Valentine’s Day Truffles & Thoughts

February 14th, 2010 at 21:51

I tried my hand at making truffles, last night. I found this truffle recipe through the Novel Eats blog. I wanted to have a gift to give to Ty’s family, but didn’t want to just provide them with chocolates they could buy for themselves at any store. There’s nothing special about that. It’s like, “Here, I spent about thirty seconds picking out these mass-produced chocolates that just about every other American is getting today. Enjoy!”

Alright, so they’re not filled with caramel, nougat, or other sweet fillings. They’re basic, simple truffles that don’t really need any doctoring up. I used 75% dark chocolate which I found at the co-op, and rolled the truffles in a powdered sugar and cocoa mix, to cut the bitterness.

Truffles, using any recipe, aren’t healthy by any stretch. But again, I wanted to provide Ty’s family with something they would find delicious, without the milk, butter or eggs. Thinking about it, it’s a bizarre thing to be essentially saying, “See, vegan food can be really bad for you, too!” What is this world coming to, where we have to impress people in this manner?

I’d like to think I made up for it a bit with dinner. I brought basically all of the fresh fruit we had and made a delicious fruit salad of pears, bananas, kiwis, mango, and blueberries. And we brought lettuce, so everyone would have salads with dinner. It’s sad, though, when the lettuce is smothered in Caesar dressing, bacon bits and butter-filled croutons. My raspberry vinaigrette was quite delicious, though.

Ty’s mom tried out a recipe for chicken parmigiana, and apparently over-cooked the chicken. During dinner, she mentioned something to me about how I wasn’t missing anything, since it was over-cooked. In my head I was thinking, um, I wasn’t missing anything, anyway.

*sigh* Sometimes misconceptions take forever to clear up.

I’m super proud of my dad, though. We talked on the phone for a while today, and after our conversation, I’m left with the impression that he actually is going vegan. He says he’s “going veggie.” Hmm. In any case, he’s lost 10 lbs since adopting a low-fat “veggie” diet. I didn’t know this until we talked today, but apparently his doctor was talking not in terms of if he develops diabetes, but when. That scares me; I never knew that. So I’m doubly proud that he’s taking steps in the right direction.

I just got the book Becoming Vegan in the mail, and I’m looking forward to getting into it. (I’m currently engrossed in The Food Revolution, which I think everyone should read.) Now my dad has Becoming Vegan on his “to read” list and I think has requested it at his library.

Yay, Dad!

It’s funny … I think he will be the one keeping me going, when I lose my way. Now that I’ve established myself with my eating, I need to start reducing the amount of oils and fats I consume, and start following in my dad’s footsteps. He says he has about 30 lbs more to lose to get to his goal weight. I have 50 more. Considering that I’ve already lost 30 lbs (last year), I have a pretty good outlook. If I reduce fats and oils in my diet, and keep an eye on my portion sizes (I typically have issues with that), there’s no way I could not lose weight.

I’m excited! And I feel good! I look in the mirror every time I’m in the bathroom, and I feel like I look healthy. Okay, so I’m still 40-50 lbs overweight. But I feel really good, for where I’m at. And I’ve started taking bellydancing classes, every Thursday.

One final thought: It absolutely disgusts me that McDonald’s is a sponsor for the Olympics.

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