We live, We learn

I'm am one moody lady lately. I'm having violent mood swings. Not violent in that I'm lashing out at other people kinda way but the way that makes me want to reach out and grab bad foods. It's completely in my head though. This I'm sure of. I'm losing inches from my waste and not once have I felt starved for food or physically craved stuff. Nonetheless, today's eating choices were just so so. I made a huge greenish smoothie yesterday to last me a few mornings. Unfortunately, it was incredibly thick. Probably too much kale and spinach for the amount of liquid. As a result I ended up spoon eating my smoothie for breakfast. I had about 3-4 ounces of mixed greens for lunch and an enchilada for dinner. What I'm not telling you about is what I grabbed from the vending machine. It was a decision. I made it. It didn't satisfy my mood and my lesson is learned.

I liken the situation to this quote my friend Stef posted to Gchat today:

"All I wanna do is eat french fries in the corner."

Well it obviously wasn't french fries that I grabbed from the vending machine but you get the point. It wasn't actually Stef who said this but rather a friend of hers. A friend who I imagine felt a bit like me today. Unwilling or unable to stomp her feet and cry, or scream, or wine like we might have as children, there are then times when some of us just want to quietly sit in a corner, baring our rage, frustration, anxiety, or sadness with french fries or some other comfort food. So there it is. My trip to the vending machine. I'm living. I'm learning. I'm not perfect.

...On a brighter note, inspired by watching one of the last few episodes of Oprah (tear falls from face), here are 5 of my favorite things. My favorite pantry items to be specific. And no, if you look under your chair you won't find them, nor will an elf be handing you a bag from me anytime soon. Sorry! Nonetheless these guys make my plant-based life that much sweeter:

In this photo:
1. I'm willing to add Braggs Liquid Aminos to just about anything. Especially if it's something that I think normally needs salt. I don't add much, just a splash. I consider this stuff to be an absolute must, no seriously, A MUST in my pantry! I even have a bottle at work for lunch.
2. The balsamic vinegar needs no introduction but can be found at Whole Foods Market if you don't recognize the 365 label. (Also kept in a cabinet at work.)
3. The cocoa is one of the healthiest most natural varieties I could find and it doesn't disappoint.
4. Fresh cracked pepper can take food to a whole new level for me. I grew up eating/using the ground black pepper so when I discovered grinders I was forever changed. My absolute fav is topping this over roasted broccoli. Mmmmm good!
5. And last but certainly not least is unsweetened soy milk or almond milk. I love them both. And now that my palate is a little clearer, I choose between the two based on the overall flavor of the dish. They bring me creamy goodness in either case.

That's all for tonight folks. Hope your Monday was off to a better start than mine. If not, we live. we learn. We move forward!

PS: Thanks to Stef for letting me share this quote. :D

Celebrating My Mom (with plant goodness)

Today is Mother's Day so it only seems appropriate that I celebrate my mom today. She's 3,000 miles away in California but she's always with my in spirit and in my heart. There is no denying that I'm clearly her child through and through. Mom I love you!

Like most children I

My Weekend of Wonder: Rainbow Foods, Farmers' Market and Shopping!

Friday - Rainbow Foods
I'm learning that the more plant-based dishes I create, the more beautiful and interesting the color scheme. Taking lots of pictures for this blog has been a really fun experience. I've realized that lots of naturally bright greens, reds and yellows on my plate is a good sign of nutrient-dense food. Friday night cooking was no exception.

I decided to whip up another Nutritarian recipe from ETL. I made the bean enchiladas (ingredients at left) because I'm still riding high on a mexican food kick due, in part, to Cinco de Mayo. Being from California I almost consider Cinco de Mayo to be like a special state holiday. My father grew up in predominantly Mexican-American neighborhood of San Diego where he learned to speak spanish from friends and my grandmother learned to cook authentic mexican dishes. I celebrate it most years by

Getting my green mojo back!

Goood morning! I'm up unusually early this morning. My neighbors woke me up at 4:30am and I couldn't quite get back to sleep. I decided this was the perfect time to check-in with all of you.

I realize I've been neglecting

Souper Sunday!

I had one serious souper Sunday. So serious that I had absolutely no energy to make dinner and frankly I'm still tired at the thought of it.

Background: Being such a lover of desserts and baked goods as I discussed here and here, it's probably no shocker that I would much rather bake up a cake from scratch than stand over a stove stirring away at something. I haven't tended to show the most patience in that department. Baking always seemed more straight forward. Measure it out. Don't forget the basic (e.g. baking soda, eggs, sifted flour, etc.) Stir it up. Grease the pan. Pour it in. Set the time and bake.

Cooking on the stove top is another issue altogether. Yesterday, I decided to try cooking not one but two of Dr. Fuhrman's recipes for nutrient-dense soup. The first would be the Black Forest Cream of Mushroom Soup followed by Golden Australian Cauliflower Cream Soup. I decided to cook both because there was quite an overlap of ingredients and Sunday has become my day of cooking in preparation for the week ahead. I spent hours in the kitchen chopping all of the vegetables, mincing the garlic as blending the cashew cream and sauteeing mushrooms. Don't these look good!

I could have just

Saturday: Take me out to the ball game!

...Just don't buy me any Cracker Jacks! I had such a lovely Saturday. And yes, I went to a baseball game today but I'll come back to the details in a bit.

I woke up early but I got a slow start, wallowing in bed for a few hours to watch a Netflix DVD and research recipes for this weekend's cooking plan. Too lazy to get in the kitchen to make a smoothie right away as I would most weekends, instead I just grabbed an apple.

Around noon I finally got going and headed straight for the blender to make a smoothie. I've had a taste for chocolate lately so earlier in the week I defrosted some frozen pineapple chunks and sprinkled cocoa powder on them for an after dinner dessert. Unfortunately that didn't quite do the trick so I decided to make the ETL chocolate smoothie with spinach, blueberries, cocoa powder and ground flaxeed. It was A-MAZING! Just the yummy chocolate flavor I was looking for. I could have gulped down all 30 ounces but I settled for half that.

I packed my chocolate smoothie in a reusable cup and was on my way to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. I buy most of my groceries at these two place but I've been meaning to start exploring my produce options at one of the local farmers markets. Since I was recently transplanted back to the East Coast, I'm finding that most of the markets here won't start up until next month. Others were closed for the day by the time I got moving. I'll have to give it another shot next weekend.

My friend Nicholas (in Arizona) was apparently much more successful. He shared this picture with me of the staples he grabbed from the market today:

Such a beautiful medley of vegetables, right?! Tomatoes, carrots and what appears to be red leaf lettuce. I think I even see some fresh ginger. Oh how I loooove ginger! (Tastes great and helps with digestion.) Thank you to Nicholas for sharing! This was a great reminder of how important it is to buy from my local farmers. I will definitely make sure I'm on track to shop the markets next weekend.

Okay, back to baseball. I was super excited to get a last minute offer to see the Nationals play the Giants today. I love going to baseball games on a warm sunny day. Friends, sun rays and a cold beer. What more could I ask for?! Well, this time I was going to have to ask for a lot more. No beer for me today, no nachos and certainly no hot dogs. I was going to need to think creative. I got the invitation by phone while at Trader Joe's. It was just an hour before the game so I didn't have time to get a monster salad in my belly beforehand. I was going to have to wing it by either not eating at all or searching the concession stands for something remotely healthy and free of animal products...And there it was! To my surprise, Ben's Chili Bowl had a concession stand. And that concession stand was serving their vegetarian chili! So that's what I ate. A warm bowl of vegetarian chili with a ground soy meat base, tomatoes and kidney beans. Phew! I had a great lunch, good company and the Giants won! Woo hoo!

Now time to get some cruciferous green vegetables into me for dinner...

Royal Weddings, Today's Plate and...Beans!

I woke up a bit later this morning because I didn't have to make my usual commute. Due to one of the gracious benefits of technology, I worked from home today! I hit the sofa in my pajamas, pulled out my laptop to begin work and popped on the Today Show. And there it was, all this hoopla about William and Kate's wedding and I managed to be surprised it was today. Okay now enough about that, I'm sure you've already seen and heard all of that.

I ate a whole cantelope for breakfast this morning. There's nothing like a really ripe cantelope. It's super easy to slice up and I've been finding great deals at the grocery store lately. Doesn't this look yummy?!

Lunch included...Okay, I'll let you guess?...You guessed right! A monster salad! (Followed by a green apple for dessert.)

This is about 7oz of organic spring greens (bit more than a bag), a couple handfuls of shredded carrots and my own version of the very tasty Tofu Ranch Dressing from ETL. I made it last weekend when I was in cooking mode.

Unfortunately, I haven't been cooking much since then. Longer days at the office and errands to run after work have left me eating leftovers, not that I'm complaining. I also made Lisa's Lovely Lentil Stew (from ETL) last weekend and have been eating it as a side dish at dinner each night this week. A big component of being a vegetarian, vegan or Nutritarian is eating enough beans. They are full of protein, calcium and fiber so I've found them to be a helpful replacement for meat. Lentils in particular are great because you don't have to soak them before cooking them.

Fun Fact: One cup of cooked Lentils has more than double the protein of one 16oz cup of fruit yogurt. And less calories!

I'll be eating more beans this weekend when the cooking bug brings me back in the kitchen. I discovered these no added salt canned beans in BPA free containers that should make cooking beans a lot easier. I initially had a hard time finding salt free canned beans so these are a great discovery for folks like me with neither the time or the patience to always soak dry beans in advance. You can usually find them at Whole Foods, some Wegmans stores (where I found them to be the cheapest) and other healthier food stores. 

I'll be sure to share recipes from this weekend's cooking endeavors. Stay tuned!

Good Day=Good Food+Good Friends

Today is a good day! Ate two ripe apples for breakfast and a mega mixed greens salad for lunch with all the basic fixins: a cup of carrots, handful of cherry tomatoes, a few chopped mushrooms, that oh-so-fabulous balsamic vinegar I mentioned and freshly ground pepper. I didn't get around to eating lunch until 2:00 because I was waiting for a freebie salad. There was a meeting near my office and I knew that if there was any food left it would be that beautiful nutrient rich salad. And sure enough, the bowl had hardly been touched by the time it made its way to my office. And now you're probably thinking, "Wow, this girl is eating scrap salad leftovers?!" Well technically yes but more importantly I'm eating a plate (or bowl in this case) full of plants. Right now, I can't think of anything better! Okay, wait I can. I can think of a yummy organic scrap salad sourced from local farms but I'm not going to be picky. :D

Another thing that makes today so good: support from friends. I've started telling friends about my blog and a few have sent me some great email responses. I should have a few more readers tonight as a result. Some of whom may laugh, other grins and a few will shake their heads and wonder what their friend is up to with this thing. I'm just hoping, really hoping, some of them and some of you, will leave a comment. I desperately want them to help me stay motivated. (YOU MATTER!) And I'm curious if anyone can relate to my love of leaves, balsamic vinegar or this journey to live a healtheir life in one facet or another.

Until then, I'm happy to keep sharing. So tonight I'm  going to make this blog a bit more interesting and share some cool things I've been finding and learning along the way. Feel free to poke around. I hope good things will be in store here!

Baked Goods vs. Fresh Greens

Full Disclosure: (1) I ate half of a banana muffin today, (2) I popped a cream filled croissant pastry in my mouth only to spit it out seconds later and (3) I also took a bite of a cookie and immediately threw the rest in the nearest trash can.

Yeah, that's me, the newbie vegan on a journey to become a full fledged plant-based Nutritarian. And yet today, I fell to the temptation of not one, not two, but three different baked goods. This might sound like a bad day but I call it progress. I haven't taken a bite of baked goods in weeks and, after today, I'm confident I'll be even less tempted. That's because today wasn't a typical day and on typical days I make it a point not to be around these things because as I mentioned before, I'm a gluten for dessert. And for now, I'm officially stamping all baked goods that enter my space as...DESSERTS! The white flour, the processed sugar and chocolate chips it was all once so yummy to me but today it tasted artificial, overly flavorful and heavy. The kind of heavy that once it reaches my stomach hangs there (quite literally) making me feel stuffed all day like a turkey on Thanksgiving.

Green leafy vegetables - which I affectionately refer to simply as leaves - don't do this to me. Fresh green leaves are the center of my usual eating routine now. Even when I stuff my face with a bowl of leaves to the point where I feel full, I never get that sluggish heavy feeling in my stomach. In fact, the stomach-full feeling subsides rather quickly and I don't feel hungry between meals.

So why did I break down and eat those baked goods today?

All Jazzed Up!

On my drive from work today I couldn't wait to get home and start blogging. I'm learning so much about myself and my body through this new way of eating. It's turning into a fun little journey for me.  And now I'm lucky enough to share it with the world wide web. Afterall, I don't think most of my friends want to hear about all of the intricacies of my (re)new(ed) appreciation for food but maybe someone else is as into this as I am.

I imagine you're wondering what about healthy eating has got me so jazzed. Was it giving up meat that made me feel great? Actually no, well not just that alone. I decided to become a vegetarian without a ton of forethought. That's just sorta my style and so as a result, I'm slowly (but faster now) learning what it means to be a healthier vegetarian. It's really all just a part of a larger evolutionary journey that I hope will allow me to connect with my truest self. The whole natural me alert, alive, feeling, smelling and sensing all the great things within and around me.

I'm really doing this?!

Okay, so hear I am starting a blog. Somehow I went from being completely disinterested in the concept of blogging to thinking each day what I'd write if only I had a blog. Thanks to Parita that's all changed now. I guess at first I didn't really get the concept. Like who has time to write about what they're doing each day and better yet who had time to read it?..and then I discovered subscriptions. You mean Parita's blog can arrive in my mailbox and I don't have to go searching to find her latest post and I can read it at my leisure from my iPhone waiting in line or getting into the elevator at work? Awesome! So next thing I knew I was pulled into a whole new world. It still took me a few months to actually post a comment to my friends blog but I'm getting the hang of this whole new world.

And now, here I am, feeling