What Do You Eat? Day 5

Okay, I know it says day 4 was today and nothing was yesterday, but there was just no time yesterday and I had to post both today.

For breakfast I finally cooked up some more of those great potatoes from my garden.  I chopped them small and cooked then in oil with mushrooms and sweet peppers.  Unfortunately, my wrist got splattered with oil and it's horribly painful.  There's a reason they tell you to test a bottle on your wrist, it's very sensitive. I topped my breakfast creation with chopped up baby cherry tomatoes and nutritional yeast.

Lunch was just grazing...  I made an ear of corn, ate a nectarine, then picked and ate raspberries and snow peas from the garden.  Lazy afternoon.  I also baked chocolate raspberry muffins with some of those raspberries.  I used the recipe from Vegan Brunch.

I picked up my CSA box today too, and got a huge bag of basil, so homemade pesto was in order.  I toasted some almonds and pureed them with the olive oil, garlic, and basil.  Then I zested a lemon and added the juice as well.  I froze half the pesto and will use the rest over the next few days.  It should keep for a while.

For dinner I made quinoa and added the pesto and nutritonal yeast to make it cheesy good.  I steamed an artichoke as well, which the baby enjoyed even more than the quinoa.  I'm still working through those tomatoes, so they topped my cheesy pesto quinoa.

I splurged after a run on my elliptical tonight and had two muffins because they were so tasty.  I froze most of the rest so I won't eat them all with the excuse, "I don't want them to go bad."  I've eaten many cupcakes for that reason...

While the baby and I were having some pre-dinner wading and splashing at the lake by our house I heard someone talking about ordering Chinese food for dinner.  I have some great thick soba noodles from Costco in the fridge that popped into my mind immediately.  I don't want to alarm anyone, but tomorrow morning I'll be having a stir-fry.  Just so you are prepared when you see "stir fry" as the first meal.  It's crazy, but I can't justify eating white flour noodles at night.  I'm planning on going on a good hike tomorrow though, and if I eat them before the hike I figure it's okay.

What Do You Eat? Day 4

A friend of mine made pancakes for dinner yesterday and posted pictures on facebook, so breakfast was pancakes with fresh raspberries from the garden.  I added some maple syrup for the full effect, and they were just as lovely as I had imagined all night long.  I use this recipe, but I only use 2 teaspoons of baking powder, not two Tablespoons.  I also add a tsp of vanilla and use maple syrup instead of sugar.

Lunch was leftover hoisin beets with brown rice wrapped in nori.  For a little tang, I cut up an umeboshi plum and addd that.  Yummy yum yum.  I snacked on an extra sheet of nori a bit later too.  I followed it up with a cereal bar for lunch desert (they are almost gone- I'm addicted to these things!).

For dinner I made a deconstructed pasta.  I have never been one of those, "my food can't touch!" people, but for some reason I always liked my pasta with just some oil and salt and pepper, and I like my veggies on the side.  The real irony is that I then take bites with a little of each thing on the fork.  Go figure.  I sauteed the zucchini and mushrooms with some garlic in olive oil and salt and pepper, then I tossed my whole wheat rottini in that same pan with the leftover oil and added nutritional yeast to get in all those great curly folds.  For the "marinara" effect, I cut up adorable baby tomatoes and ate them fresh.  

Like any kid, my daughter loves her mac and cheese (even if the variety I give her is someone unconventional) and the rottini with nutritional yeast were a big hit.  She hasn't been eating much lately, but that did the trick!

I had a little caffein in the form of green tea in the afternoon, but drank decaf Earl Greyer in the morning.    Later at night I had some chocolate coconut milk which was not as tasty as I had hoped.  Back to soy once I finish this carton.

What Do You Eat? Day 3

Ugh.  It's been a tough couple days.  Last night the baby was up quite a bit, and finally at 6am I just brought her into my bed and let her nurse away to her heart's content.  Her heart desires a LOT of nursing lately.  With two molars coming in, she has very little interest in solid food, but her appetite doesn't match her lack of desire to eat.

As a result, I didn't actually get out of bed until an hour before I needed to be at the sing-a-long playdate I go to each Monday.  Oops.  Baby got a snack trap of multigrain Cheerios and I had two pieces of Dave's Killer bread toast with Earth Balance spread and my mom's homemade blackberry jelly.  12 grams of protein pretty easy.  That extra sleep I got by bringing the baby to bed seem to have allowed for a seemless transition away from coffee, which I have been wanting to do but haven't seen as a possibility.  I've actually been having headaches lately, and thought maybe a day without coffee would help.  I had no headache or stomach ache today, and no coffee.  We'll see how this continues.

Lunch was most of a yogurt (SoDelicious coconut yogurt in vanilla flavor) that I tried to feed the baby.  She ate some, but even non-solid solids don't interest her.  I also had leftover curry chickpeas and later a plum.

Dinner was a bit of a disconnect.  I just didn't know what I wanted.  I chopped up half an onion and some mushrooms and started to sautee them without a clear plan.  I had started beets roasting in the oven and didn't know what their final destination would be either.  I ended up slicing the beet greens and adding them to the pan along with some five spice.  I chopped up the roasted beets and tossed them with a mixture of tahini and hoisin sauce then put them over the hash of other veggies.  I cooked up a couple of the potatoes from the garden (just microwaved them) and topped them with Bragg's Liquid Aminos.  For some color and to try to entice the baby to eat, I opened a can of mandarine oranges and just put them cold on the plate.  Nothing fancy, but it was really tasty.  I will have leftover hoisin beets tomorrow in some form...  Not sure what yet.

I had a tall glass of chocolate soy milk and an almond joy cereal bar this eveing for a sweet treat.

What Do You Eat? Day 2

Today's breakfast was the same as yesterday.  Still loving those fresh raspberries from the garden.  I also did some more harvesting, and pulled up my first potatoes of the season as well this morning.  Violet and the dog ate all the snow peas, but that's okay.  I'll take a kid that loves snow peas.

For lunch I made a soup with the carrots from the garden and one of the potatoes.  I added fresh ginger, peanut butter and sriracha- spicy goodness!  I also made a sandwich with Yves salami and lightly crisped kale.  I used my favorite bread, Dave's Killer Bread Good Seed.  This bread is crazy good and made with only the best ingredients.

Dinner did not get a picture.  The poor baby is teething something fierce and it was all I could do to cook and eat dinner.
The menu was:
Roasted chickpeas with curry powder
Steamed artichoke with vegenaise
sauteed zucchini and onions

Desert was a yummy cereal bar I made with multigrain cheerios, brown rice syrup, almond butter, roasted almonds, melted down chocolate chips, and coconut flakes.  I call it my Almond Joy Cereal Bars.  I didn't measure anything, so I can't post a recipe, but I do have a picture (I ate way more than the tiny piece in the picture!).

What Do You Eat? Day 1

This is a true account of what I ate today, and will continue to be true accounts of what I eat.  I am only human, so I will admit that I might be eating better while I record than if I wasn't.

I started my morning with my homemade multigrain oatmeal.  I make my own blend from bulk grains.  I use oats, rye, kamut, barley, and spelt.  Two parts oats and one part all the rest.  I blended in almond butter and fresh raspberries from my garden, along with a splash of maple syrup.  I drank coffee with soy creamer and liquid stevia.  My one year old had the same cereal breakfast, but she had much more almond butter blended in to hers.

For lunch I got a special treat because we were in Girdwood for the Fungus Fair.  We went to Jack Sprat, one of my favorite restaurants.  I had never seen their brunch menu, but I was pleased with the chia muesli and yam fries without the aoli.  The little one liked the muesli, but hardly touched the fries (leaving way too many fries to me).  

I didn't get pictures, but if you look at the menu, the muesli is the stuff in a cup, and the yam fries are stacked all pretty.  The yam fries are always a favorite of mine, but I have to say I also liked the muesli a lot.  Homemade almond milk really makes a difference!  

I took some in a box and snacked while we did Fungus Fair stuff (mostly putting Violet in her Muddy Buddy rain suit and letting her go wild in the awesome park while it rained).

When we got home, I roasted eggplant and cooked brown basmati rice.  I added peas to the rice and mushed the eggplant with finely minced garlic, tahini, lemon juice, paprika, and salt and pepper.  I roasted some small sweet peppers and stuffed mushrooms with the eggplant mixture.  In my meat/cheese eating days, stuffed mushrooms were a favorite of mine, but eggplant stuffed mushrooms are a million times better!  Violet disagrees and only ate the rice and peas, but she was feeling yucky tonight, so don't trust her judegment. 

For desert I'm having this cowboy cookie from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.  I made a big batch to send to work with my husband and this one is just for me.  For those without THE book, it's a cookie with oats, toasted pecans, coconut, and chocolate chips.  It seems a bit fancy for a cowboy to me, but what do I know?

Girls Night

Tonight was just the girls (my daughter and I), so I made what I would consider "girly food."  I'm not sure why, but our dinner just struck me as very feminine.

Angel hair pasta tossed with nutritional yeast then topped with sauteed asparagus and garlic in olive oil.  I topped it all with lemon zest and juice and toasted almonds.

YUM!

Is that girl food?

My husband was in the land of manliness and ate a burger and fries, so maybe there is something to this gender specific food idea.

Travel Travel Family Family

Since my husband lost his job in May, we have been having family and travel time extreme.  I feel bad not keeping up with my bloggy blog, but I wouldn't trade the last few months for anything!  I have been cooking all our meals and loving a varied and cheap vegan diet.  It is amazing how "beans and rice" can be so many different things.  One night we'll have chickpea Indian food over brown basmati, and another we'll have spicy pintos over short grain brown rice.  We've also been enjoying cannelini beans and pasta or black bean salad on a summer evening.  These tight times have been a reminder that vegan eating is much more affordable than meat and milk.  My dried beans and case of soy milk don't spoil, and the farmer's market and CSA keep me in fresh veg.

I have so many blog posts in my head that I want to share, but I might have to do a miniseries because of a questions I kept getting while visiting family, "What do you eat?"  Many family members and friends want to accomodate us, but honestly just can't fathom what we eat.  Our diet is so varied that it's a hard question to answer.  We eat a huge variety of legumes, veggies, fruits, grains, and some processed products, so I never know how to answer that.  Many meat-eaters think we must eat like them, but with the meat replaced by something else (most imagine tofu), but we just don't eat that way often.  Vegetarians often rely so heavily on cheese and eggs that it's even harder for them to imagine our daily diet.

I plan on starting tomorrow morning and at least listing and hopefully photographing everything I eat for one week.