Big News

Sorry for the long absence. The big news is that we are moving from New York to Chicago! I've been spending all my time painting and cleaning out clutter and trying to make my house look beautiful in order to sell it. And of course all the regular stuff must still be done (laundry, sports, homework, shopping, etc.). It is very hectic and stressful. Plus every time someone comes to look at the house it must be spotless - not an easy feat with three small kids!

With all that crazy stuff and me trying to diet, I have not had much exciting food to share. Mostly we eat stuff that can be made in 5 minutes - for me, that means rice cakes with hummus or peanut butter. Not exactly blog-worthy! I miss bread! Didn't even eat it that much before, but of course you want what you can't have. I'm surprised that I haven't missed sugar all that much - that is my biggest weakness and what I overeat the most. I have lost 7.5 lbs in 3 weeks. This is pretty good, as I'm not that overweight to begin with. I slip up sometimes on the weekend, but am good during the week.

So here are some new products and recipes I have tried.

This white bean hummus is to die for. It really has a lovely basil flavor.

Here it is on rice cakes - isn't it a pretty green? Love the pine nuts, too.

This is a black bean and yam burrito from "The Gluten Free Vegan," by Susan O'Brien. The tortilla is brown rice from Trader Joe's. The filling was good but I can't get used to the brown rice wraps. They taste okay but the texture is wrong. Too rubbery in the microwave and too crisp in the oven (and they got rubbery after being crisp).

"Salad bar salad" with seared tofu. I call it salad bar salad because when I worked in an office, that's what I had for lunch every day. Must include raisins and sunflower seeds! With my favorite dressing of mayo and ketchup.

Trader Joe's low-fat mayo is accidentally vegan.

I've been relying more than usual on prepared foods. This is a black bean and quinoa salad from my health food store. It was really good! I've never had luck with quinoa so I was really pleased with this.

More from the health food store - curried tofu and sushi salad. Lots of big onion wedges in that tofu - yum.

I did not care for these "crackers."

Last time I showed you the brown rice spaghetti that I didn't like. This penne was much, much better. Maybe because I rinsed it? Good thing there is a Trader Joe's in my new town!

Provencial Chickpea Soup from the New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. I love chickpeas so much and this soup had ground fennel, leeks, tomatoes, and orange zest. So delicious.

Well, I am learning a lot about gluten-free cooking. I must say I am glad I don't have celiac disease - I don't think I could do this forever. But it's good to take a break from eating the same stuff all the time, both taste-wise and for the body!

Spring Cleansing

I have been rather over-indulgent in my eating habits for the last few months, and it is catching up to me. SO time to behave for a while and drop a few pounds.

I read Kathy Freston's book (the "Oprah cleanse") and was inspired to try to be not only vegan but gluten free. I have had "digestive issues" all my life, and have been wondering if I am gluten sensitive. It is not as hard as I thought - basically rice, beans, veggies, and fruit. Well, that's what we're supposed to be eating anyway, right? I have dropped 3.5 lbs in 6 days, without restricting amounts. And I have not had any more digestive problems. Now, is it because of gluten, or just because I am eating better generally? I guess I'll find out when I add back the gluten.

Anyway, here are some of the things I have been eating.



These are baked and breaded bananas. The bananas are dipped in a mix of melted EB, lime juice, and cayenne, then dredged in cornflake crumbs mixed with nooch (the orignal recipe had bread crumbs and parmesan cheese - sounds weird but delicious)!

I wanted to make tofu with teriyaki, but teriyaki has wheat (gluten) in it. So I mixed wheat free soy sauce with some of my homemade barbecue sauce, poured it on some tofu and baked it. Served with roasted potatoes and peppers. Yum.

Why am I showing you a boring picure of spaghetti? It is Trader Joe's brown rice spaghetti. I have not tried it before. It tasted like - well, brown rice. It was very starchy, which blocked the flavor of the sauce. And low in protein. This tiny pile had 400 calories! Do any of you gluten free people have a pasta suggestion?

These chips are gluten free and quite delicious! They taste like a cross between papadums and corn chips. Not cheap though, at $2.29 for a tiny bag.

Here is the Carnivore being silly for the girls on his pretend birthday. His real birthday is August 30, which he always hated as a kid because it was back to school time. So he has declared his new birthday to be May 1, because he loves spring so much!

I made these before I started the cleanse. They are butterscotch scones from Vegan Homemade's recipe. My new favorite scone recipe!

The Nine Dollar Veggie Burger

Or, why it is better to eat at home.........

So, three days a week I have two hours to myself for the first time in almost ten years. I generally run my errands since that is much easier than doing it with three kids in tow. Sometimes I walk in the park, browse in the bookstore, or some other fun thing. Sometimes I take myself out to lunch in a place that the kids or the Carnivore would not enjoy.

Such was the case Friday. We have a cafe in town that serves lunch and fancy coffee. I had never been there, thinking it would be a typical omni place with not much for me. However, I recently saw a review in the paper that said they have started serving a tapas menu on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening. They listed all sorts of goodies including vegan lentil loaf and other creative things. I figured any place that actually uses the word vegan in its menu might be of interest, so I checked it out for lunch. Sigh. I was right about typical stuff. None of that creative vegan fare in sight on the lunch menu. Just wraps stuffed with meat and cheese. They did have a veggie burger. I asked what kind, because I can't stand those yucky soy based ones (I grew up in the 70's, a time when stretching meat for profit meant adding soy to school lunch hamburgers to make hockey pucks. This is what those vegan burgers taste like to me........). They told me it was a Dr. Praeger's, which is veggie based and tastes pretty good. I can't say it wasn't good - it was on an awesome whole grain sunflower seed roll, had avocado, and fresh sprouts. But I couldn't help thinking that for $9 I could have bought two boxes of those veggie burgers. Should have gone to Aunt Chilada's for the best black bean soup and grilled veggies ever!

My Baby is Five!

I can't believe my youngest is five. Time really does go fast, doesn't it?

She wanted vanilla cake with chocolate frosting for her birthday. I made the vanilla cupcakes from VCTOTW, but baked it in a 9 inch round pan. As you can see, it did not rise very much. But it tasted okay, especially with the frosting! IS there anything chocolate frosting can't fix?

Can anyone point me to some basic cake recipes (vanilla, chocolate, white) that they enjoy? I always try to find some that use basic ingredients - sugar and canola oil as opposed to maple syrup and Earth Balance - to try and make the cost reasonable.

The Birthday Girl

Easter Girlies

Me and My Girls

Hope everyone had happy holidays!

More Tofu!

Are you sick of seeing me blog about tofu? Why, yes, I do occasionally eat other things, but I love my tofu!
I must share this with you. It is Tofu Veracruz from the first Horizons cookbook. Oh, how I long to go to that restaurant! But for now I must make do with the cookbook.

Their method of cooking tofu is to coat it with a spice mix and sear it in a cast iron pan. I have tried spice rubs on tofu before and they didn't work. But somehow this one did, and it was so delicious! You can see its crusty goldenness under the sauce. This is modeled after a fish dish of the same name. The sauce is olives, capers, tomatoes, peppers and garlic. So totally delicious - I think I will go have the leftovers now!

The Magic of Cast Iron

This tofu recipe is an old friend from "Recipes for an Ecological Kitchen" by Lorna Sass. This is an old cookbook (from 1992) that has been republished with a new name. It was my first vegan cookbook, before I even knew what a vegan was! There are lots of great recipes in it - I highly recommend it. Anyway, the recipe is "Oriental Baked Tofu." It is very simple - soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, water, garlic, ginger, Chinese five spice, sesame seeds. I have made it many times, but always in a glass baking dish. No wonder the tofu never browned! This time I baked it in cast iron, and magically it turned brown and chewy. Really delicious with rice, candied sweet potatoes, and broccoli.

Happy weekend!

Spring Food!

One spring food I always think of is artichokes. In particular, baby artichokes. Supposedly they are easier to trim, but I find that even the babies often have fuzzy "chokes." No matter, they are worth it! These are stuffed with bread crumbs and herbs (mint and basil)and baked. The tofu is Greek Marinated Tofu from The Protein Powered Vegetarian. Store bought tabouli, hummus, and stuffed grape leaves complete the meal. Yum!