Just Food.....

Today's post consist of a few things that I've been eating this past week.  First up is a new restaurant that we went to Tuesday night.  A Cheddars opened up here in Jackson a few months ago, and Tony has been dying to go.  Every time we go by there it's packed with like an hour or more wait.  We decided to go out to eat Tuesday night instead of cooking, so we thought we would try to get in at Cheddars.  It was our lucky night.  We walked right in with no wait.  I was a little disappointed at first, because I didn't see much that I could eat.  I really didn't want to eat just a salad, and I saw a Dijon Chicken Mushroom meal that I thought I could get, but ask them for more mushrooms in place of the chicken.  I asked the waitress if I could do that, but she recommended that I just get the salad and 4 vegetables deal for $6.99.  Mushrooms were not one of their vegetable sides, but she said I could order them any way.  So, I ended up getting a salad and veggie plate.  The salad was a perfect size and had lots of veggies in it.  Sorry, I devoured it before I even thought about taking a picture.  I did manage to take a picture of my vegetable plate though.   The mushrooms were fantastic.  I don't know what seasoning they used to cook them in, but I've never eaten any out that tasted that good.   The rice was great, the steamed broccoli was steamed perfectly, and the baby carrots were cooked perfect also.  I could handle eating that meal every day.  :o) 

Sunday night we had chili dogs.   I tried to find a can of veggie chili at my local grocery store, but all they had was chili with out beans (ugh).  I didn't have time to really make a pot of chili, so I just winged it in making a small pot for our hot dogs.  I used a can of chili beans, a small can of tomato sauce, half of an onion (chopped), 1 Roma tomato chopped up (that's all I had), chili powder, and pepper.  I whipped that up in like 15 minutes, and figured that it probably wouldn't be very edible.  Tony had already decided that he was just having hot dogs until he saw what the chili looked like.  I did a quick taste test to make sure that it wasn't horrible, and to my surprise it turned out pretty darn good for something just thrown together.  :o)

Monday night Tony grilled.  I had grilled BBQ Tofu, grilled asparagus, roasted brussel sprouts, and a sweet potato.  This was my first time to cook roasted brussel sprouts.  For some reason I've never big on roasting veggies.  I almost burned the little brussels, but they were still very good.  I think I'm beginning to get hooked on roasted veggies.

For most of my lunches this week I've been having a small side of the chili that was left over from our chili dogs, stuffed grape leaves, carrots or broccoli, hummus, and pretzel chips.   The grape leaves are so small so I thought I could eat three along with everything else.  Boy was I wrong.  I could only eat two, so I had to take one back home for the next day.  Those little stuffed grape leaves are very filling and very good!  Makes me think that their may be more frequent trips to Whole Foods, or maybe I should find a recipe for them and make my own....hmmmm

For some snacks I've been having a Honey Crisp apple with crunchy almond butter....YUM!

I also bought a couple of soy yogurts to try when we went to WF's last Friday.   I don't like the kind they sell at our local Kroger.  It's not very tasty at all.  The Whole Soy & Co was on sale, so I bought those this time.  I really wanted to try some SO Delicious Coconut milk yogurt, but it wasn't on sale.  I knew my husband was probably going to have a heart attack when we checked out, so I thought I better stop putting stuff in the buggy.  It's very easy to get drawn into everything, and to want to buy it right then...at least it is for me.   I'm sure it would be different if we had a WF's where I live.   I would really love to go to Nashville, which is two hours away, and go to Trader Joe's sometime.  Which do you like the best....Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.  Do you think it would be worth the drive to go check out TJ's?

~Peace~

Falafel Was A Success

Happy Tuesday!  First I want to thank everyone for all the suggestions yesterday!  I think I have our meals planned out for us for the rest of the week now thanks to you guys!  I can't wait to try some of the recipes out that you suggested!  I'll keep you posted as to what Tony thought about his meals.  Last night I made Isa's Falafel from Vegan With A Vengeance, left over wild rice (spiced up a bit), and spicy corn stir fry.  This meal was a success!  Tony ate 4 of the Falafels....ha   I'd say he liked it! :o)  The corn stir fry was very good too...much better than the chewy corn that we had on Sunday night (bleh).  Here's the corn recipe in case you would like to give it a try.

1 bell pepper (any color will do)

1 tablespoon minced jalapeno

2 tablespoons olive oil (I think this would also be good with vegan butter, which I'm going to try next)

2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 cups fresh or frozen corn (thawed)

vege-sal to taste

Heat oil or butter in a skillet, and saute the bell pepper and jalapeno for about 5 minutes over medium heat.  Add corn and spices and saute for about 5 more minutes, or until the corn is done to your liking. 

Last night before I went to bed I put 1/4 cup oat groats in some water to soak over night, and drained them this morning.  I chopped us up some fruit (strawberries, kiwi, and banana) for breakfast this morning.  When I got to work I mixed the soaked oat groats in with my fruit and added a little homemade almond milk.  BTW...I made some more almond milk last night....so yummy!  Maud over at FoodFeud has gotten me into the soaked oat groats for breakfast.  Hers always looks so good.  I didn't even miss my smoothie this morning.  :o)  Here's the almond milk recipe.

1 cup almonds (soaked for 8 hours, or however long you can soak them.  This batch only soaked for 3 hours and the milk turned out great)
6 dates (pits removed)
4-5 cups water (start out with 4, and if the milk is too rich, then add more water)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.  I blended mine for about 3 minutes.   Pour milk mixture out into a nut bag, held over a bowl, and squeeze all the milk out.  You can save the almond pulp to make cookies with, which is what I'm going to do tonight when I get home.  If you don't have a nut bag, you can use cheese cloth.

For lunch I made Tony a salad, but apparently he didn't eat it.  He just informed me that he had cheese pizza, because they had a sales meeting at work....at least it wasn't meat!  I had Falafel wraps and some left over roasted veggies (cold) from Sunday night.  I wasn't sure how cold roasted veggies would taste, but it was pretty good!

Tonight will be Mexican.  I like what you guys said about keeping it simple and try to make things that Tony's familiar with.  Thanks again for all the tips!

~Peace~

Time to Prove Myself....

Happy Monday everyone!  I finally watched Forks Over Knives Saturday night.  I really wanted Tony to watch it with me, but wasn't sure if he would or not.  Just so happens a man that I work with watched it last week, and it really made him think and realize some things.  I was able to share his thoughts with Tony, which in turn got him interested in the movie.  He said "WOW" a lot thru the movie.  It was so eye opening.  I think everyone could benefit from seeing it.  The man I work with started questioning me as to what all I ate and how I ate.  I talked to him some about it and let him and his wife borrow a few of my cookbooks.  He said they were changing the way they ate, but that he wasn't 100% sure if they would leave meat out all together or not, but for now they were....YAY.  The best news is that the movie really got Tony's attention, so he has agreed to try the vegan diet for a week.  I'm not sure if that's long enough to really be able to tell a difference, but I'll take what I can get.   With that being said, I have to prove myself to him this week and show him how good and healthy vegan food is.  Wish me luck everyone!  This is going to be pretty tough, because he doesn't like a lot of vegetables.  He's willing to try them though.  :o) 

 

Tony said his diet would start today (Monday), so I wasn't prepared to really cook last night, but he decided he wouldn't eat any meat last night for dinner.  I cooked some crowder peas, roasted veggies, wild rice, and fresh corn out of the freezer.  This was not one of my best meals, so I begged him to not judge the vegan diet on my meal that I cooked last night.  This was actually the first time I roasted veggies, and they didn't turn out so hot.  The corn was chewy for some reason, and the crowder peas just didn't taste right either.  I've got to really step it up tonight.   If any of you have any really good recipes that you think might when him over, please share them with me.  :o)  I need all the help I can get here.  Now that I'm trying to impress him, I can't think of a thing to cook....how crazy is that? 

For dessert last night I fixed us a bowl of fresh fruit (bananas, strawberries and kiwi).  Thank goodness Tony loves fruit.  

This morning I fixed myself a green smoothie.  It had a frozen banana, a cup of frozen mixed fruit (peaches, strawberries, mango, and cherries), a date, hemp seeds, one large leaf of kale and a cup of water in it.  I made Tony the same thing minus the kale.  I talked to him before lunch, and he said the smoothie made him sick....WHAT?  How is that even possible?  He normally doesn't eat breakfast, so I'm hoping that it just threw his stomach for a loop.   Anyway, I know he won't be wanting a smoothie for a while, so looks like I'll be cooking some muffins for him tonight.  :(

Last night I chopped us up some veggies for a salad (broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, yummy bell peppers, and cucumbers).  This morning I finished throwing our salads together, and sliced an apple up for both of us for our morning or afternoon snack.   I threw some nutritional and dulse flakes on mine. My salad hit the spot, I just hope Tony's did as well. 

In Forks Over Knives they talk about the Engine 2 Diet.  I thought about getting that for Tony.  He's also wanting to loose weight and of course get healthier.  Does anyone have that book and would you recommend it?  I'm going to try my best to not cook any processed foods this week.  I want Tony to get the full affect of a plant based and whole food diet.   So, if any of you have any suggestions that could help me make this transition for Tony easier, please share.  :o)  I'm hoping to win him over.  He may not totally rule out meat, but maybe he will want to eat less of it at least.

~Peace~

Some Great Food!

TGIF...I don't know about you, but I am so glad it's Friday....YAY! We've been having bad storms here in the south again today....thunderstorms, tornado watches and warnings, and major rain. Tornadoes are the only bad thing about Spring time here in the south. I'm ready to move up north! :o)

Yesterday I went grocery shopping after work and got all kinds of good veggies. It was fairly late when I got home though, so no time to try out any new recipes. Tony wanted to finish up the baked spaghetti that I made him the first part of the week, so that was a great thing. I had no idea what I was going to eat, but as I was putting away the groceries I saw my left over Chinese from Wednesday's lunch. I grabbed a non stick skillet and dumped the rice, broccoli, and tofu in it and then added some shredded carrots and cabbage. I ended up adding a little soy sauce and water also. Wow...what a great meal! I do believe Tony was jealous! Breakfast was also great this morning. Now that kale is back in the house once again, I got to enjoy one of my favorite green smoothies....water, kale, frozen banana, frozen mixed fruit (peaches, strawberries, mango, and cherries) flax seeds, maca powder, protein powder, and a little honey.

My smoothie didn't last me until lunch time today, so I sliced up an apple and spread a little almond butter on the slices. Yes, I peel my apples. It's another weird thing that I do. :o)

Lunch was a much needed salad! It was a simple salad that hit the spot. I used spinach, leafy lettuce, sliced bell pepper, broccoli, carrots, hummus, and nutritional yeast flakes. I put the hummus on the side so I could just dip my carrots in it, and I sprinkled some nutritional flakes on top. For the dressing I used Newman's Own Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I have a busy Saturday morning, but I am hoping for relaxing Saturday afternoon, so I can do some baking. :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Partial Raw....Day 5....Not So Partial

I can't believe the weekend is already over. I didn't do so hot with my partial raw day today. I started off good with this fruit salad for breakfast, but it went down hill afterwards. My fruit salad consisted of a kiwi, half a banana, have a pear, half a Clementine, and a few walnuts. I juiced the other half of the Clementine and drizzled it over the fruit. I thought I would try something different than a smoothie this morning. :o) I didn't take a picture of my lunch. I took my mom out to eat after church today. She hasn't had a burger in a while, so I took her to Red Robin's, where I got a Boca burger. I was going to get a salad, but I LOVE their Boca burgers, so I wimped out on my raw lunch. When I got home Maggie and I curled up on the couch and watched a movie. I was feeling a little on the lazy side this afternoon. I guess because I did so much around the house yesterday. I did however make Maggie some treats this afternoon. Molly over at VeganFlower posted some coconut muffins the other day that sounded really good. Maggie's never had coconut before, but I just knew she would like these, and I was right on....she LOVED them. If you've never made any of Molly's treats for your dogs, you need to check out her recipes and make some. Maggie has loved everything I have made of hers. You can find the recipe here.

Here's Maggie taking a bite of the muffin...ever so gently..... Here she is saying "YUM...YUM....YUM!" It only took me about 10 tries to get a couple half way descent pictures of her. All she wanted was more muffin...forget pictures. :o)

Supper was spaghetti with Newman's Own Roasted Red Pepper sauce with a little spinach added. Tomorrow there will be something from my new raw cookbook posted. :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Happy New Year !!!!

Happy New Year to you and yours! I want to thank everyone for the well wishes for Tony. He is doing much better! He just needs to get rid of his nasty cough!

I tried a recipe from one of my new cookbooks last night and it was awesome. It was a very simple recipe, which is what I like. I made the Heavenly Hashbrowns from How it all Vegan. I wanted to make some kind of potatoes, but really wanted to try a recipe from one of my new cookbooks, since I haven't done so yet. So, I decided on this simple hashbrown recipe that consisted of onion, potatoes, mushrooms, bell pepper, dried dill, salt, pepper and olive oil. Let me tell ya....it was GOOD! I sauteed some asparagus in a little olive oil then sprinkled some herbamare on them (yummy), and cooked a can of organic three beans (kidney beans, pinto beans, and black beans).

For some reason the coloring of the photo turned out weird, but maybe you can tell a little bit about it. I went back to using my "old" camera instead of Tony's "new" one. I think I need to go back to using his. His camera takes a better quality picture.

We both need to eat more fruit, so I whipped up a simple fruit salad that consisted of: 1 banana, 1 pear, 1apple, and 2 oranges. I've been lacking on my fruit intake since winter time is here. There's just something about having to peel oranges that I just don't like. My sister gave us a box of fresh fruit for Christmas that is starting to go bad, so I decided to suck it up and peel a couple of oranges. :o) I made one big juicy mess too! It was worth it though, because it sure was nice to have some fresh fruit.

Do you have New Years resolutions or goals? I am working on mine. I'm trying to make realistic goals this year, so I will be more likely to stick with them. I am off work Monday, so I have a 3 day weekend....Yay! With that being said, I am going to take a few days off to enjoy the long weekend with my husband. When I come back, I will share with you some of my New Years goals. Maybe if I put them on my blog for you to see, I will have you guys to help me stick to them. :o)

Happy New Year!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~