September 12th, 2011 at 14:47
Ty and I are terrible at planning meals. We’re both so indecisive that it usually means that we end up having to go the store before we’ve made up our minds on what to make for the week, which inevitably ends up with more impulse purchases, frozen items, and other “center of the store” items. Thus, we spend more money, don’t really have anything to cook from scratch, and are fairly dissatisfied.
One of the main things that I usually fail at with my diet is consistently making good, wholesome meals. I try here and there, but I need to improve on that, and that’s something that I’ve been aware of for a long time. One of my issues is that Ty will sometimes try a bite of what I cook, but usually will end up making his own meal. (I’m still trying to find meals that he likes, but he’s not very forthcoming with ideas.) So, most of the time I’m left with large amounts of leftovers which last me for days (lunches and dinners), so the whole cooking-every-day thing isn’t very practical.
Documentaries such as “Forks Over Knives” and “Food Matters” have left me with a renewed sense of resolve to keep expanding my catalog of favorite meals, which I can refer to when I’m out of ideas. (And I really need to get around to designing and putting together my own notebook of “absolute favorites” and “Ty will eat this” recipes, which I keep telling myself I’ll do…)
In any case, I’ve decided on a few dishes that I’d like to cook this week (or maybe next, depending on our schedule and how leftovers get eaten):
- Spinach Linguine with Edamame Pesto: One of my all-time favorites! I actually prefer this pesto over the “normal” oily stuff. This pasta is so hearty and delicious and good for you, all at once. You really can’t go wrong…
- Pineapple and Potato Curry: My friend Sarah brought this to last week’s Wednesday Night Dinner (a weekly potluck with some friends), and I totally fell in love with it! Some comments on the recipe mention adding a can of chickpeas, and I plan on adding some of those, along with some fresh peas from the garden. I figure I’ll have this over some basmati rice that my dad brought us a couple weeks ago (he bought too much at Costco — oops!).
- Thai Salad with Slow-Cooked Tofu in Pineapple Barbecue Sauce: I saw this on the FatFree Vegan Kitchen blog today, and just went, “Oh, yum!” Even being sick today and not thinking ANYTHING could possibly taste good, my brain said, “Oh yes, you will like this.” So now this is on my menu.
- Macaroni and “cheese”!: I don’t have a link to this recipe, but my friend Christina brought this to one of the first Wednesday Night Dinners that Ty and I went to (we made it a vegetarian theme), and Ty actually liked it so much that he had seconds! Win! The recipe uses a non-dairy milk and nutritional yeast-based sauce, and you can throw in whatever veggies and other add-ins as you feel inclined. I plan on tossing in some broccoli, at the very least.
- Potatoes Gratin: Ty picked out this recipe from one of my cookbooks. It’s not a creamy dish, and actually seems more like a variation on roasted red potatoes. But looks good, nonetheless!
So, that’s what I’m hoping to create. I’m really excited about the linguine (it’s been so long!) and the macaroni (since Ty will eat it). I’ll probably look forward to the others more once my stomach starts behaving and I get my desire to eat back. Right now, I’m just trying to get enough calories and nutrients into my body so it can heal and start feeling better. (Food poisoning is the culprit, I believe. Yesterday was miserable, but today I’ve been able to eat more than just saltines, which is an improvement.)
So what about you? Do you have a hard time making and sticking to a meal plan? And what are your favorite go-to meals to cook at home? (Shamelessly trying to boost my inventory, here!)
June 18th, 2011 at 21:59
As new owners of a sizable amount of land, Ty and I have challenged ourselves with the task of planting and maintaining a vegetable garden. Ideally, we’d like to be able to grow the majority of the produce we use, but for now … well, we’re practicing.
Initially, we’d intended to dig some beds in our field, but when Ty took our rototiller to the intended bed areas, all it did was gouge out some deep furrows in the ground. Nice. Things were a bit too wet and dense to be straight-up tilling. We’ll give it another go when summer is in full force and the soil has dried out. Hopefully we can make something work.
In the meantime, we cleared up an existing garden area which was used by the previous owners of the property. It’s to the side of our lawn, next to our four apple trees (which are growing little apples!). Read more…
June 14th, 2011 at 21:21
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have the world’s greatest diet. I love sweets and baked things way too much for my own good, and haven’t experimented with vegetables enough. (I have managed to pretty much maintain my weight since becoming vegan, rather than lose. I’m working on that.) But I can say that I’m trying. We’re having a housewarming party at our place this weekend and the intended list of edible items includes a black bean and quinoa salsa (to be paired with sweet potato tortilla chips) and a rosemary-chickpea dip (to be paired with pita bread slices). These are two things I wouldn’t have touched a couple of years ago. So yes, I’m getting there.
I do my best to avoid processed food-type-products as much as possible, but I do have an ongoing love affair with Earth Balance, which started in high school, before I went vegan. I also keep a jar of Vegenaise in the fridge, to use on sandwiches whenever I happen to make them, which isn’t super often — so it takes us a while to get through the jar.
I was prompted to look up the ingredient list for Vegenaise today, while having a chat with my mother-in-law. Read more…
October 30th, 2010 at 21:53
I know I was working on a different design, previously. But being a designer, I’m so stinkin’ picky about what I have to show for myself. And my previous design, however cool-looking, doesn’t really fit my personality.
So here’s another round. It has the functionality I was looking for, enough of a natural element to match my personality, and the clean lines to make the nitpicky part of my brain happy. I wanted a way to display my photos without feeling overbearing, and I’m thinking that I’ll either have a photo open in a Lightbox-type thing or have it take you to a gallery page, when clicked on. Probably a gallery page. But that is one more thing to design, then. Oof!
Anyway, I’m much happier with this design and I’m looking forward to wrapping it up and getting everything functioning on the site. I will have this blog complete by the end of the year.
In other news, Ty and I just purchased a house out in the county. It’s on 4.5 acres, with about one acre of lawn, a huge willow tree, a hammock, a barn, a shop, a dog run (which may or may not stay), etc. With all the land, we’ll have plenty of space for a garden, so we’ve been reading up on organic gardening in the Pacific Northwest. Our condo didn’t sell, so we currently have renters in it with a one-year lease. It only took a week or so to find someone, and we’re having it managed by Son-Rise Property Management, so we don’t have to deal with the hassle.
So yes, things have been good. Still working full-time doing graphic and web design. Still vegan. 
May 3rd, 2010 at 17:15
Kaye Spector of Cleveland.com wrote: I adopted a vegan-based diet almost a year ago. The most common question I get is, ”What do you eat?” So here is the answer, a bite-by-bite account of what I ate over three days this week.
Here is her online food diary.
I subscribe to Vegan Soapbox, and a few days ago, Eccentric Vegan shared her three-day food diary, as well.
This has inspired me!
My meals consist of a blend of home-cooked recipes from varying cookbooks (and subsequent lunches from leftovers) and some favorite staples from the Co-op. Ty and I now shop almost exclusively from the Co-op for anything food-related and increasingly for toiletries, paper towels, shampoo, etc as we use up our old stuff.
Our mutual goal is to stay away from as much processed stuff as we can, but we also take into account that we’re only human and sometimes we just don’t have the time to make everything from scratch. So when we do buy pre-packaged and processed food, we keep an eye on the labels, so we know what we’re really getting. We’re big fans of buying fresh bread from Bread Farm and Avenue Bread, and supplement that with loaves of Dave’s Killer Bread, which makes awesome toast and sandwiches.
We just signed up for a half share of the Growing Whatcom CSA for the summer growing season. I’m super excited for our first box of produce, which we get to pick up on June 17th. The half share is every other week, as opposed to every week. We decided to go with that because we were worried that we might not use everything up in a week, which is highly likely! In any case, I’m looking forward to the challenge of using everything in our box!
Here’s my three-day food diary:
- Saturday, May 1st
Breakfast – banana, raisin bran with extra raisins, rice milk
Lunch – pad thai (leftovers, “Brooklyn Pad Thai” recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance)
Snack – 6 medium-sized strawberries
Dinner - spinach pasta with edamame pesto
Snack – 1 slice of Powerseed bread with peanut butter
- Sunday, May 2nd
Breakfast – 2 slices of Good Seed bread with strawberry conserve
Snack – handful of grapes
Lunch - chili peanut tempeh with steamed rice and teriyaki sauce
Dinner - whole wheat spaghetti with low sodium tomato and basil sauce and dumplings (“Easy ‘Meat’ Balls” recipe from Vegan Family Favorites, which I refuse to refer to as “meat”)
Dessert – raspberry sorbet
- Monday, May 3rd
Breakfast - apple spice oats
Lunch – sandwich on Powerseed bread with Swan baked tofu (from the Co-op), romaine lettuce, vegan mayo, and Dijon mustard
Dinner – enchilada pie (sweet onion and cremini mushrooms sautéed in vegetable broth, mixed with spinach, olives, tortilla strips, and enchilada sauce)
April 15th, 2010 at 19:58
Here’s a preview of what I’ve been up to, lately. I haven’t posted in a while, mostly because when I get annoyed/frustrated by something, and I have the power to do something about it, I can’t sit by and not do something about it.
Case in point, I’ve been growing increasingly dissatisfied with my current blog theme. Sure, I loved it when I first designed it, but now I’m discovering that it really lacks functionality, and I’ve been dying for functionality.
So, here you have it: my new blog theme. I’m still tweaking things. Alright, let’s be honest … I’ve been tweaking things for over a month. Make that two. Mostly, I keep changing my mind about small, nobody-else-would-care-or-notice-but-me elements.
Everything is currently solid in my mind (which is why I’m sharing), except for the footer. I can’t quite make up my mind about how I want that to be. And really, that’s what’s taken up most of my “tweaking” time. I pull up the design in Photoshop, stare at it for a while, browse the web for some inspiration, stare at my design in Photoshop again, then close it. That’s usually how it goes.
But … I’ll figure out what I want to do, eventually. Then I’ll slice ‘er up, crank out some code, and put this baby together. Oh, and I am most definitely installing a captcha, this time around. I’ve been getting a crapload of spam comments, which is terribly annoying.
So, yeah … feedback would be nice!
In other news … CM over at Vegan in Bellingham is organizing a vegan dining out night, where we all get together and try out a restaurant, which we may or may not have been to before. I’m super excited about it! Getting to hang out and dine with other vegans, connecting, and I’m sure having discussions about how veganism is going for us, talking about issues, I don’t know … all kinds of stuff, I’m sure. Sounds like we’ll be trying out Bloom, a relatively new and vegan restaurant in downtown. Sweet! Haven’t been there before, so I’m excited.
Anyway, that’s it for now. Let’s see if I can get my butt in gear and finish up my new design.
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!”
![](http://lh4.ggpht.com/_FF3O2IcXKWs/S3iwtc2Od3I/AAAAAAAACSQ/J8fpJeI2eaw/s720/DSC03924.JPG")
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.
February 8th, 2010 at 20:43
When I first decided to adopt a vegan lifestyle, I was incredibly worried about what my family’s reaction would be. I knew my brother would accept it and give me encouragement. And a bunch of links to nutritional supplements and a ton of advice. My mom, I wasn’t so sure about. I figured she’d accept it with reservations (for my well-being). I was mostly worried about my dad, as he likes to have solid facts and reasoning behind things. When I made the switch, I had none of the above.
The funny thing was, when I had dinner with my dad at our favorite Chinese place a few weeks ago, he was the one who was bringing up the topic of veganism! He’s concerned about his health as he gets older and is taking steps to not consume as many animal products, as they are high in fat. So when I told him about me, it was basically an “it’s funny you should mention that…” moment. His reaction was essentially two thumbs up and a bit of metaphorical cheering. I even sent him an email that night, full of helpful links that I’ve discovered. So, that was easy. (Btw, he’s not going vegan unfortunately, but vegetarian.)
When we visit my family on Whidbey now, I bring along my Veganomicon cookbook and binder full of recipes I’ve printed out and scanned, and we figure out what to cook based on those. My mom even copied a bunch of recipes, the last time we were down. I feel good about cooking for them, because I know they’re eating healthier than they otherwise would be (even though my mom eats well) and because I’m also sharing myself with them. I’m showing them that they can still have delicious and healthy food, without any animals being involved.
Doing dinner with Ty’s family is a lot harder, unfortunately. Ty’s cousin, who is also vegan (along with her two daughters and husband), told me that usually when they have dinner at another’s house, they just eat whatever the host is having (as long as it’s not pork or seafood). I wouldn’t have a problem with that, but when the dinner is ham and cheesy hash browns … yeah, I’m not doing that. Last night I brought my own dinner of brown rice with edamame and tahini sauce, and washed it down with some apple juice.
I’m conflicted because, on one hand, I don’t expect anyone to cater to me. But I also don’t like having dinner there and eating only what I bring. But when everything has cheese, butter, milk, etc. and in large quantities … what am I supposed to do? I feel like the odd one out, with my brown rice and edamame. But I’m not going to sit down and have what everyone else is having, if it has anything like that in it. Physically I could consume it, but I’d feel like shit afterwards. Not very much physically, but mentally. I’d feel like I let myself down. You pick it back up the next time and keep pushing forward, but there’s still a bad feeling that lingers.
I guess we’ll see where things go, from here. We’re trying to limit how often we have dinner with Ty’s family. I’ve been thinking that I need to put together a simple, tasty dinner and have everyone over. And cook things that everyone would eat, or should eat. And show them that this is not weird, that it’s tasty and fulfilling, and that I’m doing something good for myself, when I bring out my own portion of dinner. Maybe that would help?
At this point, I don’t know. I just don’t know.
January 31st, 2010 at 15:51
Yesterday was my mom’s birthday, so Ty and I made the trip down Whidbey Island to Langley, where we all got together at my mom’s house to celebrate. My grandma had offered to make my mom a cake (not like she had any energy to do it), and I knew that if she did, I would likely not be able to eat it. Or rather, I shouldn’t eat it. I could, but I wouldn’t have felt good about it.
So, I made a cake! I’ve had my eye on this Chocolate-Orange Cake recipe for quite a while, and figured now was as good a time as any to try it. (It wouldn’t have been a good time, had it been a flop, but I had trust that it would turn out well.)
The cake was incredibly tasty, even though my icing was way too runny and pooled all around the cake. It made for delicious stuff to dip your finger in, though. It was also quite rich, and I’d like to explore how it would taste without the orange tones, and as just a simple chocolate cake. It could be good with raspberry incorporated into it, as well. Mmm! I might have to try that for Ty’s birthday, which is coming up in a few weeks.
Other foodstuff that made an appearance at my mom’s birthday dinner included some dinner rolls, a red and white quinoa blend which was mixed with fresh basil and spinach pesto (care of my brother), some roasted brussel sprouts with toasted garlic (care of Vegan with a Vengeance), some chicken that my mom cooked (which I obviously didn’t touch), and orange slices which were left over from making the cake.
All in all, it was a very successful, very delicious dinner, and everybody ate everything and enjoyed it. Except Ty, who just ate the chicken and a couple of rolls, which he claimed to be fine with. I’d planned on heating up some peas for him, but forgot to verify with my mom that she had some. Oh well. Still, a very fun day!
January 19th, 2010 at 20:00
I’m in Seattle, for a few days. Ty had to come down for some work stuff, and I had the chance to stay with him in his hotel. My work has two 12-month classes called EVOLVE, and the first class for each group meets tomorrow and Thursday, in Everett and Lynnwood. So instead of driving down from Bellingham and back up each day, I’ll be driving up from Seattle. And I get to stay with Ty, which makes life easier on both of us.
Since our hotel room doesn’t have a kitchen or fridge, we’re stuck eating out or eating packaged food. There’s a small market in the lobby of the hotel, so I’ll be able to purchase semi-fresh fruit for my breakfast, which is good. Dinners are another story.
Where we are, on the west side of Lake Union, there’s not much to choose from for healthy food. Lots of burger/steak and seafood joints. Tonight we had dinner at Jillian’s, about a block from our hotel. It’s mostly a billiards club, with your usual “bar plus a bit more” type of menu. I was able to order a flatbread pizza, which was really good. It had a pesto sauce (hopefully with no cheese in it!) and “roasted” veggies on top. (I don’t think they were really roasted, but whatever.) I also stole a few fries off of Ty’s plate. Not very healthy, but vegan!
I’m looking forward to Thursday night. I’ll be having dinner with my dad at our favorite Chinese place in Mountlake Terrace. I’ll be getting Moo Shu Vegetables, which I know is vegan. In the past I’ve gotten Moo Shu Pork, but there’s so little pork (and it’s so flavorless) anyway, so I don’t think my tastebuds will even notice the difference.
We’ll see what kinds of choices I’ll have for lunch, tomorrow. No idea where we’ll go during our break from class, but my boss has a penchant for Thai food. Hmm.
