Saturday, January 30, 2016

New and different

Shakshuka with Tofu Dumplings over Kasha #tpcpics @PurpleCarrotxo #CARROTTALK

This meal was so delicious! The Kashu had such a satisfying aroma as it browned in the pan. If you didn't know the dumplings were tofu, you would've never guessed by taste. This meal is the winner of this weeks Menu! But don't ask me to pronounce the names. Looking forward to next week menu. I'll keep you posted. 

New adventures

This second meal, Mu Shu Seitan with Homemade Hot Mustard was the most unusual meal of all. #CAROTTALK #tpcpics @PurpleCarrotxo

I still haven't figured out what #seitan is. Though this dish included something I thought I'd never eat, prunes, it was very tasty. The name of this recipe includes the words, "Hot Mustard". You would've thought that would've clued me in. No, but after dobbing this yummy looking mustard over the meal, WOW! Our sinuses were cleared out that night.

Purple Carrot

Who would've thought that this girl was brought up on canned vegetables, box macaroni and cheese, box corn bread, pop tarts, and cold cereal? Yum! Over 34 years ago I started out my married life by cooking spaghetti, tuna noodle casserole, canned Chinese, and hamburger helper. Not even exaggerating here, this was our menu for three years of our marriage. Now, I'm open to a whole new world of foods. 

This past week was week three of my #vegandiet. So far, so good. Although I must confess the ONE iced oatmeal cookie I ate was not a true VEGAN food. 

We started @PurpleCarrotsxo this week with No. 12. #CARROTTALK. Haha! I'm sure you've noticed I'm throwing strange words in the blog like #tpcpics. And I'm sure you've guessed that I have no idea what I'm doing. Call it practice, experimenting. 

At any rate, below is my first picture of this new #vegan meal I've created, Catalan Vegetable Stew with Crispy Fideos. Amazing enough, though it had unknown foods such as #Swisschard, #favabeans, and #caperberries, It was very delicious. My husband and I both enjoyed this dish and ate every bite.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Vegan Stir Fry

Left overs make a wonderful and easy stir fry. Using a supermarket frozen stir fry starter, I added the left over sauce and tofu steaks from yesterday to make this delish one pan meal. My husband loved it. Me? Well, not so much. It was okay, but I think the sauce was too strong.

I've added a life change by standing at my desk all day for office work, I'm on week three of this. Adding Zumba/Strengthening/Yoga class twice a week has helped my energy level as well. I received my first compliment today. I was told that I looked like I was slimming down. YES! Step by step.

New recipe

This recipe for tofu steaks is so good. My daughter-in-law shared it with me. I added broccoli and baked sweet potatoes with it for a balanced meal.

My youngest son, the counter part of this daughter-in-law gave me such a hard time with the vegan diet. We must have texted back and forth for at least two hours. He's worried I'm not getting the balanced nutrients and protein I need.

This morning my fasting blood sugar of 160 is better than it has been in months. My weight is down, and I have more energy.





Vegan Blog

Well, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Yes I'm aware that its January 24, and the first month of 2016 is almost over. However, this is my first blog of 2016. Last year I started with 50 by 50. Well you see how that went. Zilch! This year I start off my blog on the Vegan diet. Yes I'm at it again.

Let me start at the beginning. As anybody can tell, I do love to write. But I have so much to learn. I've written two novels yet neither are published. One of my prayers have been answered. Not once, not twice, but three times. God has blessed me within this past week three new editors for my novels. I've not written much lately. I'm afraid to. Afraid to make a fool of myself with my grammar and sentence structure. I've been reading the basics, thanks to my son and daughter-in-law. (Heidi, the Princess.) My family is so supportive of my writing, especially my husband. I'm taking online courses for grammar and sentence structuring. So, I am trying.

Tonight as I was cooking and taking pictures of the food I've prepared, the movie Julia came to mind. I thought, why not blog about my vegan diet? So here I am, giving it  a try.

I've been on a strict Vegan diet for two weeks now. Below is a Vegan Pizza I made. Spinach, Kale, peppers, onions, black olives, zucchini, banana peppers and of course tomatoes. Home made vegan Parmesan cheese made out of ground cashews and nutritional yeast. Turned out very yummy!

I posted this pic on Facebook. My mother says it looks pretty bad. My mother is not very happy about my vegan diet.