{Post #837} Muffin Mania

We are still plugging along the plant-based diet way.  I have not been very ambitious about finding new AND tasty recipes.  This AM, I think we have another winner though...Spiced Honey Muffins (recipe here).  I just made the usual changes...rice milk for the milk and 1 T soy flour and 2 T water for each egg.  Scrumptious.  Not as sweet as we used to eat, but after 5+ weeks w/o sugar...just right.  They use honey instead of sugar as a sweetener.  I will use a little more pastry flour next time.  Shhh...don't tell!

Love Dr. Seuss..."going in"...

Do you notice the five little dots of light in front of the muffin pan?  They are coming from these babies...love this light (it's a GED 5-strip mounted under my microwave shelf)...

Coming out...

Everyone who has tried them so far has liked them a lot.  That's very encouraging when one has had failed recipes recently.  Well, not failures, but the "we wouldn't mind never having this again" response.

~Joan

{Post #810} Washing Dishes

Another BIG benefit to being vegan?  The dishes are a snap to clean up.  Most meal prep only involves peeling and cutting veggies or opening cans.  The baked-on cheese and grease from meats and cheesy meals is no more.  Scour?  What is that?  Grease on drinking glasses?  From what? 

We had a scrumptious lunch today...but the name is funny.  Potato Vegetable Medley.  As if a potato is not a vegetable.  Anyway, I found it in one of my REGULAR cook books.  I used to be a sucker for those little Taste of Home specialty recipe books at the checkout for different occasions.  This one happened to be an Easter one.  The dish was small red potatoes, quartered, baby carrots, and an onion cut into wedges.  Bake those in a covered casserole dish with 1/2 cup of veggie broth and a tsp. of seasoned salt for 30 minutes, then add 2 diced zucchini and bake another 10-15 minutes.  We had steamed broccoli as a side.  Scrumptiousness!!  The only substitution I had to make was that it called for chicken broth.

My son, Ben, also helped me download some apps to my Acer Iconium Tablet today.  So now I have a notepad and can use my camera on there.  Yay, Ben!!  I made a list of all of my quilting UFOs (guess how many there are?).  I am including quilt tops that are not quilted because some are large and will be given as gifts when the time is right.  I make scrap quilts as I have scraps and time, and not all of them have intended homes from the get-go.  I'll post the number and breakdown of the list tomorrow. 

~Joan

{Post #807} Vegan and Seeds of Kindness Update

Breakfast:  same as usual

Lunch:  soup that none of us liked much, but we all ate (that's progress).  It was great northern beans, onion, celery, and vegetable broth. 

Supper:  very delayed because my husband and I were used-car shopping and got delayed about 90 minutes more than anticipated.  I made vegan pancakes, and they were good tasting.  The ingredients are flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, oil, and orange juice.  Mmm-mmm.  It was interesting that as we passed the supper hour, neither of us were hungry (not that we could have stopped at Vegans-R-Us anyway!). 

I also hand-quilted a row on my SOK quilt. 

Off to read some more about the vegan lifestyle and hopefully convert some recipes into ones we can eat now.

~Joan

{Post #806} Vegan and Seeds of Kindness

Our menu for today:

Breakfast:  same as yesterday...oatmeal with apples, raisins, and cinnamon.  This is truly delicious.  Wes peeled the apples today, which was a major improvement to ME.

Lunch:  left overs from yesterday (pasta with marinara sauce, new steamed veggies or veggie stew over rice) with the addition of trying a new fruit...mango.  We all liked it but would never crave it.  We (with the exception of my husband) are not new-food tryers, so this was impressive. 

Supper:  Speedy International Stew.  This was a matter of opening 4 cans and dumping them in a saucepan and heating them 5 minutes.  But it.  was.  so.  good...2 cans of Italian-flavored stewed tomatoes, 1 can of whole kernel corn, rinsed, and 1 can of black beans, rinsed.  We also had sweet potato fries which were just raw sweet potatoes scrubbed and cut for fries and baked in a 450 oven for 30 minutes on parchment paper, covered with foil for the first 15 minutes.  They were decadent.  Soooo good.  Will make more next time.

I bought 4 full grocery bags of fruits and veggies at Aldi today and only spent $26.  Then I did some more shopping at Wal-mart.  I was impressed with the small amount I paid for things (even buying some things out of season).  Not buying meat, butter, milk, and cheese might be less expensive after all.

Of course I'm already thinking about tilling up the whole back yard for a garden next spring.  Just kidding...I think!

The thing about eating this way is that because one is not ingesting tons of salt, sugar, and fat, everything has much more potent flavors.  Oh, yeah...delicious.

The kids still have sterling attitudes about all we're doing, and that makes it so much more pleasant.  I am striving to have some variety so we don't keep eating the same old things.

I had to take Rachel to her piano lesson today, so I got some hand quilting time in.  The Seeds of Kindness quilt has only 11 more rows of hand quilting, plus the 7/8 of the border.  Yippee!!

~Joan

{Post #804} Changes on the Horizon

There are big changes going on in my family.  As of this morning, we are going vegan.  For those not in the know, vegan is a stricter form of vegetarianism.  It means NO foods from animal products.  No butter, milk, eggs, cheese; also no oils of any kind.  Yes, the reality of the diet change has probably hit you by now.

Last night we watched the Forks Over Knives DVD (where, oddly enough, the knives they are referring to are surgical scalpels, not dinner knives).  We were impressed by the health changes after being on a plant-based diet.  So as of this morning, we are heading towards much better health.

I will let you know how we progress, and how I do specifically.  I am too embarrassed to post my present weight, but I will be giving occasional updates in the form of X-10 (meaning my original weight minus ten pounds, etc.).

My BP has always borderlined on too high.  I will also be monitoring that, but not posting updates about it.

So, what DID we eat today?  I have several friends who are curious about what one can eat after being on the standard American diet of way too much animal-derived proteins and fats.  Here you go...

Breakfast:  pan-cooked old-fashioned oats with chopped apple, raisins, and cinnamon (so sweet w/o even adding any sugar)

Lunch:  white rice topped with steamed broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower

Snack:  one gala apple and about a handful of peanuts

Supper:  spring mix (mixed green lettuces) salad with raisins and fresh broccoli; added a smackerel of non-fat raspberry viniagrette dressing, but did not like it (will eat it plain next time)

Lots of water throughout the day, which is my norm.

Yes--I thought of all the things I could NOT eat ALL day, but my kids were being such troopers that I didn't want to be a wet blanket. 

This war will be won one meal at a time.  Susanna was a huge help.  She cleaned out all the off-diet foods from our pantry, Lazy Susan, and frig.  She even cleaned the actual frig.  One of the downsides is that I have a huge stash of frozen meats in my freezer, but it's an opportunity to be a blessing to others.  I will be taking my Emily a huge box of pantry staples as well as frozen meats when I next visit her.

Here's to good health.

~Joan