Day 6 & 7

Last week was such an interesting week. It was fun to experiment with my diet, eating no meat or dairy. Overall I can say that I felt lighter, kind of tired, and that I lost 3 1/2 pounds in five days. Not bad! I actually think I'm going to stick with it for a while - at least to some degree. I went off course a little bit - okay a lot - on Saturday night when DJ and I went out to dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day. I had crab cakes, seared ahi tuna and cheesecake! Meat, meat, dairy! Oh well - I'm okay with it because it was a special occasion. Not too sure two beers are vegan either. :) So my plan is to incorporate a lot more veggies into my diet, not to each AS MUCH meat - maybe once a week? and to stay away from dairy for a while. I'll keep you all posted!
Tonight I made meatless, veggie lasagna and it was amazing! (DJ wouldn't say "amazing" but he's trying to go along with it.) I loved it. Here's the recipe:
This vegetable lasagna is perfect for making ahead and can easily transport to a potluck or the freezer. It's not vegan, but it's a heckofalot healthier than my usual lasagna with 2 lbs. of beef and a block of cream cheese! :)

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 teaspoon olive oil

3/4 cup sliced mushrooms

3/4 cup chopped zucchini

1/2 cup sliced carrot

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion


1 (26-ounce) bottle fat-free tomato basil pasta sauce

2 tablespoons commerical pesto

1 (15-ounce) carton part-skim ricotta cheese

Cooking spray

6 hot cooked lasagna noodles (about 6 ounces uncooked), cut in half

3/4 cup (3 ounce) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375º.

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add mushrooms and the next 4 ingredients (mushrooms through onion); cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add pasta sauce; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes.

Combine pesto and ricotta in a small bowl. Spread 1/2 cup tomato mixture in the bottom of a 8-inch square baking dish or pan coated with cooking spray. Arrange 4 noodle halves over tomato mixture. Top noodles with half of ricotta mixture and 1 cup tomato mixture. Repeat layers, ending with noodles. Spread remaining tomato mixture over noodles; sprinkle with mozzarella.

Cover and bake at 375º for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Day 5

Day 5 of eating Vegan is today. Last night I made stromb0li with vegan sausage and cheese. It was not very good. I gave it to DJ without telling him and he said, "What's wrong with this stromboli?" Lesson learned - dont' try to replicate recipes you love with meat substitutes.

Today I had peanut butter toast and blueberries for breakfast and will probably have a salad for lunch. Dinner...not sure!

Craigslist is a wonderful thing. Here is my new desk! I love love love it and feel like I got a good deal on it. Now I can spend my days in a much more organized and comfortable space. yay!

Day 4

So far so good! My mom asked me yesterday how I was feeling. She said, "tired, but lighter?" I guess I'm dragging a little bit too - I don't know if it's from lack of protein or just because it's been a busy week and I've been staying up past my usual 9 p.m. bedtime. :) Last night for dinner I made brown rice and steamed vegetables with teryaki sauce. (Oh and I had french fries from Burger King later for a snack - oops!) Today I had my Kashi cereal with almond milk and california rolls with imitation crab for lunch. Tonight I'm making stromboli with vegan sausage and cheese - not going to tell DJ. We'll see if he notices! I'm sure he will.
We went and picked up my new desk that I purchased on craigslist last night. Yay! It's not unloaded yet, but pictures coming soon.
Heading to Grissom Middle School - that's right good old GMS - tonight for Jake's wrestling meet. Go Jake! Jackson will love watching him wrestle. Maybe it will help him understand why Jake and Jon have been trying to teach him all of these "moves" lately. :)

Vegan Day 3

Day 3 of eating like a bird. Last night for dinner I had a spinach salad with mushrooms, green and red pepper, craisins and a homemade vinegar dressing. It was so pretty! This morning I'm working at the office so I ate peanut butter toast and blueberries for breakfast. And of course coffee wih almond milk. Can't start the morning without coffee! So far so good - not noticing too much of a difference yet, besides a pretty nasty headache last night. I think that might have been from the two glasses of wine that I had at book club though. :)
My mom says she's feeling like her tummy has settled down a little and that she feels mostly the same, but lighter maybe?! I will say that it's been nice not to feel that stuffed/coma feeling you get after a big bowl of chili or a pork chop and potato meal. I definitely feel full, just in a different way. Does that make sense?
Tonight for dinner will be whole wheat pasta with meatless spaghetti sauce.

Other news. I bought a desk on craigslist! Going to pick it up tonight. It's a really nice oak corner desk with a hutch. I feel like I got a good deal on it. I just hope we can get it home without scratching it!

Vegan Day 2

Day 1 of eating vegan is done. It was actually

easier than I thought it was going to be! The only challenge was an unplanned dinner at McDonald's last night. I searched the menu forever (annoying the girl at the counter) but finally decided on a southwestern salad with no chicken. It was pretty good! I had planned on making stromboli with vegan sausage and cheese but that didn't happen. Unfortunately I realized about half way through my salad that there was cheese. Oh well, minor slip up.

This morning I'm having Kashi Go Crunch cereal with vanilla almond milk. It's very yummy!

My mom is doing well also. Things are "moving along nicely" in our tummies. :)

Tonight I'm having some girls from work over for book club. I'm going to serve some chili and some snacks so hopefully I won't be tempted to go off track. It's kind of a fun challenge!

To be continued ...

I'm Going Vegan ...

... for a week. This means no meat, no cheese, no milk, no butter ... no animal products of any kind. I'll admit that I'm a total Oprah-aholic. I watch pretty much ever show. Last week she featured a show about veganism and it really caught my interest because of all the health benefits they discussed. My mom has had ongoing health issues and I immediately thought that this way of eating could help her. So ... I texted my mom and said "Let's try eating vegan for a week and see how it makes us feel." She responded with a lackluster "I'm in". So then I recommended she read the boog "The Veganist" that was featured on Oprah. We agreed to read and research for a few days before we began our little experiment. So my mom went to read the book on her Kindle and I went to the good old fashioned library to check out some books on Veganism. I ended up finding a book called "The Kind Diet" by Alicia Silverstone. We both were amazed by all of the health benefits that come from eating animal-product-free. Lower blood pressure, improved sinus, weight loss, etc.. The list goes on. My mom has tried everythign to improve her health EXCEPT changing her diet. What if this is the answer? Wow - it would be so awesome if she felt like HERSELF again!

Moral Dillema
Those of you who know me might be wondering how an animal-product-free diet fits in with my life! Obviously DJ is a farmer and his family owns a dairy farm. Not exactly a vegan-driving environment. :) DJ is not a big fan of this idea, but I told him it's just a little experiment. He's convinced that it's not worth it, but I'd just like to try to prove him wrong... for fun. :) My mom read that eating like a vegan is as good for the environment as driving a hybrid car for a year. Can you believe that?! It's due to all of the waste, energy, and toxic emmissions that the agricultural industry creates (especially dairy cows).

No don't get me wrong, I'm never going to swear off meat or milk, but I am anxious to see what this will do for my body and my health. I would never swear them off because I believe in the foundation of farming and think it's natural for us to eat meat.

What I'm Eating
Breakfast Day 1: Peanut butter Toast on whole grain with blueberries + coffee with soy milk.

Snack: Crackers
Lunch: Vegetarian bean burrito on whole wheat tortilla. Ingredients: Vegetarian refried beans, vegan "mozzarella", taco sauce, olive oil. It was soooo good!

Daily postings coming your way!

Do you ever feel like you're forever emptying your dishwasher? I sure do. Maybe it's because I put everything that can possibly be washed in the dishwasher, big or small, in there. Jackson likes to help me unload it by handing me utensils one by one so that I can them away. That's right, one fork at a time. Needless to say it takes a while.
I couldn't find my cell phone last night so I asked DJ to call it this morning before he left for work. He kept hearing it (faintly) in the kitchen. Sure enough, my little dishwasher helper had put my cell phone in the dishwasher! little stink pot. :)