Simple Pasta Salad
Tricolor pasta cooked and drained
1/4 - 1/2 a red onion
A bell pepper (I prefer red but this time I had a green one on hand) chopped
A cucumber sliced and then halved
1 can of sliced black olives
1Tbsp dried parsley
1/2 Tbsp dried basil
juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp Vegan mayo
salt and pepper to taste
Mix everything together and chill. Super easy and delish!
I don't like over dressed salads so this is very lightly dressed. If you would like a creamer salad I would add more of the mayo.
Happy Eating!!
"I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures." - Lao Tzu
Today started out much like yesterday. I thought I was doing a much better job at keeping Andy's excitement from waking James,
but alas, when I returned home from our walk I found him asleep in the guest room again.
Even though our walk was 40 min. today, Andy wasn't ready to come home. She whimpered and let me know, for a good half hour after retuning home, that she thought we should still be outside walking. Maybe I should make her my personal trainer. :)
Last night, for dinner I tried another recipe from Holy Cow!. I had tried her brownies on Tuesday and they were exactly the indulgence I was looking for! My husband loved them as well and was shocked to know that they were dairy, egg and oil free.
With the success of the brownies, I couldn't wait to try the next dish I had picked out. Savory Sweet Potato Quiche. I did make a few tweaks to the recipe: I used my own recipe for crust, I used dried herbs instead of fresh, and while caramelizing the onions I just used oil (I find they are sweet enough without adding more sugar).
I could have caramelized the onions more but I was getting hungry and impatient.
James and I both enjoyed the meal, it had a great smooth texture and the herbs and onions did a wonderful job at making the quiche savory. Today, for lunch, I even had a slice cold, without onions and it was heavenly! :)
“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” - Dr. Seuss
The second phase of getting back to a healthy lifestyle started today.
Now that I'm back to a plant-based diet it was time to add exercise back in. I started with just a short 30min walk, at the park near my home, with my dog Andy. I don't know how she did it but she knew I was taking her to the park before I even started to get ready. This didn't make James too happy since her crying and excitement woke him up. He ended up sleeping in the guest room so he could have some peace while I finished getting ready for the day.
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| Andy enjoying a run. |
Even with the heat of the day it was nice to get out and enjoy the park. We almost had the entire park to ourselves. So, other than the few cars that drove by and the 2 people we walked passed it was a very peaceful, enjoyable walk.
After we returned home I spent some time doing some stretching exercises and Andy sprawled out on the cool tile floor under an air conditioning vent.
Life is good! :)
"I'm an introvert... I love being by myself, love being outdoors, love taking a long walk with my dogs and looking at the trees, flowers, the sky." - Audrey Hepburn
I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I got busy working and food and my blog became less of a priority. I went back to my old habits out of convenience and as you can imagine the weight I had lost found me again.
Over a month ago I started to think about what was going on in my life and I decided to get back on track. Over the past month I've been getting back to eating a plant-based diet and I've even lost a couple of pounds!
This time around I've changed my focus. Before It was all about what the scale said, this time it's about how I feel. As I was making my transition this last month I knew the goal was to go completely plant-based but I let myself eat the things I was trying to get away from, all the while paying attention to how each of the foods made me feel. For example, I had been eating plant-based for about a week and my husband brings home a cheese pizza. It smelled wonderful so I added a piece to my plate, next to the salad I had prepared for myself. I started with the pizza eating slowly, after eating half of the slice I was not feeling well. I pushed it aside and ate my lovely salad instead. Since then cheese pizza has not appealed to me.
Tonight in honor of returning to the blogging world and my victory over cheese pizza I made homemade cheese-less pizza
and dairy, egg and fat-free brownies. (the recipe for these you can find at Holy Cow! )
I've missed sharing my love for good food so I'm glad to be back and as always....
Happy Eating!!!
"What's so fascinating and frustrating and great about life is that you're constantly starting over, all the time, and I love that." - Billy Crystal
Fall is here!
Well it was for a little while.
Not today.
The high was around 90 degrees.
I was in the mood for a meatloaf like dish so I made a lentil loaf. It was actually much tastier than a meatloaf and even James really enjoyed it. I used a recipe from Oh She Glows.
Typically when making food that required me to use my hands to mix raw hamburger I would get really grossed out. Practically gagging. I'm happy to say while making this dish that didn't happen!
Time for a little update. Today I weighed myself and the scale read 262.6. I've lost exactly 12 pounds since I started this blog! It's been slow going but I'm happy that I'm making progress. And it's pretty amazing that I've lost that much almost completely through diet.
*Raising my glass of water*
Here's to the next 12 pounds!
"I pray to be like the ocean, with soft currents, maybe waves at times. More and more, I want the consistency rather than the highs and lows." - Drew Barrymore
I was feeling adventurous the other day and I tried my hand at making a gourmet steak dinner. Yes the 'steak' was cauliflower but it sure hit the spot! Out of all the dishes I have made in the last 3 months this one is my favorite.
This dish was very simple to make but I do need to get better at slicing the 'steaks'. I was only able to get 2 out of my head of cauliflower.
The ends crumble anyway but I also had a couple 'steaks' that fell apart.
The trick is to make sure you're slicing them thick enough, too thin and they fall apart. To use the bits that didn't turn into steak I chopped them up and cooked them in a similar fashion to the Cauliflower Steak and stirred in the leftover gravy and served it over rice. Basically the same meal just a different presentation.
To make my Cauliflower Steaks with Mushroom Gravy I, of course, started by slicing the cauliflower into steaks. I then drizzled them with a little olive oil and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. In a hot pan I seared them on each side making sure they looked golden and very crispy. After transferring them to a baking dish, they went into a 350 degree oven for 20-30 min.
While the steaks were in the oven I use the pan I seared them in to make the gravy. I started by sauteing some button mushrooms and then I added veggie broth, flour and the same seasoning I used on the cauliflower plus some parsley and cooked it till it was a beautiful thick gravy.
Served over rice it turned out to be a very satisfying meal. I'm a little embarrassed by the amount of joy I got from using a steak knife to slice into it. And then on top of that to taste the rich velvety gravy I felt that I was truly being decadent. But this dinner was only around 300 calories per steak.... with the gravy and rice!
The only thing that made me sad about this meal was that James couldn't enjoy it with me. :( He can't stand mushrooms or cauliflower. But on the bright side it did leave more for me to enjoy! And don't feel too bad for him I always make sure he has something tasty to dig into as well........Until next time......Happy eating!!
"It is what we think we know already that often prevents us from learning." - Claude Bernard
As a kid one of my favorite desserts was lemon bars. I can still remember the first time I had them. When I was about 7 my Mom had hosted a pot luck and one of her friends had brought them. I tried one and was in love. I really wanted a second one but wanting to be a good girl I thought I would wait until everyone had left before having another. After the last person had left I went running to the table only to find that the woman who had brought them had taken them home with her.
My Mom found me in tears and asked what was wrong. After I explained to her what had happened she called her friend and got the recipe. She took me to the store the next day to get all the ingredients and then we came home and made them together.
Lemon Bars have always held a special place in my heart and every time I taste them I'm taken back to that day. A couple of months ago when I had hurt my back and my Mom came to town to help she brought with her a big pan of Lemon Bars. The first thing she did was dish some out and bring it to me in bed.
These, pictured above, are my first attempt at dairy and egg free lemon bars. They were very, very tart but still close to the original. So I will just have to keep trying.
Even with them being tart they didn't last long :)
"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better." – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
