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.