Adjusting

Medical update

John's FBS is still below 100 unless we have baked sweet potatoes at dinner, or if he eats dates before bed.  He is now on a 3 week break from testing for the blood thinner, so that is good.

Yes!

Eating out while plant-based

I am used to navigating around allergies when eating out, and I thought that was difficult to do.   I really thought that eating plant-based in Asheville, NC - a real foodie place - would be a snap.  Perhaps it is, but we are still tying to chart our course through the menus.

We have twice tried a local burger place that also has veggie burgers.  They were OK, but they bothered our stomachs later. I suppose we need to remember that we were, after all, at a burger place. FAIL.

One evening I worked late, so John joined me, and we decided to go out to eat on the way home. Mistake!  We now know we need to plan where to go in advance, that we can no longer just stop anywhere.  One restaurant that we knew had a vegetable bar was closed, so we stopped at a Greek and Italian restaurant thinking we could find something there. John told the server we were vegan and asked for suggestions.  Her response: "Vegan...that means no meat, no sugar, no nothing, right?"  She was serious.  I then asked her what they had on draft.  Asheville has 20+ craft breweries, and all restaurants serve local beer. Her response: "Do you mean beer that doesn't come in a bottle?   I can bring you a glass with any beer."  And it went downhill from there... FAIL.

Next we had an office Christmas party.  Several attendees were vegetarian and some were vegan, so I knew we would be all right food-wise, particularly as it was catered.  We had a wonderful salad, a vegan bean soup with kale....and then the desserts....No vegan dessert, but that was fine....we had apple pumpkin spice bread waiting for us at home. WIN.

Just the other night we were invited out to dinner with friends and tied the local restaurant Soba.  I am in love! I had the Glass noodle Soup and Mei Fan with bean sprouts, carrots, onions, and cabbage stir fried with rice noodles.   Yum!   I even brought some home.   John had stir-fried mixed veggies. Now I just need to learn how to eat with chopsticks. WIN!

Mei Fan *gf Beansprouts, carrots, onions & napa cabbage stir-fried with vermicelli rice noodles - See more at: http://www.sobaweaverville.com/menu.php#sthash.9WhjjHKB.dpuf

 

Me enjoying shakeology on the way to the office

Cooking at Home

We are still struggling with eating all of the necessary veggies, but we are doing better.  We now have a VitaMix, and, while we have not really made vegetable juice in it, we have used it for our shakes, adding extra spinach to the vegan chocolate shakeology, along with frozen fruit and flax seeds.  Flax seeds give shakes a nice nutty flavor!

I am still struggling with figuring out the Beachbody containers for portion control.  It was much easier when protein fit into one container, veggies into another. Now I often mix proteins and veggies and grains together...and since most plants have protein, the containers elude me....But I keep trying.

We have actually experimented quite a bit in the last few weeks.  We now have a Crispy Belgian Waffle recipe that freezes well and is yummy!  We also experimented with pumpkin pancakes and a few dinners, too!

CRISPY Vegan Chocolate Chip Belgian Waffles

Notice the title ...CRISPY..   If you want light and fluffy waffles, this is not the recipe for you. these are nicely crisp!

3/4 cup all-purpose flour                                       1/3 cup vegan chocolate chips
3/4 cup whole wheat flour                                     2 T ground flax seed
1 T. baking powder                                                5 T water
1/2 tsp salt                                                              2 tsp vanilla extract
3 T white granulated sugar                                    1 1/2 cups almond milk
5 T safflower oil                                                    1 T apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat the waffle iron.
2. Combine the flax seed and water in a small bowl and set aside.  Approximately 5 minutes is best...
3. Combine the almond milk and the apple cider vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside.
4. Add the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and vegan chocolate chips to a medium bowl and whisk to combine. .
5. Add the safflower oil to the almond milk and vinegar, and whisk. Next add the flax seed mixture and vanilla.....and whisk some more.... I actually keep all of my we ingredients in a 4 cup measure....
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well until few lumps remain.
7. Pour into your waffle maker,following manufacturer's instructions.  In our case we get 9 waffles, and they cook for 15 minutes.

One of our neighbors gave us an early Christmas gift, Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet.  This is a wonderful resource for those new to plant-base eating and contains a variety of protein basics, including a recipe for making seitan from scratch, next on my "must try" list. For those of you who do not know this, seitan is a wheat protein that can be fried, made into a loaf, cubed....a very versatile protein source.

Of course we had to try a few recipes from this new resource...  One morning we made pumpkin pancakes.   That same evening we tried the black bean  and sweet potato enchiladas........

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

1 1/2 cups unbleached whole purpose flour            1/2 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons raw sugar                                         1 1/4 cups nondairy milk

1 Tablespoon baking powder                                  1/3 cup solid packed pumpkin

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice                                 1 tablespoon oil (applesauce for us)

XLLM​​

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder,pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Set aside.

In a food processor or blender, combine the nondairy milk, pumpkin puree, and oil/applesauce and process until well-blended. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.

Cook as you would any pancake - be it on a griddle or in a cast-iron pan.

And, yes, non-vegans love these....and if you add a few handfuls of vegan chocolate chips...oh my.....

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced          3 Tablespoons chili powder

1/4 cup water                                                  salt and pepper

3 garlic cloves, minced                                     2 cups tomato salsa

1 small, fresh, hot chili                                     8 large flour tortillas

1 1/2 cooked lack beans or 1 15 oz can            1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

     of beans rinsed and drained

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet (or line a baking sheet with parchment paper and omit oil). Arrange the sweet potatoes in a single layer on the baking sheet and roast until tender, turning once, about 20 minutes.Remove from oven and set aside.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Heat the water in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and chili and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the beans, tomatoes, chili powder, and salt and pepper to taste Stir in the sweet potatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. Set aside.

Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking dish.  Spread a thin layer of salsa  over the bottom of the dish and set aside.

​​

Place a tortilla on a flat work surface. spoon a portion of the sweet potato mixture down the center of the tortilla and roll it up.  Place the filled tortilla in the baking dish, seam side down, and repeat with the remaining tortillas and the filling mixture.  spoon any remaining mixture over the top of the enchiladas, top with remaining salsa, and sprinkle with the copped onion. cover and bake until hot and bubbly, about 20 minutes. Serve hot.

I bet you noticed the acorn squash...that recipe came from elsewhere and was a quinoa cranberry - stuffed acorn squash.  I had to improvise though, and used leftover wild rice and dried cherries.  Still yummy....

My next food experiments will include soups and desserts...

The more comfortable we become with this life choice, the easier it becomes...

We can do this!