What I Ate Wednesday #85: Fall Into Good Habits

First of all, I love the above badge! Don’t get me wrong, I love summer but after a few weeks of sunshine and heat I am ready for fall. I can’t wait for clear cool weather, falling leaves, boots, and cozy layers!

Anyway, before I even knew the theme for this month’s What I Ate Wednesday, I was trying to jumpstart myself into making some changes. Its been a rough couple of months and despite the fact that I’ve definitely upped my fresh fruit intake, I haven’t been eating all that well and haven’t been exercising AT ALL. Especially in the month of July when I was spending most days at the hospital, meals were mostly whatever was quick and easy, and I was way too tired all the time to exercise any more than walking back and forth from the ICU a bazillion times. Combine that with the fact that I wasn’t working at all during July and August (which keeps me on my feet and lightly active) and it’s not difficult to see why I’ve gained a bit of weight over the summer.

About 2 1/2 years ago when I decided I really wanted to lose weight and get in better shape, what jump started me was getting a Wii Fit (a great way to get into exercising, as I never really exercised before) and using a food/fitness tracker (I used LoseIt on my iPod and computer). I still love my Wii Fit: it has a great variety (there are still exercises and levels I haven’t done), is fun, got me interested in yoga, and my workout is different every time if I want, but my use of it in the past year has been sporadic at best.

Anyway, because I know it worked for me last time, yesterday I downloaded and started using the diet and exercise journal from My Fitness Pal (its available online, for iPhone, IPod touch, Blackberry, Android, and Windows). It probably will be a big help that my sister Jem is also using My Fitness Pal to get back in shape after recently going through chemo and beating Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. 🙂 While I do want to lose some weight, I’m more interested in eating healthier and starting to exercise again on a regular basis. I find using the diet and exercise journal makes me a lot more aware of what I’m eating so I make better choices, and want to exercise so I can minus some calories (and eat more). Plus, If I log throughout the day I can see what nutrients I’m maybe lacking and make choices to fix that. Also, because I’ll be inputting most of my recipes into the journal already, I am going to start posting the nutritional information of my recipes.

Sorry, I really didn’t intend to write so much, but as you can probably tell, I’m getting a little excited about this!

Here’s what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast:
Potato Vegetable Hash – leftover Greek roasted potatoes, white mushrooms, orange pepper, Cajun seasoning.
1 piece Silver Hills Mack’s Flax toast with red pepper hummus.
2 cups of coffee with unsweetened soy milk.

Lunch:
Chana curry, rice pulao, and vegetable pakora (leftovers from take-out).
Chilled chai tea with vanilla soy milk.

Dinner:
Southwest Quinoa Confetti Salad with 1/2 an avocado.

Snacks:
1 Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodle (I think I forgot to take photos, but it was basically Isa’s recipe, except I made a few changes which I will detail next time I make them).
Tropical peach smoothie & Tropical peach smoothie soft serve – 1 peach, 1/4 serving Natural Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer, 1/2 serving Tropical Vega Energizing Smoothie, 1 tsp chia seeds, 1/4 tsp pure orange extract, 3 coconut milk ice cubes, 1/4 cup frozen banana slices, and 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk. I drank 1/3 of this smoothie before a workout and put the rest in a small bowl in the freezer. I stirred it up and had it post-workout.
1/2 an apple.
2 slices off a Banana Bran Mini Loaf.
1 cup vanilla soy milk.

Plus, thanks to my beautiful tumbler and a little lemon juice I managed to drink 7 whole cups of water! Which may be a record for me, though I don’t usually keep track (one more thing My Fitness Pal helps me keep track of). I’m sure I never drink enough water. I realized I enjoy drinking water more if I add a small amount of lemon juice, and if its in an open cup (not a water bottle with a lid I have to take off), preferably with a straw!

And, a few other things I’ve eaten in the past week:

From top, left to right:
1) Baked Vegetable Spring Rolls with soy sauce & Sriracha.
2) Peach Blueberry Crumble
3) Roasted Greek Potatoes (red potatoes, lemon juice, olive oil, Epicure Greek Seasoning) & green salad (romaine, grated broccoli stalk, cucumber, crushed red pepper flakes, black pepper, olive oil balsamic vinegar, hemp hearts).
4) Mixed pasta with Kale Pesto & crumbled Spicy Lime Tofu Nuggets.
5) Smoked Tofu & Harvarti Sandwich on toasted Silver Hills Mack’s Flax bread with red pepper hummus, romaine lettuce, Daiya Jalapeno Garlic Havarti Wedge, and thinly sliced Soyganic Smoked Tofu lightly browned in a pan. Definitely not the healthiest sandwich ever, but super tasty!

Chipotle Lime Cashew Cream & Kale Pesto

In case you are wondering, I did not make these or eat these together. Though it probably wouldn’t be a terrible combination. I have a pretty long list of recipes I want to post so I just thought I would put the two sauce/spreads together.

I quickly threw together this creamy cashew spread to put on some wraps with a black bean and brown rice mixture I’d taken out of the freezer (actually leftover filling from my homemade frozen burritos). It has a bright tang from the lime juice and a mild chipotle flavour, because my bean and rice mixture was already quite spicy. Feel free to up the chipotle if it suits you.

Ingredients

Chipotle Lime Cashew Cream
1/2 cup raw cashews
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp agave
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder
pinch of sea salt
3 tbsp water (or more if you would like it more sauce-like)

Add all ingredients to a food processor (I used my mini one) or blender and process until smooth. Add more water if desired and process. If not using at once, transfer to a sealed container and refrigerate. This will firm up a bit when cold, but you can bring it back to room temperature before serving. Enjoy!

This spread went really well with my Mexican-spiced bean and rice mixture, and would go well with anything of similar flavour. Try it as a creamy salad dressing for a taco salad, as a spread on burgers (I really like these Southwest Quinoa Veggie Burgers, especially with sweet potato instead of potato), sandwiches, and wraps, in a (vegan) quesadilla, or maybe stirred into some black bean soup.

I made this kale pesto a couple of weeks ago when I had a bunch of kale lurking in my fridge and no time (or need) to make any meals with it. It only takes a few minutes to make the pesto, and it can be frozen if you don’t need it right away (I freeze it in ice-cube trays then pop out into a plastic bag). I’ve found having pesto on hand in the freezer is very helpful when I’m in need of a quick meal. It can quickly liven up any pizza, pasta, or tofu scramble, and gives a great flavour boost to wraps and sandwiches as well.

Kale Pesto
1 bunch of kale
1/2 cup packed basil leaves
2 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
3/4 cup walnuts
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp sea salt
Juice and zest of one lemon
1/3 cup olive oil

Thoroughly wash kale and remove the leaves from the stem. Discard thick stems. Place everything, except for the kale, in a food processor. You will not be able to fit all of the kale in at first, but add about 1/3 of it (amount will depend on your food processor). Pulse a few times until your processor no longer looks full. Scrape pesto down sides of the bowl, and add more kale. Keep doing this until you’ve added the whole bunch of kale. You will be finished when there are no large pieces or walnut, basil, or kale left.

Sorry I didn’t take any photos while making this, but it should be very quick and simple, and you’ll end up with a  gorgeous green spread/sauce.

Enjoy!

Here, I used the Kale Pesto on pasta with some crumbled Chile Lime Tofu Nuggets (recipe coming soon):

Penne with Mushrooms & Sun-dried Tomato Pesto

So, my sister Jem was over and we needed a quick dinner. She loves mushrooms, but never eats them at home because her fiancé can’t stand them. I had a big pile of white button mushrooms that needed to be used, and we had just made sun-dried tomato pesto  (based on this one from Oh She Glows) a few days before, that I had yet to try. This is what we ended up with:

This isn’t really a recipe, as it only involves mushrooms, whole wheat penne (I like Barilla – the only ingredient is whole wheat flour), and pesto, but I’ll show you anyway.

While your pasta is cooking, rinse your mushrooms and cut into slices. Add to a pan on medium heat with a light spray of oil. Let cook, stirring occasionally, for about 7-10 minutes. I love cooking mushrooms! Just when it seems like nothing is happening with them, then they start to release their moisture, and a couple of minutes later they are perfect. Almost like magic.

When first put into the pan.

7-10 minutes later.

While the pasta and mushrooms are cooking, defrost your pesto a bit if it is frozen. We froze our pesto in cubes so its easy to take and defrost just what is needed. I just took a few cubes out, put them in a bowl and put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. When the pasta is cooked, drain it, then stir in the pesto. Add the mushrooms and you end up with a quick, easy, super tasty meal! Enjoy!

Questions:
How do you feel about mushrooms?
When mushrooms are cooked I love them, but I really don’t like them raw! I just realized that I am saying ‘mushrooms’ as a group, but I have only tried a few common kinds.

Do you have a favourite pesto recipe?
The one used here is actually the first one I’ve ever made, vegan or otherwise. We pretty much followed the recipe from Oh She Glows (linked in the post above) and it was pretty good, but I’m open to suggestions. Just don’t suggest pine nuts; they are way too expensive!

Curried Lentil Soup & Cooking for the Freezer

I wouldn’t say that I like my food really spicy (I prefer to still be able to taste my food under the layer heat), but I do love spices and spiciness! Any breakfast scramble (tofu or veggies) isn’t complete without Cajun seasoning and any mention or thought of curry leaves me practically drooling and unable to think of anything else. So, when my sister and I were brainstorming what kind of soup to make on our first day of baking/cooking for our freezers – more on that later – my first thought, especially once I realized I wanted an easy lentil based soup, was curry. The following Curried Lentil Soup is what we came up with. I used a Red Lentil Cauliflower Curry recipe from Veganomicon (page 186) that I had made before as a soup for an idea of the method, measurements, and spices to use, but used our own mix of lentils and vegetables to create a very different soup.

Curried Lentil Soup
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 inch piece ginger, minced
1 large shallot, diced
1 cup chopped carrot
3/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup diced potato
3 1/2 tsp mild curry powder
1/2 tsp each: turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, ground coriander
3/4 cup red split lentils
3/4 cup green/brown lentils
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1/2 tsp sea salt (omit if using store-bought vegetable broth)

Set out all of the ingredients and chop the vegetables. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Saute the shallot, garlic, and ginger for a couple of minutes, until tender. (You might notice this recipe doesn’t have any onions in it. That is because I really don’t like them and besides shallots and small amounts of dehydrated onion I do not cook with them. If you want to add onions to this soup, add them first, sauté until translucent, and then add the shallot, garlic, and ginger.) Add the spices and cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add carrots, celery, potato, and lentils (after sorting and rinsing them). Slowly pour in vegetable broth and water. Cover the pot, raise the heat to high, and boil for 1 minute. Stir, then cover the pot again, lower heat to medium-low, and let simmer for about 20 minutes. Check to see if the potatoes and lentils are done, they may need a little more time. When the potatoes and lentils are cooked then your soup is done. Cover and let sit about 15 minutes before serving, to let the flavours meld.

I like this soup as is, with a piece of toasted whole grain bread (my favourite is Silver Hills) or served over brown rice or quinoa. Enjoy!

As I mentioned earlier, this was one of the things that my sister Jem and I made on our first designated day of baking and cooking for both of our freezers. In addition to this Curried Lentil Soup, we also made sun-dried tomato pesto based on this one from Oh She Glows (we froze it in ice-cube trays), chocolate zucchini loaf based on this recipe, chocolate chip peanut butter cookies from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s The Joy of Vegan Baking (we baked 1 tray full and then made 2 rolls of the dough for the freezer), blueberry almond waffles adapted from this recipe, and falafel burgers from The Vegan Table. Half of everything went to me and the other half is for Jem and her fiancé. Our intention was to make a bunch of things that we could both have in our freezers for quick meals and snacks later on. Our day was very successful and we have plans to make this a monthly (or around there) tradition. We have so many ideas of things we want to make!

Our pesto cubes.

Our falafel burgers.

 Making extras for the freezer is something I already do, but making a day of it together was actually Jem’s idea. This gives us a day together, and we figure that it will help get us creative, eat less processed foods, and save some money. It really is those times when you just don’t feel like cooking, or have the time, that it is so easy to reach for a can or box of something way too processed, or to eat out.

What I really love about doing this is that while everything we make will be vegan, or vegetarian if Jem adds cheese to her half of something, neither Jem nor her fiancé are vegan! They are both omnivores and pretty heavy meat-eaters. However, my sister has always been open to trying my vegan and vegetarian food, and is really interested in eating healthier and trying new things. It always makes me happy to get people interested in vegan food and I love sharing my discoveries with her. I think we already have our menu planned out for July’s For the Freezer Day and we are both looking forward to it!

Questions
Do you like spicy food? If so, what is your favourite heat-inducing ingredient?
My favourite is chipotle! I use chipotle hot sauce, chipotle chile powder, and canned chipotle peppers in adobe sauce. I’m also addicted to Cajun seasoning. I have one now that I’m not sure is vegan. It is going to run out very soon and then I’m going to have to create my own, which I’m looking forward to.

Do you have a favourite vegan soup recipe?

Do you make extras for the freezer? Or cook/bake anything specifically to have on hand in the freezer?
I always have homemade vegetable broth and applesauce in the freezer. Since I’m baking mostly for one, I usually put half of each loaf, muffin, and bar recipe in the freezer for a month or two later. Also, I’ve been trying to cook pots of beans on days when I’m at home in order to keep some handy in the freezer. I’m trying to use more dry beans and less canned ones and I find this is helping.