Cooking up a storm!

So tonight I came home from work and, though I have no idea what possessed me to do it, I decided to cook dinner. Okay, so the fact that I had a cauliflower that I really needed to cook or I was going to throw it away and I already threw one a away a few weeks ago because I didn't use it definitely played into it. Mostly though, I just had that cooking bee in my apron. Or that bee was somewhere, if not my apron. Dinner during the week, mind you, usually consists of whatever beans, leftovers, or veggie burger I happen to pull out of the frig and zap for a few minutes, but tonight, ahhhhh, tonight I was feeling particularly chefy.So, in the spirit of all things chefy, I did what all good chefs do and...checked my Pinterest vegan recipe board. When I was finished with that I popped on facebook because of course I had to tell people that I was getting ready to cook dinner! Silly girlie! Finally, I felt sufficiently ready (about 20 minutes later) and decided to start cooking! 

Initially I bought the cauliflower to make mashed cauliflower. You know the recipe I'm talking about. The one that supposedly tastes just like mashed potatoes only better because it has a fraction of the calories.Well, I found several recipes on the interwebs to use but, in perfect chubby vegan girl fashion, I decided to try my own recipe. This sometimes works out well. Other times, well, lets just say my mom and dad used to call many of my homemade recipes "prison food". I kid you not, they'd say that I had just cooked prison food. Haha It never offended me and I've gotten much better and rarely make things that are completely inedible. Rarely being the operative word there. 

So other than the caulimashedtaters what did I make? I found a recipe for a vegan veggie lentil loaf that sounded so amazing and had soooo many rave reviews that I had to try it. I've been meaning to try it since the first week I ditched the animal matter and started eating plants but the recipe looked sooooo long and soooo hard sooooo I put it off. Until tonight!! ZOMG! I dunno why I put it off. It was actually really easy to put together but it did take a while to make. I'm not going to lie and say it was as easy as nuking my Amy's veggie burger in the hot box, however, it was easy to put together and didn't take tooooo long. I will make a double batch next time and freeze one loaf so that I have lots for sandwiches and leftovers! It was THAT good! I also made glazed cinnamon carrots. The carrots were the perfect veggie accompaniment because they added the sweetness that I wanted without having to eat dessert later. Let me tell you, I was S-T-U-F-F-E-D when before I was finished. 

Okay, so how did I make the caulimashedtaters? Here's the important stuff, the FYI, the DYI, the "how the hell do I taste it since I don't live with you?" stuff. 

Garlicy Caulimashedtaters

1 head of cauliflower

2 tbsp of vegan butter

2-3 tbsp of Tofutti's Better than Sour Cream 

3 cloves of garlic minced

salt and pepper to taste

garlic powder to taste

1. Trim off leaves from cauliflower and then cut off floweretts from stem. Put into microwave safe bowl and heat on high 10-12 minutes. (I have the crappiest microwave ever so please check yours after about 8 minutes and add a minute at a time till they cauliflower is soft)

2. In the meantime, sautee the minced garlic in the vegan butter over low heat for a minute or two until the garlic is fragrant. Mine turned brown and wasn't bitter but some people say you're not supposed to let it turn brown. I dunno. Mine did. It was awesome. *shrugs*

3. Once cauliflower is soft, use an immersion blender to puree the cauliflower. Add in the sour "cream" and vegan butter/garlic mixture, salt and pepper and garlic powder to taste and continue to blend until desired consistency and taste. Serve warm.

This recipe made three good sized servings for me. 

Cinnamon Glazed Carrots

2-3 Tbsp agave or maple syrup (I didn't have maple syrup but I'm sure it would have been better!)

2 tbsp vegan butter

6-8 peeled and sliced carrots

1. Toss everything into a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for about 8 minutes or until the carrots are crisp but tender. Be careful when removing them. I almost burned myself on the steam. I burn myself on my microwave more than I do my stove. GRRRR! 

2. Stir everything around and add a pinch of salt, if desired. It brings out the flavors but I really mean JUST A PINCH! 

Veggie Lentil Loaf 

The recipe I used is from one of my FAVORITE vegan bloggers, "The Simple Veganista". For real, she is my hero! I eat "tuna" sandwiches everyday because I found her amazing "tuna" chickpea sandwich recipes. I came up with my own recipe now but I love hers too! 

The best damn lentil loaf recipe is just a click away. Click here!

Some things I did differently or changed: I did not add cumin or thyme. I like lemon thyme but not regular thyme particularly. I added a few tablespoons of vegan Worcestershire sauce and a tablespoon or so of soy sauce. I can't imagine a loaf recipe without Worcestershire. It's sacrilegious to me, so I had to add it. I just HAD TO!! I also added a squirt of dijon mustard, though I don't know why. *giggle* I'm random like that. I don't think I tasted it at all and next time I won't add it. However, I think next time I'm going to make a mustard bbq sauce to use in place of the sauce in the recipe. This time I used this amazing Chipotle Grilling sauce that a local grocer carries and it was DELISH! It was spicy though, so it helped me stop eating the loaf. Seriously, I needed help with the stopping! I was eating it "raw" because it was sooo yummy! It's a good thing it was spicy!! 

Oh yeah, and I didn't have any bell peppers, or rather, I had one, but ONLY ONE, and didn't think this recipe needed it. To be honest, I just didn't want to cut the silly bell pepper. I don't think it needed it though, so I'm glad I left it out because it was amazing without it.

***One note, I overcooked mine and it was a wee bit dry, so just make sure you only cook it for the time called for!***

I took pics but my photo skills are akin to something a child would do, heh, I could probably color a picture better than my food photos, and I'm being lazy and don't feel like uploading them, so there! I hope you try one or two or all of these recipes and love eating kind as much as I do! These recipes will definitely help you do that and you won't even miss the meat!! 

And the Journey Continues...

My life has taken such an amazing turn the last several months. I have found a new sense of direction and love sharing it with the world around me. This little almost complete carnivore is now eating vegan. Up to now I've been sharing my journey on Facebook, however, I don't want to turn people off the idea of eating more plant based meals and, in light of that, I'm going to document my journey on my blog. 

Okay, okay, I know what you must be thinking: "YOU?!?! VEGAN?!?! Wait, doesn't that mean you don't eat ANY animal products AT ALL?!?!". Yep, that's me! I LOVE it! I honestly have no regrets. Well, maybe sometimes when I think about cheese but other than that I am really happy with my decision. I love how I feel and have even lost about 25 pounds or so over the last two months. My family must think I'm nuts because I'm the girl who literally took home the carcasses of any animal we ate for holiday dinners to make soup or stock from. I was the turkey carver. I ate more cheeseburgers in a year than a family of four did. I would stop and get a burger and chicken sandwich or stuffed jalapenos or a chocolate shake almost every day for dinner.

 So how in the heck did I go from that to this? I had gained so much weight over the holidays that my scale literally wouldn't weigh me. Mind you, it went really high! My knees hurt. I couldn't sleep more than about 4-5 hours at a time. I had constant heart burn even though I was taking Prilosec OTC. I was always tired and couldn't get enough food inside of me. I was constantly hungry. I'd go through bouts where my stomach hurt so badly that I thought I was having a gallstone attack or appendicitis. I knew I had to do something or else I was going to die. I could not keep living like this, could I? Even with all those things going on inside of me I could not bring myself to make such a drastic change. My own suffering could not make me give up my beloved pizza and cheeseburgers though. I have a girlfriend from high school who is a vegan eater and I saw the foods she was eating and thought "Heh, I should start eating one day of vegan eating a week." but only for health purposes. Once the new year began I decided to do a cleanse so I went to Trader Joe's and bought my little two week cleanse in a box and decided to begin straight away. Then one day I was talking to another friend about diatomaceous earth and did some research on it. While researching it I found people who had been doing cleanses for years who ended up finding that they had monsterous worms living inside of them. That was it. I was sold and had to get my hands on some DE. My girlfriend was so sweet that she let me buy a canister from her and I began taking three tablespoons a day. I swore to myself that if I had worms I'd give up meat. At least red meat and pork. What I found is staggering and not just a little gross! I found at last half a dozen or more ascaris living inside my intestines that had flushed out. I also found what looked to be liver flukes. 

Now, after researching these organisms I realize that it was probably the liver flukes that were causing me so much pain in my gut. UGH! You'd think that after all this junk I would have sworn off animal products completely but nope! I still wasn't ready to do so. I just decided not to eat pig and cow meat. I was addicted to hamburgers and pizza and other animals flesh. I would see a commercial and literally start salivating and shake from a need for that food. It was crazy! I started researching dangers of animal products and how to be a vegetarian because heaven KNEW I would never make it as a vegan. I ran across a website that had what I thought was information on eating vegetarian but ended up being all about how animals were treated. I saw pictures and videos and I was sick to my stomach and my heart ached for those animals who were being killed just so that I could indulge in my food addiction. I knew then that I could not eat animals anymore. At that point I thought that the occasional dairy product would still be okay, though I'd sworn off eggs as well. I wanted to know, not just from one source but really know if this was how animals were really treated so I did more research. While researching I saw an interview with Ellen DeGeneres and she said what really caused her to become a vegan was watching the documentary "Earthlings". What I saw killed me. I knew that I would not eat dairy again either. My heart hurts when I think of all the animals who had to suffer because I was too weak to quit the food that was killing me anyway. When I think about the fact that I could not give up animal products for myself but could do it for them, it almost awes me. This was a choice. It continues to be a choice. I will always make this choice. I will not put my own wants over the health and well being of an animal.

This journey has been full of trials and pitfalls. There have been times when I thought I was eating humanely only to find that big ag has stumped me again with their loopholes and tricky terms. I've learned a lot though in a very short period of time and if I can inspire just one person to quit eating animals, then I feel as though I have succeeded! 

So what is my blog about? I remember how lost I felt when I first made this decision to eat humanely. Initially I ate all kinds of processed foods because I didn't know what the heck to eat. I didn't know how plant eaters could sustain life without protein. UGH! It's crazy how much crap we are spoon fed (literally if you're an omnivore) about how we can't get enough protein as plant eaters and how difficult it is to get enough protein and vitamins as plant eaters. GRRR! I want to shank someone when I hear or read that crap because that's just what it is: CRAP! But alas, I digress! The whole "how much protein do I need?" bit will be discussed later. I was lucky because I had an amazing friend who helped me along my journey and kept me from giving up. She told me what she ate and that helped me tremendously. 

The things I'd like to cover are as follows:

• I want to post any news that comes out about eating plant based.
• I want to explain what is in my vegan pantry and how to switch over to being an herbivore.
• I will share recipes that I've tried from others and also some that I've created as well.
• I will talk about my journey in hopes that it will make yours easier.
• I want to help new plant eaters navigate labels and figure out how to eat as an herbivore.
• I will post videos and pictures so that people are aware of how animals are killed and treated every day while we're sitting in our cars scarfing them down. 
• I will also add links to animal rights legislation so that we can help animals right from the comfort of our living rooms. 
• Lots of other things too that, because my brain is farting right now, I can't remember.

Ultimately I want to help others live a more humane life. What I have chosen for my life isn't necessarily what is best for everybody else, however, if everyone were to eat one plant day a week we'd save some many animals and, by extension, clean up the planet as well. (More on that later) I don't want this blog to be about making people feel badly for their choices. I do want this blog to help people become aware so that they can actually make an information choice. 

New Year, New Me and Eating Vegan

This year has already been a doozy! So far in the last 23 days I have gotten back to work after being on limited duty for a leg injury, my little five pound chihuahua has been diagnosed with CHF, my car has broken down and I have decided to eat vegan. Some of the things that have happened have been amazing. Others have really shaken me and caused serious upset and stress. The one thing I know is that I can get through anything! I am a strong woman and have an amazing heart. 

I've decided that the direction of my blog is going to change. I want to make it more about my journey into eating as a vegan than anything else. I'll include recipes I try, products I find, etc. I'm doing this because I've found some good sources on eating vegan but as a person who truly loves meat, I have found that the vegan foods I am finding aren't "meat eater" foods. What do I mean by that? Well, they are foods that most meat eaters would only eat if they were forced to because the food supply had been annihilated. I want this blog to help other people who don't want to harm animals but who love their meat. Most of the recipes I've found thus far have been recipes for people who love veggies and beans and though I do love beans and I like veggies, I am not a person who is ever going to live happily ever after with Mr Carrot. He proposed. I said "NO!". 

So what does a meat eater eat when they eat vegan? Well, I'm an extreme novice. I've been eating vegan for about two weeks now and other than some cheese and summer sausage that I still had from before I chose to change my eating, I haven't had any foods that had a face since I began a few weeks ago. My first week as a vegan I ate mostly processed crap, and found that you REALLY have to be careful when buying "vegetarian" foods, as often they are NOT vegan! I'm not saying that you can only eat foods that say vegan, quite the contrary. You just have to make sure that you check the labels very closely to be sure it is vegan. I bought a bunch of MorningStar Farms burgers, crumbles, etc, only to find that they not only had milk in them but also egg whites. The biggest thing that bothers me is the cutting off of baby chicks beaks so that while they are in crowded cages they can't hurt themselves or other chickens. Honestly I'd eat eggs if I could find a farm I knew was reputable and did NOT do that. I don't have a problem with eggs or where they come from. I have an issue with what they do to the animals where they come from. *jumps down off soap box* 

Okay, diatribe over. Since I've been eating vegan I've lost and gained about six pounds. I am frustrated because I don't want to go back to eating animals but I also can't keep living at this weight. It's killing my knees, my back and my moral! Ultimately, I want the best of both worlds and I think with this blog I'm going to find it! First, I'm going to avoid soy products this week. I ate a lot of  soy last week and the week before and I think it could be partly why my weight has stalled. Second, I am focusing on getting enough protein. My suggestion is to use a site like MyFitnessPal.com the first few months, or longer, to make sure you're getting enough protein, as that is a concern for many vegans. Also, I think it's advisable to take a vitamin B-12 supplement. I personally buy mine at Trader Joe's and it's their brand B-12 which contains 16,666% of the RDA for B-12. Why should you supplement? Well, to be quite honest, it's a vitamin that is predominantly found in animal protein. I also supplement with magnesium but that's just because I stress out a lot and it has helped considerably with my menstrual cramps/attitude (usually I am aggressive and mean).