The End of Overeating

Seriously, if you're interested in why you feel like you're hardwired to overeat, you need to check out this book! It's not a vegan thing, so don't worry if you're not into that.




Oh, and I'm also skating in a Lupus benefit race this weekend at Heinz field with some of my former derby teammates! So excited! You can go here to check out my team or make a donation in support of me busting my fat ass for charity:
http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/valerieott/pittsburghlupusloop

"New Shit has Come to Light..."

Sorry, I can't stop thinking about that quote from The Big Lebowski and laughing every time I learn something new about this stuff!

I read a little more about the banned foods list, and it turns out that MAYBE the veggies on the list aren't quite so bad when they are cooked! The thing that interferes with the thyroid is called a GOITERGEN, and those are probably destroyed when the veggies are cooked. So I guess I can still eat corn (who eats raw corn anyway?) and spinach, broccoli, sweet potatoes and cauliflower in moderation (I don't "need" those as much as corn... haha.)

I also re-read the intro to Appetite for Reduction and realized I had forgotten that Isa (the author) has hypothyroidism too! I definitely wonder if she knows about goitergens, though, since so many of her recipes contain those foods. :-\ I also wonder if I'm being INSANE about this, or if modern medicine has really just convinced us that it's okay to be on pills and eat whatever we want.

After work yesterday, I stopped at The Good Life Market in Dormont, which is on my way home, but I honestly haven't been in there much. I just knew that they had Daiya and wanted to pick some up. I ended up buying WAY more than I had planned to (but I got a free gift bag full of samples!) Here's some new stuff I got:

A huge container of coconut oil, which I think is a good step in the right direction. It was painfully expensive ($24!) but I like the idea of medium chain triglycerides. You can go here to read more about it, because it would take me forever to explain, and you probably don't care that much! Most importantly, I used it to sautee the veggies for some curried corn chowder last night, and the subtle coconut flavor worked SO well (especially since I didn't have coconut milk and had to use almond!)


I also FINALLY broke down and bought some stevia (it was $14... ugggh!) Stevia is basically what Splenda pretends to be. It's an all natural sweetener made from leaves that has a "negligible effect on blood glucose." Awesome! I had it in some tea I got in the sample pack as well as my morning coffee, and I am definitely impressed.


I also got some arrowroot and Daiya, and I decided that I can make my life a lot easier by doing most of our shopping at The Good Life Market and the Shop n Save that's a block away from our house instead of trying to trek over to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's every week or two. Now that I'm not eating tons of fake meats, I can get pretty much everything I need at a regular grocery store, which is a huge plus!

Operation Soy-Free Vegan!

Well I finally fell off the wagon. Over the past week, I have eaten a ton of cheese and other assorted garbage foods. I honestly felt my sanity starting to slip away when I discovered the huge list of foods that interfere with thyroid hormone production:

Soy (this includes tofu as well as processed soy like Tofurky and Earth Balance)
Cabbage
Mustard
Horseradish
Wasabi
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Kale
Peanuts
Corn (UGH!!)
Peaches
Strawberries
Flax
Sweet Potatoes
Spinach

Since SO many things I had started eating since going vegan were on that list, I panicked. I no longer knew what was good for me. I didn't know WHAT TO EAT. So I gave up and regressed to my former unhealthy lifestyle for a week, and let me tell you- it feels HORRIBLE. I have had energy, but that's probably because I cut out the soy, which I think was having a huuuge effect on me, and have now been on thyroid medication for 7 weeks. However, I have pretty much had a constant stomach ache, which I know is from eating crap. I have also had a near-migraine level headache for 48 hours straight.

So today is the day that I pick myself up, dust myself off, and move on with what I originally intended to do for myself. So my list of things I can eat is a little shorter now... so what? I will survive, and I love food enough that I should be able to survive happily! I keep telling myself, "It could be so much worse- at least it's not a true ALLERGY! Just imagine if you couldn't even go NEAR peanuts!"

Operation soy-free vegan starts (officially!) today! I think my healthiest choices are yet to come, since I can't use the fake soy meats crutch anymore. :)

Inspiration and Explanation

I just realized that I forgot to mention where I got the inspiration to go ahead and do the juice fast, nor did I explain some things that probably need explaining!

First, we watched a documentary on Netflix called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. If you have Netflix, WATCH IT!



Then, while looking for recipes, I discovered Green Smoothie Girl @ youtube and was convinced that this was something that I could do, but only if I had a high powered blender instead of a juicer (see my first entry about juicing for my reasoning.)



Also, I've decided that "juice fast" makes it sound like a dumb fad diet. "Juice cleanse" isn't much better. The idea of a cleanse sounds nice (especially after my recent bad experience with soy!) but my main objective IS to lose weight.

For those of you who don't know, hypothyroidism makes it really tough for me to lose weight. It actually lowers my metabolism! I had been fighting with people for years over the fact that I just CAN'T lose weight unless I eat under 1200 calories per day. People told me that it was impossible for someone my size to need to eat that little. Well, there you go...

When I went vegan, everyone expected me to drop a bunch of weight immediately. Honestly, I at least expected SOMETHING! So, after 6 months of healthy eating and still no weight loss, I decided to make a list of all of my ailments and take it to a doctor. She immediately suggested that it was probably my thyroid.

So now I have been on medication for almost 5 weeks, knowing that it takes a very long time to get thyroid medication straightened out, and I am tired of being fat and tired. I don't want to wait for my metabolism to catch up with me. If I'm only burning x amount of calories, then I just need to eat less! And if I'm going to do that, then I need to eat only very healthy, nutritionally dense foods... hence the juicing!

After 10 days, I will go back to eating beans, legumes, etc, but if I can stand to, I'm going to continue juicing for breakfast and lunch!

First Green Smoothie!

The VitaMix arrived yesterday, so we immediately went to the farmers market and bought a bunch of fruit and veggies! In this one, I used kale, spinach, carrots, peaches, apples, bananas, blueberries, and blackberries. And nothing went to waste- not even the apple core! (Although I did remove the peach pit because I thought it might make it taste bitter.) The thing is a beast that will tear through anything!

Our 10 day juice fast starts today! I have a big bottle of it at my desk right now, but it's SO THICK. I think the bananas weren't ripe enough and I needed to use more water and/or ice! Next time I will use an actual recipe instead of just cramming whatever I want into it.

I'm doing okay without coffee this morning, though, so that's good! I just hope I don't end up running to the bathroom all day for the next 10 days.

I need to figure out which camera to use to make youtube videos. Filming in the kitchen is awkward!

10 Day Juice Fast

So Dustin and I have wanted to start making green smoothies for a while now, but our $20 blender is just AWFUL. Seriously, it blends like an inch of stuff unless it's all liquid, and I have to SHAKE it to get it to mix things well. We considered a juicer, but I think they're wasteful- both nutritionally and monetarily. All of the "scraps" that are left over after juicing are the most fibrous parts of the plants! Why would you throw that out? (And yes, I know that some people use them in cooking/baking, but most do not. It just seems so wasteful to me!)

So we decided we needed a blender to make smoothies instead of juice. After reading reviews and watching tons of youtube videos (Ninja vs. VitaMix was a real eye-opener, because the Ninja is supposed to be a pretty good blender, but the VitaMix made it look like junk when they went head to head!) We ended up agreeing that it was probably worth it to plunk down the money for THIS:



I am dying of anticipation waiting for it to arrive! I can't wait to make hummus, hot soup (yes, it HEATS the soup,) peanut butter, and sooo many other things! But first I want to do a 10 day juice fast and see how it makes me feel. I love the idea of being able to eat raw fruits and veggies, and the VitaMix even breaks down the cell walls so the nutrients are more readily available!

So expect some posts as soon as it arrives chronicling my 10 day juice fast. THAT should be interesting! I'm also considering making a youtube channel, but I don't know if talking into a camera is really my thing. If anyone is interested, maybe I will!

Health Update

Well, I finally got blood tests done, and it turns out there IS something wrong with me! I have an underactive thyroid! And high cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, high white blood cell count, high lymphocytes... presumably all related to the thyroid issue, but I'm not really sure.

At first, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so I did both. I am SO happy to know that I'm not crazy or the laziest person in the world, but I'm sad that it's not something that can be fixed. I will be on medication for it for the rest of my life. If you know me, you know how much I hate the idea of medication. But the idea of feeling "normal" again is an incredible thought- I can't remember the last time I felt GREAT. I am picking up my prescription for Synthroid today, and from what I've read, it should take about 6 weeks for my thyroid to become normal. I may or may not start feeling better before then.

Fortunately, I have an overwhelming amount of support from friends and family who have the same condition. I'm going to follow my Doctor's orders to start, but it'll be good to have all of the drug and testing information people have given me in case things don't improve on Synthroid. Thanks, everyone! :)

Oh, also... I am now officially an Ohio Valley Roller Girl! I passed my skills testing last night and it felt great. Everyone in the league has been so welcoming and awesome. They're really just a stellar bunch of ladies (and dudes!) and I am proud to be a part of their league.

I'm also proud of myself for busting my ass so hard last night, even though thoughts of calling it quits before I even started definitely occurred. I was so tired when I got to the practice space hours earlier than I needed to be there. It's an hour drive for me, so I usually shop a little after work and go straight there instead of home, which is in the other direction, but I was too tired to shop. So I ended up sleeping for over an hour in the backseat of the Soul (which is super big and comfy, btw!) I woke up feeling groggy and crappy, and I honestly just wanted to give up. It's frustrating to require such huge amounts of sleep yet never awake feeling well-rested. But I sucked it up and wound myself up with an energy drink, which I can't WAIT to stop doing/needing, and tryouts went well!

I'm so excited to stop feeling weak and tired. To stop aching anytime I do anything. To be able to think clearly. To be able to lose weight without eating less than 1200 calories a day.

I hope my expectations aren't too high, but I want to be optimistic about this! :)

Eating Out: Subway's New Avocado

I was never a huge fan of Subway, even in my meat-eating days. In my opinion, their meat is some of the grossest, lowest quality meat- probably the lowest of any "sub place" I can think of. I actually switched to veggie subs there years ago, but since going vegan, I've stayed away because I've heard that their bread has a lot of additives, and I don't like the idea of not getting any protein or healthy fats in my meal now that I have to watch that stuff closely!

All of this aside, Dustin and I have been pretty eager to try Subway's new avocado, since we're both VERY new fans of guacamole. We have found that drastically changing our diets has in turn changed our tastes pretty drastically. We have both begun to like a lot of things that we used to hate! I wasn't sure if plain mashed avocado would be good or not, so I made sure to get jalapenos so it would be more like guacamole. Here's what I ordered: a veggie sub on white bread (I heard their wheat isn't vegan, but it might just be because of honey. More importantly, the wheat is also lower in protein and higher in sugar,) with all veggies except olives, sweet onion teriyaki (probably full of sugar, but vegan and delicious,) and avocado.

It definitely surpassed anything I've ever had from Subway in tastiness, and I can even imagine craving it pretty often. I'm so excited to have another fast food (sort of) option that is vegan, delicious AND healthy! (Although I do wonder how they keep the avocado from turning brown... but that's the reason I cook my own meals most of the time now!)

Image is courtesy of Ingestibles @ tumblr.com, because I inhaled my sub before I had the chance to snap a photo! Whoops!

Super Easy Recipe: Zucchini Pizzas

At a red light on my way home from work today, I googled "zucchini recipes" because we have so much of it right now. HUGE ones were still only 75 cents each at the farmer's market, so of course, I thought I needed to buy like 4 of them for this week. I found a photo of something someone called "zucchini pizzas" and got really excited. I told myself that there was no way that they'd be as good as they looked, but I was going to try to knock them off anyway- just in case. Well, they were every bit as good as they looked... better, actually!

I sliced the zucchini, then topped each circle with Mid's pizza sauce, a tiny bit of garlic salt, all three kinds of Daiya, and some basil. Then I baked them at 350 degrees for like 20 minutes, then broiled them for a few more. Next time I make them, I will pre-cook the zucchini on the grill, because they ended up soggy and had to be eaten with a fork. Grilling them would crisp them up enough to be used as vessels for pizza toppings! Doing it this way was still really tasty and I'd definitely eat it this way again, but I think it'd be better suited as a healthier alternative to chicken or eggplant parmigiana (since it's not fried) on a sandwich or with pasta.

Product Reviews: Pancake Breakfast!

For Saturday breakfast today, I made this:


In addition to fresh, organic blueberries and real maple syrup, I used two different new products in this one:[image courtesy of wellsphere.com]This is one of my most exciting finds yet, because I LOVE ice cream. Everyone else seems to make a huge deal over cheese, which I also love, but I feel like vegan ice creams are usually not only not good replacements, but they're usually not even EDIBLE. (Seriously, have you tried vanilla Rice Dream? It made the ice cream lover in me weep!) Anyhow, Trader Joe's Soy Creamy vanilla is the BEST commercially available vegan ice "cream" I have found yet (Chicago Soy Dairy's chocolate is AMAZING, but there are few places that sell it, and they are restaurants.) I see that Trader Joe's also makes a chocolate, but our store appears to only carry the vanilla, cherry chocolate chip (which is also great, but has limited applications,) and mango vanilla (not a fan of mango.) I'd prefer chocolate, but the vanilla is more versatile anyway, and I'm completely amazed by the perfect combination of texture and flavor. The texture is spot-on; it's creamy and has the same mouthfeel as one expects from ice cream. The flavor is still a little soy-ish at first, but after a few bites, that goes away. I'm glad that my search for a good vegan ice cream can finally end. I'm tired of throwing away containers of overpriced, inedible crap. Now I'll be buying Trader Joe's exclusively!

Believe it or not, this one was a find at Big Lots! I don't usually buy Bob's Red Mill Stuff because I think it's overpriced, but this 7 Grain Pancake and Waffle mix was too good of a deal to pass up. I'm glad I got it, because I was able to use soy milk and Ener-G egg replacer to make some really tasty, dense pancakes! Ever since I stopped eating exclusively white bread, I've found that I don't expect everything to be "light and fluffy." In fact, I'd rather something feel heavy and dense, because that usually means it's more nutritious, filling, and flavorful! I'm really happy with this stuff and will be buying it again, because it's worth the money.

These all combined really well and made for an awesome 400 calorie breakfast(this photo is of Dustin's plate, and I gave him a little more of everything!)

Forks Over Knives - Official Trailer

"If the truth be known, coronary artery disease is a toothless paper tiger that need never, ever exist and if it does exist it need never, ever progress." -Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D.

Food Reviews!

I lost a pound already! Also, I reset my weight tracker to start at 235, because even though I've lost 14 lbs. total, I feel like I am really starting over this week.

I start the Insanity program tonight... that should be interesting!

Here are some awesome foods I made this weekend:

Lemon rosemary "chicken" (high protein soy/wheat gluten) with smashed potatoes and gravy (all vegan, of course!)


I was skeptical of Hain's vegan brown gravy mix packets, but my friend Holly loved them so much that I decided to give it a try. I'm SO glad I did, because it's amazing! I haven't been vegan long enough to forget what real gravy tasted like, and this is almost exact... only better because you know it's not made from gross fat drippings! You can get these at Whole Foods.


This was also the first time I've purchased Gardein Chick'n Scallopini, and it's also fantastic. The cutlets are frozen and are SO easy to cook. I also breaded and fried them like chicken parmesan yesterday, but I scarfed it before I thought to get a pic. Oops! Maybe next time. :) Anyhow, it's the closest thing I've had to chicken that's vegan, so yay! I wish I had more thumbs so I could give this more than two thumbs-up!


Field roast "lunchmeat" wedgie with pepper jack Daiya (HOLYCRAP good,) Vegenaise, lettuce and tomato.


I think wedgies might be a Pittsburgh thing, but I'm not sure. It's basically a sandwich on a pizza crust. I used a Kontos Pocketless Pita bread for it, and it turned out SO much better than I expected! The "lunchmeat" was Field Roast Smoked Tomato, which I was happy to see were wheat gluten based instead of soy. Once again, this was a great find at Whole Foods. It's about the same price per oz. as Tofurky (you get fewer thicker slices,) but doesn't have that strange dog foodish aftertaste.


The pepperjack Daiya is by far the best vegan cheese I have had. It tastes more like cheese, and I like how the shreds are wider and flatter for some reason. And, of course, it melts and (sort of) stretches better than any other vegan cheese!


After this shopping trip, we decided that we definitely need to make it a point to shop at Whole at least every other week. It's a pain to get to from our house, but the selection is great and we really need the protein that's in meat replacements like these. Also, our total cost was $106, and that included 10 Go Max Go candy bars @ $2.50 each. They're amazing enough that I still buy them despite the price and their unprofessional and downright nasty responses to critical reviews on candyblog.net. I hope they've improved their attitude and are willing to be a better representation of vegans!


(Excellent photo courtesy of alisacooks.com!)

Healthy Lifestyle Challenge!

My friend Amanda over at Diary of a Mad Fat Woman is doing a healthy lifestyle challenge- with prizes! (Don't be afraid to send her your entry fee- I've known this girl for years and she's a 100% stand-up person! She is trying to do her best to motivate us all!)

Diary of a Mad Fat Woman's Healthy Lifestyle Challenge!

Expect updates from me about my vegan meals, calorie tracking, and maybe even some pictures of me being less fat! Yay!

My First 5K!

Today I ran my first 5K, thanks to my friend Amanda at Diary of a Mad Fat Woman! Thanks for being such an excellent motivator, Amanda!

I feel AMAZING! I finished in 41:57, which was faster than my 45 minute goal! Since I've only done the entire 3.1 miles ONCE before that (and on a treadmill!) and it took over 45, I thought that it was a good goal. I was so unbelievably happy with it, especially since I didn't even push myself as hard as I could have because I was worried about pacing myself. I'm going to do as many 5Ks as I can this summer. I am seriously so excited!

This Weekend

*Losing another pound!

*Successfully fitting a burger restaurant outing into my diet (and keeping it vegan!)

*Going shopping and only coming home with an exercise ball to sit on at work and an armband for my iPhone for the 5k. :)

*Actually looking forward to going to the gym to run!

*Running for 8 minutes straight! I can't remember the last time I did this... I think it may have been NEVER. Even when I played sports, drills always stopped and started again. Now I can run 3/4 of a mile!

*Realizing that my gym clothes are getting waaaay baggy! They were kind of big on me to start because I just wanted to be comfortable and not even have to SEE my body. Now they look kind of huge, even though I've only lost 5 pounds since we started running. I forgot how much of a difference the last 20 pounds I gained made! At least that will make losing the next 15 a huge thing!


Good stuff. :)

Goal Setting

I'm down three pounds in the past five days! I'm so happy that I'm finally getting started with tracking again on spark. (For those of you who don't know, sparkpeople.com is an awesome site for tracking calories. There's an app too! Let me know if you want to join and be friends on there!) It's even easier than it was before, because eating real food has made my formerly ravenous cravings almost nonexistent. Now my first goal is to lose 10 more pounds by the end of the month, because I'd like to be at 225 for my first 5k on April 29th. Finishing that is my second goal!

Speaking of the 5k, I'm so thankful to have friends who are into fitness and doing things like this now. It will be so fun to have a whole group of us doing the race! (Even though we won't all be running together.) My friend Amanda set up a Facebook event for it and everything to try to motivate everyone to do it. If she hadn't, I probably would be skipping it until I felt more prepared in May, but now I feel like I'll be missing out if I don't... so thanks for that, Amanda! You're a great motivator!

Before and After

One of my facebook friends whom I haven't seen since high school posted a before and during/after photo of her impressive weight loss yesterday, with a comment that went something like "I am still hesitant to post this..." My immediate reaction was "What?! WHY? You should be damn proud of yourself!" Then I realized that she meant because she didn't want to share her "before" photos, even though that person was long gone.

I understand this. You don't want to admit that you ever let yourself go like that. You want to forget how you felt when no clothes fit and everything exhausted you. I understand because I've been there and back, and I'm there again RIGHT NOW. I have some "before" photos, and I don't have the courage to share them just yet. Outside of Spark, I haven't shared my actual weight, either. This is stupid, because when I'm watching one of those weight loss shows and the women are like "OMG DON'T TELL THE WORLD I WEIGH 400 POUNDS!" I always think, "Lady, we can SEE that you weigh 400 pounds! Who are you kidding?" So I'm going to start with putting a ticker here. As you can see, I've lost some weight, but I still have a long way to go before I hit my goal!

Changes

Okay, so I haven't been blogging as much lately because I have been eating a lot of packaged foods and have been kind of embarrassed to admit it. However, the more I think about it, the more I realize that packaged doesn't always mean horribly processed. The burritos I eat for lunch every day are pretty much the same nutritionally as if I'd make them myself and then freeze them for later. The thing is, I tried that and I don't always have the time to spend a whole weekend day cooking for the work week. It's just plain easier to pick up the frozen burritos at the store (variety depends on which store I'm shopping at- some have many more than others!) and I'm not going to be embarrassed about not being able to home cook every meal of the day while working full time, remodeling my house, and going to the gym! (And starting grad school in the fall!) I think a lot of people are in this same boat, so I'm going to blog more about what I'm actually doing.

We do still cook dinner all but one day a week, though, and I need to get on the ball with posting those more often, even if they're not that interesting. I know that seasoned vegans won't be impressed, but that's not who this blog is aimed at- it's for those of you who want to eat fewer animal products but think it's impossible for whatever reason (money, accessibility, willpower, etc.) I want to set a good example, because I know that Dustin and I were prime examples of lazy, unhealthy Americans, and if we can change for the better, then anyone can!

I also want to blog more about my workouts. So maybe this will become more of a vegan, weight loss and fitness blog. After all, there has been a LOT more to going vegan than I imagined there would be, and it has honestly changed my entire life!

It has officially been 3 months, and I don't see myself ever going back to eating the way I did before. THAT is progress. :)

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins!

These made an awesome breakfast! Now that I know how a basic vegan muffin works, I am planning to adapt it to make other flavors, like blueberry bran (Dustin's request,) and pumpkin! I love that vegan muffins seem to be more dense than regular ones. (The recipe was slightly adapted from Vegan Brunch- I swapped some of the all-purpose flour out for some whole wheat flour.)

Oh, and from now on, I will be able to provide the nutrition facts for all of the recipes I make! Check out the "nutrition grade" at the bottom! I couldn't be more excited about this!

Sesame Tofu with Garlic String Beans and Brown Rice

This is my new favorite post-run dinner! I'd normally be against using a "bottled sauce," but this one is made with good ingredients and is SO GOOD.

Thanks to Robin for requesting that this be posted!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup (dry) brown rice

1 block of extra firm tofu
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1/4 cup (4 Tbsp.) Soy Vey Veri Veri Terkiyaki sauce (I got mine at Right by Nature in the Strip District)

1 lb. string beans
1 Tbsp. Earth Balance
1.5 tsp. minced garlic
Garlic salt to taste

Serves 2 decent eaters

First, put the brown rice on to cook, because it takes a long ass time (you know what I mean if you're a former white rice eater!) I use a rice cooker, and I'll admit to not knowing how (or wanting) to make real rice in a pot. Seriously, get a rice cooker if you don't have one. They're magical.

For the sesame teriyaki tofu, start with a block of extra firm tofu. Whole Foods' 365 brand is my favorite. First, drain the liquid, then use paper towels to press it. Be firm, but don't press too hard or it will crumble! Then slice it in half lengthwise to create two wide rectangles and press again (the inside is still very wet!) You want to get as much water out as possible, because we are frying this, and water and oil DO NOT MIX! I didn't get mine pressed well enough while focusing on taking photos for this, and I ended up spattering hot canola oil all over my foot. It's blistering now. So just suck it up and press the water out! You can layer paper towels then stack some heavy books or something on it if you have the time.


Next, cut the rectangles into strips. I find it easiest to make one cut down the center, then one to the left and one to the right, creating four strips. It makes it easier to eyeball them for evenness. Then turn the strips and make three more cuts. You should end up with 32 cubes total (Or "close enough to cubes" if you're like me. Whatever.)


Next, toss the cubes in a bowl with some corn starch. For the easiest and most uniform coating, measure 1 Tbsp. of cornstarch into the bowl, add the cubes, then add another Tbsp. of cornstarch on top.


While the cornstarch is absorbing the rest of the tofu's liquid, move on to chopping the ends off of the string beans. I don't know if this step is necessary, but it makes them look pretty! I weigh a pound for the two of us, which looks like a lot, but I promise they cook down a lot!


Next, add the Earth Balance and garlic to a pan.


After it melts, add the string beans and stir to coat them. I use a small one because I think stacking the beans helps to steam them without burning the outside. Just be sure to stir them around a lot!


Heat the oil in a large pan/skillet/wok/whatever until it's very hot. I use a low-tech method called "eyeballing the viscosity," which just means I lift the pan, swirl the oil around, and see if it looks like it has gotten very thin. Oil is much thicker when it's not hot. If you have access, I'd recommend using a deep fryer for this. After my accident yesterday, I'm definitely planning on getting one! When the oil is hot, add the tofu. Please be careful! The tofu has hidden water inside and will most likely crackle and spatter oil. Cook it until it looks something like the photo below. And don't worry, tofu and string beans are both tough to burn. Depending on how you like your beans, you may need to cook them a little longer. I like mine still "snappy."


When the tofu is done frying, you can dump it onto a plate covered in paper towels if there is still grease left. Remove the pan from the heat and add 1/4 cup of Veri Veri Teriyaki. Interesting fact: In Eminem's Slim Shady video, there is a bottle of this stuff in his fridge!




Plate up and serve!


Per serving:
Calories - 681
Carbs - 68
Fat - 33
Protein - 28

My Vegan Weight Loss Plan

So now that I feel 100% comfortable with the vegan thing, I am going to work on losing weight and getting in shape!

My diet plan:
100% vegan! I will be tracking everything I eat on sparkpeople.com (with a 1300 calorie per day goal,) cooking from scratch a little less (I don't want to burn myself out by spending too much time working out and cooking,) and drinking Nutribiotic vegan protein shakes (it's tough to get the protein I need for weight lifting by eating such a low calorie vegan diet.)

My exercise plan:
We are hitting the gym 3x a week (Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.) I am doing the Couch to 5k program for cardio and lifting weights afterward. We may add in some racquetball, basketball, swimming and hula hooping for variety since they have such good facilities for those things!

Also, I'm going to GET MORE SLEEP. Not "catching up by sleeping in until 2 PM on the weekend" sleep... I'm going to be in bed by 10 PM every weeknight!

It's pretty simple, I guess. The toughest part is going to be just getting my ass into the gym and not snacking when I get stressed out. Thankfully, I have Dustin to drag me to the gym when I don't want to go!

Not From Scratch

I've been struggling to find a way to make easy dishes AND track on sparkpeople.com, because counting calories is the only thing that really works for me when I want to lose weight. However, I find it difficult to track meals that I make from scratch 3x a day. Even if I do food groupings, I have to add new ones constantly, and I just don't have the time to be cooking all of my meals from scratch AND entering each ingredient on a website. Dustin and I both work full time. He is back in school now, and I will be too in the fall! But I NEED to track calories in order to lose weight, so I have to find a way to eat more packaged/pre-portioned foods.

I thought this would be impossible, until I accidentally ended up at Right by Nature in the Strip District, where I almost fainted at all of the amazing things they stock. My most exciting find was frozen vegan burritos!! I keep trying to find the downside to them, but they are 1.Vegan 2.Frozen/pre-portioned 3.Made of natural ingredients 4.Delicious! So the only real downside is the cost... I think they were $2.25 each. But I guess if I have to compromise on something, that's what I'd want it to be! Sure, I can get a burrito the same size at Taco Bell for 99 cents, but ugh... I've eaten Taco Bell once in the last 2 months or so, and I can't imagine doing it again any time soon. I'm seriously reformed here! I want to be able to trust the companies/foods I put into my body, and unfortunately, that comes with a price in this country.

For work lunch today, Dustin took a veggie fajita burrito and I took the spinach tofu one. I added some hot sauce on top because I don't like a too dry burrito:







I'm still having a tough time tasting anything thanks to this cold, but I can tell these will be life-altering. I WILL seek out more things like this so I can track what I eat starting today. Going vegan ended up knocking me further off track than I ever imagined it would, but then again, I never imagined it would stick like this! I am so proud of Dustin and myself, even if we took a while to get back on the weight loss wagon. This is the biggest lifestyle change anyone could imagine for the two of us, and I think it's only going to help us now that we're starting again. I no longer crave pizza late at night. I don't think soda is an acceptable replacement for water. I don't REQUIRE something chocolate after every meal.

Everything has changed on the inside. Now it's time to change the outside too.

Lemon Seitan Stir Fry

Sorry, it's another crappy picture! But you're lucky I took one at all! I used my phone because I was too lazy and eager to shovel this into my mouth hole to do the real camera thing! My iphone takes good photos, but Blogger screws them up when I upload them to Picasa for some reason. :(

The recipe is Vegan Dad's seitan lunchmeat modified with slightly less sage and fennel, then sliced into strips and stir fried. I used a packet of lemon stir fry seasoning, but it was so bland that I ended up adding lemon zest, lemon juice, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. It turned out good, but I will definitely make my own sauce from scratch next time!

Banana Walnut Waffles

I modified a recipe from Veganomicon by adding cinnamon, ginger and clove, because nutmeg alone is a little boring. I make a big batch of waffles on weekends and freeze them for easy work breakfasts. These are my favorite so far because the recipe requires much less oil than others because of all of the mashed banana. :)





(Sorry about the crappy photo- I took it with my iphone under fluorescent office lighting!)

Sloppy Joes and Mac n Cheese!

TVP sloppy joes are AMAZING!! I rehydrated the TVP granules using fake beef broth that I got from the bulk bins at the co-op, browned it a little in a pan, then added a can of sloppy joe mix that we had leftover from the non-vegan days. I'll probably want to figure out how to make it from scratch, because I'm sure it's full of stuff I don't want to be eating. Also, the buns are hot dog buns from Whole Foods and were the perfect size.

I also made mac and cheese out of whole grain rotini pasta and a mixture of stuff that I didn't write down. It definitely included a block of silken tofu, soy milk, yellow Daiya, garlic salt, chili powder, turmeric and onion powder. I put it into personal sized casserole dishes, topped it with breadcrumbs and paprika, then baked it at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Next time, I will not make both of these together. The sloppy joe had about 300 calories, so I'd serve it with steamed veggies instead.

Dustin's Burnt Almond Torte

Okay, so Dustin and I don't get each other gifts for holidays, and this includes birthdays. Most people think it's weird, but we don't. We can't hide anything from each other anyway! So usually, all we ask for is a specific cake and/or restaurant outing. I almost always got a DQ ice cream cake, but obviously, that's not vegan. So I thought about what would be the most amazing thing I could imagine veganizing, and demanded that Dustin, who is new to cooking and baking in general, make it for me: A BURNT ALMOND TORTE.

I don't even know how to make a burnt almond torte. But I thought the internet could help, so I wasn't worried. Little did I know that burnt almond tortes are a Pittsburgh thing, so the internet wasn't helpful at all! Since I demanded such a crazy thing, I ended up helping out a little, but most of the credit really should go to Dustin. He is the best. :) (Also, this is based on my memory of the last one I had from Prantl's bakery in like 2004, so it might not even be close. But who cares? It was great!)

From Valerie Goes Vegan!

From Valerie Goes Vegan!

He made two 8" round cakes using the vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, substituting mostly almond extract for the vanilla. He did the same thing with the buttercream frosting from the same book, making the BEST almond frosting I've ever had in my life. The almonds are just slivered almonds cooked in sugar over a low flame until they caramelized a little.

Seriously, I was SO happy with this!

Update

I just wanted to make a post to let everyone know that I haven't abandoned this blog! I've just been sick with a head cold over the past week+, and I haven't been cooking anything interesting because I've been so tired and haven't been able to taste much anyway.

This has been a good learning experience, though. Here are some things I learned in one short week:
1. Dustin IS capable of cooking things on his own... good things!
2. I'm more dedicated to the vegan thing than I thought I'd be at this point. I thought the transition would take much longer.
3. Vegan food doesn't need to be complicated. When I was sick, I made easy stuff like chili and awesome tacos out of soft corn tortillas, beans, leftover homemade salsa, and Daiya cheese!

Dustin and I are starting the Couch to 5k program as soon as we're both done being sick. (Hopefully on Wednesday!) I'm trying to work up the courage to do some "before" photos, but I may not post them right away.

I promise I'll make a substantial update soon! (Hopefully tonight!)

Leftover Chili Burritos!

We had a lazy dinner tonight made from leftover chili + extra beans and seasonings. I melted cheddar Daiya on top, wrapped them up, then topped them with homemade salsa (very chunky because, like I said, I was lazy!) with lime. I also attempted to rip off that orange ranchy sauce that Mad Mex uses on top of their burritos. I used Veganaise and Tapatio hot sauce and it was good, but next time I think I will add some chili powder or cumin or something as well. The tortillas are habanaro lime from Trader Joe's.

Now Taking Requests!

Now that I am more comfortable with vegan ingredients, I want to start coming up with more of my own recipes and posting them for you to try. So far, I only have a few on deck: chili (sooo close to being perfected,) brownies, meatloaf and mac and cheese. I'm really, really excited about the last two!

So what do YOU want to see me veganize? And don't say bacon, you jerks, because eggplant + liquid smoke is the closest thing you're gonna get in my chemical-free kitchen!

Please leave your requests below, not on facebook! You don't have to sign up for anything to comment as long as you have a lj/google/AIM/etc. name!

Brownies and Better Photos!

Okay, so I admit that I don't know the first thing about photography. I always used my iPhone camera because it was always around and it was so easy to upload photos. However, the app I was using (Blogspot) has been making my photos look totally crappy and blurry randomly (see the chili post.) So I decided to bust out the Ott-Lite that Dustin's mom got me for xmas one year and my newish digital camera that I never use to take photos of the chocolate chip brownies that Dustin and I made tonight. I think I did a decent job for my first one:



I'm not posting the brownie recipe yet, because even though they were good, I think I can still improve them. If you have any suggestions for how to improve my photos, please leave a comment!

Alicia's "Nothing to Say but 'mmm'" Alfredo!

My friend and fellow foodie/weight loss buddy Alicia over at Beyond Willpower is my hero for the week (at least.) Why? Because she came up with this recipe for vegan alfredo, with which I am in looove! I was hesitant to try it, because I'm not a big fan of regular alfredo... let alone a variation that's made with silken tofu. Right? WRONG!

I made it for dinner last night and again tonight, because I couldn't stop thinking about it. I haven't missed very many foods since going vegan, but the creamy texture of cheese sauce is something that I thought I'd be mourning the loss of for a very long time.

I modified it slightly by adding 1 cup of chopped fresh spinach and halving the sauce recipe (that was more than enough for 2 cups (dry) of pasta!) I also let it simmer on the stovetop for about 3 minutes to wilt the spinach, and that really thickened the sauce nicely! (I think I may have used a little less milk tonight to make the sauce even thicker!)

Go here for the recipe!

Seitan Lunchmeat?!

So I've been looking and looking for a good seitan recipe. After several failed attempts at boiling and baking, I found this recipe on Vegan Dad's blog His instructions included wrapping the dough in foil and steaming and THEN baking, which I thought could be the key. I (more like he) was right! This made a HUGE loaf of seitan that will be amazing for things like BBQ melts and cheesesteaks!

First, I had to figure out what I was going to use to steam it since I don't have a steamer insert. I went with this colander, which actually fit into my biggest pot very nicely! Then I put the pot lid on top, and I suddenly had a free steamer! I will be using this to steam other things in the future!

After an hour of that, I put the log on a (sorry ass) pan and baked for another hour.

When it came out, it had grown to almost twice the size of the dough loaf, and the foil pressed on it, which I think made it more dense and meaty. The bottom was browned and crispy, and it was just plain amazing. If you need a good seitan recipe for sandwiches, this is definitely the one. Now I just have to figure out how to slice it thinly without cutting myself (deli slicer?) Thanks, Vegan Dad!


UPDATE!!!

Dustin was able to slice it pretty thinly!

We made paninis with homemade bbq sauce, daiya and caramelized red onion!

(I apologize for the crappy quality of my photos lately, but there's an issue with the Blogger app that they're hopefully going to resolve soon!)

Two New Goals

Now that I have the vegan thing down as far as cooking goes, I am going to start working these things in this week:

1. Setting a calorie limit each day.
This is how I've lost weight in the past, and it's really the only way to go. If I'm not paying attention, unlimited calories seem to enter my piehole! I'll be using sparkpeople.com to track what I eat.

2. Shop frugally!
This is a tough one, because vegan stuff can be daunting and it's easier to buy expensive packed foods like Tofurky. However, my recent (post forthcoming!) foray into veggie lunchmeat making was a HUGE success. Seriously, Dustin slapped my hands because I kept sawing pieces off of the still-hot loaf. Anyway, we want to buy a new car soon AND I have to start saving to pay for my grad school classes in the fall. (My employer provides tuition reimbursement, but I will have to front the money until after the class when the reimburse me, because some of the "pre-admission" courses I have to take aren't covered by federal loans since they're not part of a specific track for a degree. Pain in the ass!) This will involve a lot of experiments like one Dustin did yesterday where he made bread in the bread machine with all-purpose flour ($1.99 a bag) instead of bread flour ($5 a bag.) It was perfect! I'm using an app for my iPhone (I think it's just called "Groceries") to organize my shopping list before we go shopping so I don't end up with a bunch of crap that I don't need!

Choices

Like I said before, being vegan is hard sometimes. Today is a good example: I forgot to bring food to work. I had a nice chunk of vegan lasagna all packed up, but it's not doing me any good in the fridge! Also, my plans for making another batch of waffles fell through when Dustin came home from tour early, so I didn't have breakfast either.

As I drove to work, I weighed my options. I passed a McDonald's. No problem... I don't even like their breakfast at my fattest and most unhealthy! It's so gross! Then I passed our old carpool favorite, Einstein Brothers Bagels, and didn't even pause. I did consider getting a mocha at Starbucks, but then I realized that my hatred for soy milk makes it impossible for me to have one of those. So I came to work with no food.

At 10 AM, I decided that I was going to die, so I checked my wallet and was pleased to find $7! I hardly ever have cash- usually just my debit and credit cards. I was excited, because that meant I could go to the vending machines! However, my excitement quickly diminished when I realized that I wasn't going to be able to read the labels to see what was vegan.

So I half gave up. I got a bag of wasabi trail mix, and it was vegan. But I also got a bag of Cheez-Its, which I know damn well were not. But they are my #2 exception to the rule (second only to Vincent's Pizza!) So I'm eating them and thinking about how doing anything to the extreme is kind of unreasonable (see also: Straight Edge.) I think too many people give up on being vegan after caving and eating something non-vegan. Really, it's not the end of the world! I feel great about what I've done for my body and animals in the last two months. I'm going to celebrate that and realize that I get to make the choice every time I decide what to eat.

Eggplant... Bacon?

Dustin made "eggplant bacon" from Appetite for Reduction today, which consisted of baked eggplant srips dipped in soy sauce and liquid smoke. I was skeptical about it, but it was actually really good! It wasn't bacon, of course, but it's a good substitute considering it's a vegetable!

I also replaced 1/2 of the tofu in our usual tofu scramble (adapted from Vegan Brunch) with zucchini and served LightLife fake sausage on the side. I decided that the sausage was not nearly as good as the eggplant bacon, which is good because I want to stop buying most meat substitutes anyway.

Also, we got some kind of expensive fair-trade organic coffee at the Co-Op, and I think it was worth it! (My mom got me those mugs for xmas! Thanks, Mom!)

Brookline Cart Tacos, Veganized!

Before I cut out meat, one of my favorite foods was a taco from Las Palmas in Brookline, a Mexican grocery store with a cart out on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, they have no non-meat options. Fortunately, the meat was pretty questionable anyway... to the point where I definitely don't miss it enough to be tempted to actually eat it.

Yesterday, Dustin and I stopped there to pick up some red peppers, and I realized I could buy the corn tortillas they use to make the tacos! Then I realized that I had several packs of extra firm tofu at home, so I picked up some carne asada seasoning. I mixed it with some cumin, sprayed the tofu chunks with olive oil, then tossed them in the seasoning and broiled them for a while. I sauteed some red and green peppers with some onion, then threw in some Daiya at the end to melt it, then threw all of it into a steamed tortilla with some homemade salsa with TONS of cilantro and a squeeze of lime. I seasoned some black beans as a side. Holycrap, it was amazing!

Cookbook Review Time!

Okay, so I know that this looks like a "diet" cookbook, but it's not. I mean, it could have been... if everything in it hadn't turned out so delicious! This book is the reason that I am doing so well with the vegan thing. Seriously, everything we've made from it (with the exception of the soy-saucey seitan) has been AWESOME.

Here is the review I posted on amazon:

Let me preface my review with this- I am not a vegan, but I am very interested in vegan cooking and baking. I make vegan stuff whenever I can, and that's becoming more and more frequent thanks to Isa's books. Her creations will please meat-lovers so much that they won't even think to ask "but where's the meat?!"

Here are the reasons why I LOVE LOVE LOVE Appetite for Reduction:

1.) It doesn't use ingredients that are expensive or difficult to find. If you think being vegan is too expensive, you need this book.
2.) Every time I wonder something about a recipe or ingredient, surely enough, I find the answer in a "tip" included for each recipe. It's like she reads my mind!
3.) The serving sizes are realistic! I can pretty much put a buffet out of business, so I was happy to see that I couldn't put away more than 2 servings of anything in this book!
4.) The book itself is the best cookbook I own. I really hate hardcover cookbooks, so I was so happy to see that this one was softcover. It's light and stays open when you press down on it a little (without messing up the spine,) and I don't feel like the pages are going to fall out.
5.) The nutrition facts. I have made about 6 meals from it so far and they have all fit into my diet plan perfectly. I love being able to cook my own food without adding up all of the calories myself... try to do that with fiber and protein too... ugh.

Basically, this book is amazing, and I recommend it to vegans and non-vegans alike!