 am so I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon. I've got a friend in the class where the class is so we'll have dinner and then I'll stay at the motel where the class is being held and then I'll go to class on Tuesday and come home afterwards.

I hate being away from my babies, but they do fine. My mom usually takes them to school (hubby's already at work by the time they need to leave) and then hubby pics them up after school. If either my mom or my hubby aren't available, then they can walk; we live close enough. I miss them, though. I guess that's just part of being a mom.

Well, I'll go now so I can start getting them ready for bed.
Ciao for now.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Friday Night

Today's Food (all Vegan):

1 cup of coffee w/ soymilk
green smoothie
Spagetti squash w/ tomato sauce
small pb & j sandwich
1 apple
veggie mongolian BBQ
2 cookies

I also had a few little snacks. We went to the holiday craft show at the Expo Center, they had a lot of cute things, but nothing worth buying (not right now, anyway). At several of the booths, they had snacks so I had a rice cracker w/ mustard, a bite of cotton candy, a dixie cup of apple juice, and a dixie cup of spagetti w/ homemade marinara. Of course the kids and hubby had all of the snacks.

It really bothered me that they had one booth with all leathers. It even had a sign that they could do the hair as requested on custom tanning. I had to look away. It's funny that it has never bothered me before. I guess I just didn't think about it. Now, I see the animal instead of just a product.

Like I said earlier, being Friday, hubby would want to go out to dinner. We went to a mongolian BBQ place. I ordered a tofu dish and then when I went up with my daughter, I saw that they had just cleaned the grill and the only person ahead of me was her. So I found the waitress and had her cancel my order and I had the BBQ. Broccoli, cabbage, onions, carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and a few noodles lightly sauteed in curry and garlic and sweet & sour sauces. It was really good. I did suggest to the waitress that it would be nice if they had tofu on the bar to be sauteed with the veggies.

While we were there, we ran in to my aunt and uncle. She had a gastric bypass a couple of years ago. And while she is looking good, I'm glad I did my weight loss my way--I hate surgery and I know she had some trouble with nausea after hers.

The puppy is going crazy-she's wanting to play and the kids are wanting to build with legos in the other room. They were at each other's throats while we were out so I'm not sure why they are playing together nicely, now. (probably because we are at home and not out)

Well anyway, ciao for now. I probably won't be logging in over the weekend. I think I really like having this log, but after being on the computer most of the week, I usually don't even turn the machine on on the weekend.

Good Morning, It's Friday!

Yesterdays Eats (all vegan):
1 cup of Coffee w/ Soy Milk
Green Smoothie
Grapes
Almond Butter and Jelly Sandwich on WW
Carrot and Zuke Soup
Banana
Spagetti Squash w/ tomato sauce
1 cookie's worth of cookie dough
2 pumpkin cookies

So yesterday was a pretty good day. I didn't get everything I wanted to get done at work done, but that's a never ending story. I'll get this written and then get busy and try to get it done today.

I also need to go shopping. My cousin's daughter is having a baby just before Christmas and her shower is tomorrow. My daughter, my mom and myself are going to go in on a gift for her.

It's cold and overcast here today. All of the leaves finally fell off the trees. If it warms up a bit after while, I think I'll have the kids go do "doggy duty" and then rake leaves. That'll be a good bit of exercise for them and it will keep them out of my hair while I'm working. They have the day off of school today and I find I have a hard time working with them home.

I think I'd like some soup for dinner. I have a couple of recipes--butternut squash soup and chowder--that I have all of the ingredients for. Actually scratch that. It's Friday and we usually go out to dinner on Fridays. I hope hubby doesn't want a "steakhouse" kind of place. (I'll just have a salad with no cheese or croutons and oil & vinegar, and a dry baked potato.)

Well, 9:00. Time to get to work.
Ciao for now.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Spagetti Squash and Pumpkin Cookies

Well, I made a Spagetti Suash for dinner. I didn't do anything fancy, I just baked it and the put tomato sauce on it once I had it forked out into a bowl. I thought it was good. I was surprised that my daughter even liked it. She doesn't usually like vegetables. (I also made chicken nuggets for my hubby and my kids--yuck, but they think they need meat. Normally, I have hubby do the meat if he thinks he needs it, but he was at an eye appointmtent.)

I baked a pumpkin a few days ago and had some left over so after I got cleaned up from dinner, I make pumpkin cookies. My aunt had a recipe from a church thing she went to so I did some substituions and they came out really good. The last batch just got out of the oven. We now have 5 1/2 dozen cookies in the house--dangerous times.

My daughter is at Girl Scouts, and my son just finished practicing his piano and is going outside with the puppy, and my hubby is watching Survivor. I've got a few minutes to myself.

I really hope I get to sleep in the morning. My husband gets up early, so the puppy gets up early. She either cries while he showers or plays with her toy--I really dislike waking up to "squeaker, squeaker, squeaker". The kids don't have school tomorrow (they are out for parent-teacher conferences) so I can actually sleep in a little while and still be ready for work in plenty of time--if I can sleep, that is.

Well, I'm off. Think I'll read my book for a few and then go get my daughter.
Ciao for now.

A Second Try Here

Well, I'll try this again. I just typed up a big long post of introduction and then did something and "Poof" it was gone.

User error, I am sure.

Well anyway I'll try to get this going again.

I am married; a busy mom of 2 kids; I work from a home office for a company in another town; we have 3 dogs, 2 fish, 1 cat; and in my spare time I like to--wait a minute, I don't have any spare time. Also, I am a fairly new vegan in a house full of carnivores.

I used to be fat. Seriously--I recently lost 130+ pounds and have been working on keeping it off for the last 4 months. Getting healthy, once and for all, and motivating my kids to be healthy was what got me to lose the weight. Health and a couple of books (Skinny B#$%* and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Living) were what got me vegan.

I sometimes have trouble with being vegan--the thought of meat or eggs turns my stomach, but dairy occasionally calls my name. (Like when I'm out of Rice Divine ice cream and my family insists they need Dairy Queen blizzards.) And sometimes it's frustrating. (Like when I make a dinner that is to die for and my husband and daughter turn their noses up at it.)

But overall I feel great and it's a good feeling to know that I'm not killing animals.

When I was losing the weight, I kept a food diary. I kept it on into maintenance for a few months--it helped. And I find that when I am processing something in my head, I start working it through like I'm writing it. So I thought a blog might be a good idea. I don't intend this to be just a food diary, I'd like it to be a life diary of a transitioning vegan.

Well, like I said, I work from home and I really need to get some lunch and then get back to work. I had a cup of coffee with soy milk and then later a green smoothie (dates, spinach, a few oats, a little cocoa powder, water and ice--yum) for breakfast. Then I had some grapes for a snack. Now, it's almost noon and I need to go see what's in the fridge.

I'm really looking forward to keeping this on-line diary of sorts.
Ciao for now.