Day Five, I'm Alive!

So far, I am not craving meat like I thought I would. I really have to think about meals to cook, especially when I am making something for Matt too. My body doesn't feel any different now, still the same as always. I have run into a few mistakes when eating food. I really have to read the labels carefully. Some things you might not think would have dairy in it does. The Barilla pasta that is in the yellow box does contain egg whites. Only whole wheat pasta contains no eggs. I am learning along the way and trying not to make any mistakes.

Last night I told Matt I was already thinking about what I wanted to eat when the 30 days is over and he reminded me that it was only Day Four. Back to reality... On a good note, I made a yummy dinner and dessert last night that was vegan. I made jambalaya rice (from the box) and grilled a Light Life Italian Soy sausage. Then I steamed broccoli and made fried okra. Instead of egg to bind my flour to my okra, I just mixed some warm water with honey and salt. Sounds weird but it worked and I couldn't taste the honey. On Wednesday, I made some vegan chocolate chip cookies with Carob chips and they were not good at all. So on Thursday night at the suggestion of my roommate, I added some Trader Joes peanut butter to the dough and they came out spectacular. Recipe to follow this weekend. I’ve also included some vegan items at the top that I’ve purchased for my 30 day plan.

Day Two

Breakfast:
o 6 oz coffee
o 1/4 cup Silk organic soymilk
o banana

Lunch:
o Leftover black bean taco mix
o 1 whole wheat tortilla
o 1 Boca "chicken" patty
o 1/4 cup Trader Joes salsa
o 1/2 cup yellow rice

Dinner:
o 1 cup Barilla pasta
o 1 cup marinara sauce
o 6 mushrooms, roasted with olive oil

Snacks:

o 1 spoonful Trader Joes peanut butter
o 1/2 grapefruit
o 5 slices of beet


Day Three

Breakfast:
o 1/2 cup 365 Organic peanut butter pows
o 1/2 cup organic unsweetened Silk soy milk

Lunch:
o 6 inch Veggie Delite sub with honey oat bread
o Sun Chips original
o chickpeas

Dinner:
o Boca "chicken" patty on bun
o Alexia red potato fries, baked

Snacks:
o Larabar Apple Pie
o Baked Ruffles
o Vegan Chocolate chip cookies
o Light Life bologna slice on bun with mustard


Day Four

Breakfast:
o 2 vegan banana, almond, and coconut muffins
o 6 ounce coffee with soymilk

Lunch:
o Kashi Tuscan Veggie Bake

Dinner:
o LightLife Italian soy sausage
o Fried okra
o Broccoli with vegetable margarine

Snacks:
o Handful dried bing cherries
o Handful roasted peanuts
o Vegan peanut butter cookies
o Trader Joes kalamata olive hummus with Baked Ruffles

A month of being a vegan

Lindsay came home Sunday and told me her co-worker asked her if she’d like to go vegan with her for 30 days. I’ve never had the desire but my mind started wandering and thinking that I needed a new challenge, so I piped in, “Let me know if you do it, I will think about doing it too.” Matt gave me the “Don’t even think about it” eyes, which I would never ask him to, do anyway. But the longer I pondered, the longer I knew this would be fun goal for the month. I did a quick check on my calendar to make sure I didn’t have any scheduled BBQ’s or special events to make me waiver and I didn’t.

Sunday was my time to gorge on meats, cheese, and milk. I had a chicken- stuffed, cheese-covered burrito at Mi Mexico, caramel macchiato creamer with my coffee, and pork dumplings in the evening. And let’s not forget the chocolate chip cookie dough and Reese cup ice cream cone from Baskin Robbins. Whoa. I never eat like this but heck when you’re going all the way, you kind of have to for emotional release. So, I’m going to try my best to blog as much as I can about my vegan journey.

I'll go ahead and list out my food log on my first day. It wasn't hard, I'm not bored yet and today I feel fine too. It just takes some extra time to think about what I am eating and what to throw together for a meal.

Breakfast:

• Whole Foods seeded 6 grain bread


• Trader Joes organic peanut butter


• Trader Joes reduced sugar strawberry preserves


• Strawberries and mango


• Passionfruit juice

Lunch:

• Amy's teriyaki bowl with tofu, brown rice, and vegetables


• Steamed broccoli


• Strawberries and mango


• Water

Dinner:

• Whole wheat tortillas with black beans, orange bell peppers, Trader Joes salsa, and Boca meatless crumbles


• Yellow rice


• Water

Snacks:

• Banana


• Baked Ruffles
  Coca-Cola ( I had a huge sugar craving yesterday, which was unusual for me)


• Lightly salted Peanuts

And fortunately, I'm not starving. Even today I wasn't hungry when I woke up.

Chickpea and feta salad roll-ups

My roommate works at Whole Foods, so I am usually in there about once a week now. This week they had feta salad out for tasting and it was so delish, I had to buy some. The salad was made of: feta cheese, kalamata olives, lime juice, sun-dried tomatoes, parsley, dill seed, and a few more ingredients I'm afraid I've forgotten. It was great on crackers but my mind started racing about the possibilities of other combinations.

Lindsay and I bought these humongous whole wheat tortillas from Whole Foods which are about the size of the tortillas from Chipotle, so you can get almost two servings out of one. I warmed up the tortilla then stuffed it with grape tomatoes, chickpeas, romaine lettuce, grilled chicken, and the feta salad. It is so good and great to eat during this hot weather.

Turkey Sausage and Rice Stuffed Green Peppers

I decided to practice LENT with Matthew this year. It's not something I have ever practiced but when Matt's mother gave him and myself a LENT folder, I thought why not?! I decided to give up beef, pork, and soft drinks. The first two are hard, I love bacon as I've mentioned before. Giving up soft drinks isn't too hard, I only crave them when I'm at the movies with a buttery popcorn. I only want what I can't have. I felt like I didn't cook with beef and pork frequently at home, but I feel like I have had to be more creative with recipes. I was at Meijer on Sunday and caught the Jennie-O turkey products on sale for 20% off. I stocked up on hot turkey sausages, ground turkey, and turley cutlets. There was a recipe I'd found in one of my magazines for sausage stuffed peppers, so I thought I'd re-vamp the recipe using the hot turkey sausages I had found.

Turkey Sausage and Rice Stuffed Green Peppers (2 servings)

2 green peppers

1 cup cooked brown rice

2 cups marinara sauce

1 TB oregano

½ - 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

2 hot turkey sausages (uncooked)

Optional add-ins: mushrooms and extra green pepper dices.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove the sausage from the casing, brown in a skillet and break up into smaller pieces. When the sausage is cooked, add the oregano and marinara sauce and reduce heat to low. Halve the green peppers and remove the seeds and ribs. Place the peppers in a roasting pan or on a cookie sheet face up and lightly spray with extra virgin olive oil. Mix in the rice and any add-ins at this time to the sausage mixture and take the skillet off the heat. Add the cheese. Fill each pepper half with the mixture and top with more cheese. Cover with foil and place in the oven. Bake for 30-60 minutes; depending on how done you want your green peppers. Serve with extra marinara sauce and a mixed salad.

Regatta's

Have you ever eaten at Regatta’s in Lexington Green? I purchased a Groupon to Regatta’s last week. I’ve always wanted to go but never had, so this was a good opportunity. The place was dead by the time we arrived at 9:30PM which is our typical eating time when we go out to eat. The waiter, Jason, was pleasant and let us know that all of the seafood is flown in fresh daily. I quickly ordered the raw oysters. It’s been forever since I had them and they were delicious. For the entree, I ordered the Maryland crab cakes and Matt ordered shrimp scampi. The crab cakes were so-so. Nothing to go crazy about. They had a nice dipping sauce that was sweet and sour. There were also fried green tomatoes on the bottom but they were tart and I didn’t enjoy eating them. The shrimp scampi on the other hand was delicious. It was cooked to perfection. It was probably the best shrimp I have ever tasted at a restaurant. Matt quickly ate it up along with his tree-sized broccoli stem. I would definitely go back to Regatta's. There were many things on the menu that I would like to try. When it's warm, they have a nice patio and view of the pond at Lexington Green.

On a more sad note, I will not be continuing my culinary education after this month. I have loved my nutrition class but unfortunately Sullivan was not honest with me when I enrolled about tuition costs and I just can't afford to go right now. I am going to just move it to the back burner for now and hopefully will get back to it one day. In the meantime, I want to focus back on my blog and try to keep up with it more.

To end on a happy note, I have moved apartments and will have a new roommate in April, Lindsay Bruner. We worked together at Winn Dixie/EW James for 5 years and she's moving back to Lexington. I'm so excited to live together because I know we will have a blast cooking. Also, she's a great photographer, so now I have my own personal food stylist for my blog. (Thanks ahead of time, Lindsay!!)

Healthy Cinnamon Granola

I love making my own granola, it's quick and it tastes so much better than store bought cereal. Plus, I can make it low fat and I know what ingredients are going into it. It only takes 10 minutes of prep work and you can do always do other things while it is baking.

I eat this with milk, pour it over yogurt, and even zap it in the microwave with some water or milk and make granola oatmeal. Enjoy!

Healthy Cinnamon Granola

• 4 cups rolled organic oats
• 3 teaspoons organic cinnamon
• 1/3 cup almonds, chopped
• 1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1/3 cup ground organic flax seed
• 5 tablespoons organic maple syrup
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup water
  

Mix the dry and wet ingredients separately then mix together. Preheat an oven to 300 degrees. Pour the granola mixture on a cookie sheet and spread out evenly. Bake for 45 minutes, making sure to mix the granola around every 15 minutes.

Baked Chicken for Two

There’s nothing better on a cold winter night than comfort food. I found this recipe by Jamie Oliver in the newspaper that just hit the spot. This recipe is for 8 servings but you can share it with your sweetheart this February and have lots of leftovers. I made it for my sweetheart and he thought it was "da bomb!"

Ingredients

For the brine
• 1 quart water
• 2 TB kosher salt
• 1/3 cup honey
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 springs fresh sage, leaves only
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Marinate the chicken in brine for at least two hours (overnight is best). It will become outrageously soft and juicy.

For the bake
• 4 chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
• 2 slices bacon, finely chopped
• 8 carrots, thinly sliced
• 4 medium potatoes, thinly sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 springs fresh sage, leaves shredded
• Olive oil
• Sea salt and fresh black pepper
• 1 2/3 cups chicken broth
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup grated parmesan
• A few pats of butter

Directions

1. Mix brine in a large bowl; add chicken. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate 2 to 8 hours.
2. Remove chicken; let come to room temperature. Drain chicken, discarding brine, and pat dry with paper towels.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F. In a roasting pan, toss the bacon, veggies, garlic, and sage with olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Pour in broth. Cook 30 minutes.
4. Remove veggie pan from oven; pour in cream and sprinkle with pepper and Parmesan. Add chicken, dotting pats of butter on each piece. Cook 35 minutes, or until chicken is golden. (I had to cook mine for over an hour.)