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!)

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!).

A couple of months ago, we bought some baby strawberry plants from Bakerview Nursery and settled those in. They’ve grown up nicely and we should have some ripe strawberries within the next month. With 25 Summer-bearing plants, we’re going to have a lot of strawberries on our hands! And I’m really looking forward to that.

We also made use of some past-their-prime potatoes which we had sitting in our garage. They’re just now sprouting up through the soil, mixed in with a few marigold plants to help with pest control. (We’re trying to plant companion plants next to each other — here’s hoping it works! Plus, the flowers bring some much-needed color and vibrance to the garden.)

We also planted what seems like a ton of things from seed. Let’s see if I can recount everything: sugar snap peas, shelling peas, broccoli, kale, Walla Walla sweet onions, scallions, romaine lettuce, spinach, sweet corn, and carrots. We picked up two roma tomato plants from the nursery, along with some bell peppers. Our potatoes are russet, red, and Yukon gold.

It’s amazing to see the baby veggies poking out from the soil! The baby pea plants were barely breaking the surface one day, and the next afternoon we found them already an inch tall! And today they were leafing out!

So far, it’s very difficult for me to keep from snatching the wayward stalks of grass out from between the sprouts, but Ty keeps reminding me that I need to wait until the sprouts are bigger, so I don’t risk dislodging them. Lame! But it’s for the best, I guess.

I’m hoping that tomorrow’s weather will cooperate and that I’ll be able to take my camera out and get some shots of my little sprouts. The pea plants are just plain adorable, and the broccoli and kale are very happy. I’m slightly dissatisfied with the plants that look grass-like, but I know they’ll pass that stage soon enough and I’ll be harvesting veggies left and right. I’m so excited to finally have a garden of my own! I just hope that I can make myself keep up with it and not let the weeds take over.

As a side note, this brings to mind a question: What do vegans do about slugs? Any advice?

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. At family events, she often will contribute a bowl of potato salad. I much enjoyed this potato salad when I was an omni, but even then I was aware of how utterly artery-clogging it is. Back to our chat, though. So my MIL wanted to bring this potato salad to our housewarming party this weekend, which I’m sort of okay with. I would prefer if she made a recipe that I got from the co-op, which is absolutely delicious and feels loads lighter than the one she makes. But I really didn’t feel like picking up the ingredients for her and honestly, I hate the comments about how it’s “different from the other potato salad, but I guess it’s okay.”

So I let her know that if the potato salad was what she wanted to bring, that would be fine. She offered to leave the eggs out (yes, there are eggs in it), but I pointed out that mayonnaise has eggs in it. She replied that she actually uses Miracle Whip, so I went to The Google and did some digging to find out what’s actually in Miracle Whip.

Behold, the miracle that is Miracle Whip:

Water, soybean oil, vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, modified food starch, eggs, salt, mustard flour, artificial color, potassium sorbate as a preservative, paprika, spice, natural flavor, dried garlic.

Meanwhile, the organic Vegenaise is comprised of:

Organic Expeller-Pressed Soybean Oil, Filtered Water, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Soy Protein (non-GMO), Sea Salt, Organic Lemon Juice Concentrate, and Organic Mustard Flour.

Which one sounds more appetizing to you? I know which one gets my vote.

There will be a very un-vegan potato salad adorning the food table at my housewarming party. I guess it will fit in with the pigs-in-a-blanket made with Lil’ Smokies and crescent rolls (Haggen brand are vegan but have trans fats), which my husband requested and will be making himself. I may try to pick up a small container of the co-op’s potato salad if they have any in the deli, but otherwise I will be content with the rest of the delicious food we’ll be having:

• Black bean and quinoa salsa with sweet potato tortilla chips
• Rosemary-chickpea dip with pitas
• Fresh fruit salad
• Locally baked bread with balsamic vinegar and olive oil
• Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting (from Manifest Vegan)
• S’mores!

Yes, I picked up a bag of Dandies marshmallows, some 70% dark chocolate, and honey-free graham crackers! Finally, I’ll get to put our fire pit to good use!

And you know, I don’t think I’ll be going hungry…

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.