Thank you, Dr. McDougall

Yesterday when I got home from work, I found a lovely package waiting at my door.

The people from Dr. McDougall’s sent me this lovely package of their soups, which are all vegan! Several of them are gluten free as well and they all come in eco-friendly packaging that is BPA free.

They also sent me this really huge bowl and a placemat/napkin set!

For lunch today, I decided to try the Chunky Tomato because that’s what I was in the mood for

I thought I’d eat the entire container but there is more in there than I thought, so I put the rest in the fridge!

I had a slice of Great Harvest unsweetened whole wheat bread on the side. I think it just might be my favorite bread ever.

The soup was pretty tasty. There were lots of chunks of tomato in it and I loved the flavor. It did not taste like canned soup at all, which makes sense because…it’s not.

I can’t wait to try the other flavors.

After lunch, I took Suzie on a walk for about an hour and now we’re both back home chilling on the couch watching, what else?

I think I’m obsessed. The movie is different from the play but I like them both and it’s the only thing I have on DVD Plus I think the movie has a few features that make it unique and fun, like the dream/dance sequence in “Tango Maureen.”

It is a beautiful day here, I’ve got all the windows open and the breeze is blowing in. Who knew it’d be in the 70’s in November? I’m telling you, the weather here in Kentucky is so unpredictable. We can have all the seasons in one week.

When Josh gets home from playing disc golf we’re going to have dinner at Waffle House. We’re such an old married couple sometimes.

Vegan pomegranate pancakes

I woke up this morning and I thought “Hey, it’s Saturday. I should make pancakes!”

As you know, I have tried both the pumpkin pancakes and spiced banana pancakes from the cookbook Vegan Planet. I highly recommend both recipes and the book because the recipes are simple with very easy ingredients.

Today, I used the Flax Berry Pancake recipe as inspiration but made it my own by changing several things, so I’m going to post it here.

First, I pre-heated my griddle to 375 degrees. Using it turned out to be a huge time saver. So glad I remembered I have one!

I mixed up the ingredients in my Pampered Chef batter bowl (another Godsend).

I love how I can cook so many at one time this way! This will come in handy someday when we have a bigger family

The batter was so thick they were almost like cookies or muffins – ooh, that’s a good idea too. Hmm…

I cooked them on each side for a minute and flipped a few times. They took a while to cook through because of their thickness.

Once they were done (in about 15 minutes total start to finish), I put three on my plate but then remembered my eyes are not a good indicator of my stomach, so I put one back.

They were so thick and dense! I topped mine with peanut butter and light syrup. I’ve had this syrup forever and I’m more or less trying not to waste it but once it’s gone I won’t replace it. Did that rhyme?

Leftovers!

Overall, these pancakes were good but I found them slightly on the bland side except for the pomegranate arils. Perhaps if I had used vanilla soy milk instead of plain. What do you think?

The texture was great though. I just think it’s missing something.

But, in case you want to try it, here is the recipe!

Vegan Pomegranate Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp toasted wheat germ
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1.25 cups soy milk
• 3/4 cup pomegranate arils

Directions:

• Combine the flour, sugar, powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.
• Blend the wheat germ and water in a blender or food processor for 30 seconds.
• Add the soy milk and vanilla to the blender and blend until smooth.
• Add the wet ingredients into the dry and combine.
• Mix in the pomegranate arils.
• Cook using your preferred method and enjoy!

I still can’t believe I’ve made so many vegan pancakes! They are so healthy and so easy, I feel really good about it.

Hope you have a great Saturday! I’ve got cleaning, exercise and grocery shopping on my agenda

Oh yeah and maybe some baking too…

Eating and drinking locally

For dinner tonight, I got to meet an old friend and some of our other friends at Ramsi’s Cafe on the World, one of the BEST places to eat in Louisville.

I almost got the sloppy falafel again but I decided to branch out and try something new since they have so many vegan options there.

This time I got the roasted vegetable panini.

This sandwich ROCKED! It contained portobello mushrooms, roasted red peppers, squashes and red onions, topped with vegan basil mayonnaise and vegan cheese served on homemade Cuban bread.

The only thing I think I would change about it is leave off the (vegan) cheese. Even though it was vegan, I just don’t really like eating cheese if I don’t have to. I loved the vegan mayo though!

The avocado spread that came with it was delicious too. Oh yeah and those potatoes. Great meal, I was very pleased

After dinner, we walked next door to Heine Brothers, one of our local coffee shops. I got their pumpkin pie latte with soymilk, which I was happy to discover is vegan (the syrup at Starbucks contains dairy!) after I inquired about it on their website earlier this week.

This was so tasty! I think I liked it better than Starbucks (gasp). Plus I think I just love the fact that both places I went tonight were local.

OH! I almost forgot to mention the totally awesome 4 mile run I had today. Yeah. The weather was perfect and I felt great!

The one thing I noticed I am struggling with though is breathing. If I could keep it steady and regular, I wouldn’t have as hard of a time. It comes and goes but right now I feel like I’m gasping for air a lot.

If you are a runner (or aspiring runner), what is your biggest struggle? Body aches, fatigue, breathing, or something else?

Double pumpkin

Constantly on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin oats, I got another idea from Lindsey at Sound Eats, who put pumpkin butter in hers recently. Why hadn’t I thought of that?

I also scrolled through some old blogs of mine from last year to see what I did back then…

This bowl contained:

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/3 cup soymilk
• 1/3 cup canned pumpkin puree
• Mixs ins: light pancake syrup, pumpkin pie spice
• Toppings: Almond butter, pumpkin butter

It is definitely the best one yet

I think it was the combination of using the pumpkin butter, plus cooking it with soymilk instead of water which I hadn’t done in a while.

Of course, oatmeal is always good to me. Read my Examiner article on why you should eat it everyday!

Coupon winner!

Good morning

I had some really great eats yesterday. Remember how I am always complaining about how PB&J never fills me up. Well…

Apparently peanut butter and pumpkin butter on some dense unsweetened whole wheat Great Harvest bread is the way to go! It’s gotta be the bread.

I ate this by itself before I went for a walk yesterday and it held me over for three hours before I ate the other half of my lunch (carrots and hummus).

For dinner last night, I threw together some random ingredients and made this brown rice bowl.

I heated up leftover brown rice and mixed in some sauteed onions, a medium avocado and topped it all with medium salsa. Weird, but totally yummy!

WINNER! WINNER!

Remember my awesome coupon giveaway?

It’s finally time to pick a winner. I had 12 entries, so I used Random.org and it came up with #8 – Amanda @ Two Boos Who Eat!

Amanda, email me your mailing info at sarahtrains4u@gmail.com

Congrats

Happy Friday everyone…if you get a chance, please check out my newest Examiner article on preparing yourself for Thanksgiving.

Oh Tofutti…

Reminds me of that part in the movie “Overboard”

Anyway, last night my friend Aleta so generously provided me with a vegan friendly dessert to enjoy after our potato soup dinner. What a sweetie!

I’ve had a lot of non-dairy frozen desserts here recently but this one…oh my goodness. It is seriously the creamiest, tastiest non-dairy stuff on the planet (so far)!

It reminded me a lot of the tofu chocolate pudding I make, only in frozen form. I really, really loved it. Thanks Aleta!

I know they make cream cheese and some other things too. I’m going to have to try some more

Have you ever tried Tofutti products? What did you think?

Vegan potato soup

I had main course at our girl’s night potluck this week and since I had a lot of potatoes to use up, I decided potato soup would be an awesome meal!

But since I had never tried making it before, I went immediately to google to find “Vegan Potato Soup.” After scrolling through a few recipes, I finally found one that sounded easy enough and which I had most ingredients for already (which is my criteria when searching recipes by the way).

Behold, the Vegan Potato Soup recipe from Daily Veggie with my own modifications.

Ingredients

• 5 medium sized, washed, peeled and diced potatoes
• 1/2 medium-sized onion, diced
• A few green onions, chopped
• 2 tsps pre-minced garlic
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 3 cups of water
• 2 cups of light plain soy milk
• 2 tbsps whole wheat flour
• Salt and pepper to taste

This was the first time I could remember using my vegetable peeler to peel potatoes and it worked quite well!

Directions

Start my sauteeing oil, onions and garlic in the pot.

After a few minutes, add the potatoes, salt + pepper and water.

Let it cook for 10-15 minutes until the potatoes become soft. Then add the soy milk and flour, stirring well so that they mix. Let simmer for another 15-20 minutes, until the soup appears “creamy” and ready to eat. Add more salt and pepper if desired.

I thought this soup tasted pretty good. It had a great consistency and the potatoes were chunky and soft. My only complaint is that it was a bit on the bland side, so I’d like to see what spices or seasonings I could add to this to improve upon that.

I think everyone liked it though…no leftovers!

Facing opposition

As I’m sure you know by now, the Yankees won the World Series!

Even though I’m not a big baseball fan (I used to follow the closest team to us, the Cincinnati Reds, when I was much younger) my husband loves all the New York teams because that is where his dad is from and since I visited New York earlier this year and fell in love, I figured, why not?

I look a bit sleepy in that picture, huh?

Since I was already up late last night watching the end of the game, I figured why not de-seed a pomegranate and use it in my oatmeal in the morning? I hadn’t had pomegranate since it was in season last year, so I was very excited to use it, especially after hearing all the wonderful stories of the bloggers who got to visit POM in California.

I love how the arils (aka seeds) have sort of a sweet and sour taste. They really complement the oatmeal well and for me, oatmeal just isn’t complete without nut butter. Seriously, how did I do it before?

Serious Stuff

Now, as per the title of this post…I have been doing a lot of observing and reflecting lately on this whole vegan venture. I would not go as far as to say that I have faced much opposition but there are things I notice about how people act when you make personal, dietary changes.

There are those people, like many of my friends, who are very supportive and literally go out of their way to accomodate you, which is more than I would ever even think to ask for. These people are definitely the majority. I’d like to think that I too fit into this group because I have had many friends over the years who were vegetarian off and on, plus Josh who has very picky eating habits. Not to mention my family. 

On the flip side, there are people who will still accomodate you but complain about it as they do it…I don’t want that either. I dislike it when people try to hang stuff over your head to try and make you feel guilty, whether it is 100% intentional or not.

There are the people who roll their eyes because they associate “vegan” with sign-holding, PETA card-carrying, red paint throwing, etc. There are the people annoyed because they think I’m doing all of this to get attention, which, if they really knew anything about me would know I hate attention. I don’t even take compliments well.

And there are also those who don’t take you seriously because you’ve changed your diet so many times. Honestly, if I wasn’t me, I might not take me seriously either. But this life of mine is a journey, constantly evolving, and I choose to make food a big part of that.

I have also found it very challenging living with someone who eats the complete polar opposite of you. I’m not talking about a few differences here. Josh likes meat, potatoes, pasta and not a lot of fruit or veggies. I eat pretty much nothing but veggies. We do try to have dinner together at our dining room table as much as possible during the week even though we prepare separate meals and we go out to eat on the weekends, taking turns at who gets to pick the place, which is becoming more difficult too. Thank God for P.F. Chang!

We are opposites on a lot of other things too and both severely stubborn and hard-headed. That’s Taurus and Leo for you. But for many other reasons, we love each other and Josh and I have defied many odds together over the years, so I’ve no doubt that this is just another adventure in our relationship. I know he thinks I’m crazy, but I also hope that in some weird way, he respects me for my choices too.

For me, other than having a growing relationship with God, food is my biggest interest. The thing I spend so much time thinking about, what I get so much enjoyment out of. Considering how the first 25 years of my life were spent with an entirely different relationship with food, most of it disordered, this is huge. But I know as far as my close friends and family go, I am alone in that. I don’t expect anyone to understand or share my same level of passion, unfortunately. I think this is hard for me to accept sometimes because so much of what we do, socially, revolves around food.

And I do struggle with my own judgments sometimes, when I see how other people eat, because in a lot of ways I think they are dishonoring their body. I’m not talking about non-vegans, I’m speaking of the “I just don’t care” people. The people who mindlessly eat anything without any consideration for what they are putting into their bodies. The people who are ill and diseased but refuse to learn or change anything. But I’ve been there too. And I know firsthand, a person’s diet is such a private thing (even if it is on public display) so I try my hardest to just suck it up and not let it bother me.

I have never been more thankful for the food blogging community than I am right now. Thank goodness there is an outlet, a place to air my thoughts about food, a group of people who understand and feel the same way I do. I honestly don’t know what I would do without it. So if you are reading this, or you’ve left me a comment before, or you write a blog too…THANK YOU.

All this being said, I am not going to waiver or give up on my goals. I chose this for me, which is not something I do very often. I love animals and I am learning more about the ethical side of veganism (with the help of some really great cyber-friends) as I go along, but first and foremost, I chose this diet for my health and for my own reasons. I happen to feel the best I have ever felt in my life. I have no digestive problems, my energy levels are insanely good and I’m hoping this will also eventually have a positive effect on my hormones.

I am also the happiest, most content and peaceful I have ever been. This experience has provided me with so much clarity that I have been able to focus on what is really important in life and stop sweating the small stuff. Coincidence? Maybe. But why change anything now?

Have you dealt with opposition toward your diet before? How did you handle it?

Breakfast yoga

Hey friends!

I set my alarm to get up 15 minutes early this morning, so I could do some yoga! I took a page out of Angie’s book and decided to use a print guide from Yoga Download as my base and then did my own flow. It was great!

I used the Morning Flow #1 program and did each move on the pages for a count of 5 breaths. It took me about 25 minutes to get through it all and I felt awesome (and very hungry) when I was done.

This is apparently what I look like at 5:45 am!

I had also used my cable box to find a “Meditation” music channel to set the mood. So much better than listening to a computer talk at me.

Suzie kept getting in the way and head-butting me when I was in down dog. She’s so cute though!

We’ve had Suzie for one year as of today. I can’t believe it’s been a year already, she really is the love of our lives and a testament to how a dog, rescued from a shelter, supposedly with training problems and anxiety, can really thrive and overcome it all. All dogs need is your love, patience and a routine. Even though we have given her a better life, she has truly been the one who has made our lives better.

This was her just 1 year ago, look how scared she was

It was also neat to look back at my blog from a year ago. My pictures were terrible! And I was also attempting the South Beach Diet again, eating lots of sugar free pudding, ick. So glad those days are over

After my morning yoga flow, I toasted up some Great Harvest cinnamon chip bread for breakfast.

I chose almond butter and blueberry fruit spread this time, just to change things up a bit

Yum…

I still have a ton of apples left to use, so I think some baking is in my future. Anyone have any good vegan recipes that involve apples?

Happy Wednesday

My beloved tofu

For breakfast, I made pumpkin oats with some chocolate chips and peanut butter

Today at work, I tried hemp milk in my coffee. It was different. I don’t think I’ll do it again because the tastes just don’t go well together. But it was worth a shot.

I snacked on mixed nuts later in the morning.

Are you guys getting bored of my nuts yet? Ha ha.

Lunch was mixed veggies and leftover eggplant from last night which I decided to top with hummus today…wow! I will definitely be buying eggplant again soon.

Then, this afternoon I got to try a new Larabar!

I think this is only the second of the Jocalat line that I have tried but oh my! I am in love with ALL the new Larabar flavors. Not a bad thing.

Then after work, I finally got to work out!

I warmed up on the treadmill for 15 minutes then I got started on some strength training. I did 15 reps of each move using various weights:

• Chest presses
• Military shoulder press
• Seated row machine
• Upright row with bar
• Bicep curls
• Tricep extensions
• Front raises
• Lateral raises
• Squats
• Lunges
• Plie squats
• Ab exercises (about 6 or 7 different ones)

It felt so good to get moving again. And I am happy to report that after some salt gargling I did last night, my throat seems to be all better!

I thought “Sheesh, I only did it once” but I did do it about 5 times in a row.

Anyway, I had an absolutely fabulous dinner when I got home.

First, I started steaming some fresh green beans. It was so nice to not use the frozen for once. These were 99 cents a pound!

Then I made my beloved baked tofu, which I hadn’t had in a couple of weeks now. It’s nice to change things up for a while and then come back to an old favorite.

All together now, with some brown rice. Delicious!

Even though I do wish that Josh ate some of the same things I do, it is nice having these leftovers all to myself for lunch tomorrow

Hope you have had a great Tuesday. I am off to make some potato soup for our Wednesday Night Girls Potluck.

Good night!