SNAP THAT

I wrote about this new Chocolaterie in my neighbourhood back in August 2009. You can read the post here . Today, I managed to get there for my second visit. This time I bought truffles with 72% chocolate from Venezuela and other truffles made of 66% chocolate from Mexico. They were divine! Here is the lovely shop owner. Serving me with a smile and with a lovely French accent. Oh la la. It is Hallowe'en tonight and the shop owner has dressed like Juliette Binoche's character in the movie Chocolat. Unfortunately, you can't see the pretty dress she has underneath the cape. Below is a display of some of the chocolate that was on offer today; much of it from Mexico and Venezuela. I like this shop because the owner checks out her chocolate sources as best she can to ensure that the cocoa does not come from cocoa plantations that promote child slave labour. After hearing about " blood chocolate" in West Africa , and becoming involved in helping widows and orphans in

Hey everyone, It's my fourth day of eating vegan today. This is the point at which my vegan eating "coach" and encourager evaluates how I am doing so far and makes suggestions to help me. After showing her my menu for the last several days she said I am not eating enough. I can easily increase portion sizes and eat more in general of veggies and good snacks. She also made an excellent point that I should not worry about the dairy slip I had the other day. Her point is that I've been doing without a lot more dairy over the past few days than I would normally eat and that is so true! In I week, I would generally have milk, yogurt or cottage cheese, maybe some ice cream products or cheese. Now I have none of that so indeed, I have cut waaaaaaaaay back. It took Naomi Rose to point that out for me and I thank her for it as I was feeling pretty bad about it all. So today will be my last day of journelling what I have been eating on this vegan diet now that my new lifesty

I needed some fibre today so I started off with porridge sprinkled with ground flax, a few raw cashews, dried figs, brown sugar and soy milk. It did the trick. Lunch was a package of store bought falafel . I'm not a huge fan of falafel . I found this mixture to be somewhat salty though actually better than what I've eaten in restaurants. Due to the saltiness, I only had 3 round balls in a small bit of pita bread with alfalfa sprouts. It was quite good that way and "cut" the salty taste but I've been hungry all day. This is the package. This is what it looks like after mixing with water. This is the mixture after setting for 10 minutes. Here it is browning in a cast iron skillet with some olive oil. Dinner ~ I have been wanting to make this Eggplant Dip for awhile. The main ingredients are eggplant, garlic and tofu. It started off fine. This is the eggplant inserted with garlic cloves and brushed with chili peppers and olive oil. It looks great after roasting f

Today was the second day of my experimentation with vegan eating. I think it went okay for the most part. Breakfast was the final (and small) wedge of Apple Pie which I wrote about earlier this week. Lunch was a half circle of pitta bread and a small bowl of yesterday's Beany Stew. I made Butternut Squash Lasagna for dinner. This what the filling looked like. A close up of the autumn coloured lasagna filling. Here is the beginning of the layering process before the noodles are added. And a close up after the noodles are added. I made enough lasagna for two pans. That way I would have left overs since this dish was more labour intensive than what I normally cook. Perhaps after I make it a few times it will seem less so. This is what the lasagna looks like after it is topped with the vegan "cheesy" sauce which is really a roux or a bechemel sauce. I topped one of the pans of lasagna with soya "Mozzarella" cheese. The cooked lasagna with the "cheese&quo

The new eating regime started Monday. It was a little hectic chopping up all the veggies for luncheon and preparing the dried beans (soaked on Sunday night) and getting it all together for a late lunch. I had risen late otherwise I would have had an early start. In between making lunch, I was replying to emails, making and receiving phone calls, doing laundry, etc. Breakfast will usually be porridge or hot oatmeal with some cashews & dates/raisins/figs. One can eat the porridge with or without almond milk or your alternative milk of preference. But today, I had left overs of the Apple Cake I made Saturday night. If you recall, I had made a vegan version of it and though it is a dessert, it actually has very little sugar in it, probably less than I would get from the dates/raisins/figs I would put into porridge. Lunch today consists of Beany Stew with Roasted Garlic . Ingredients in my version: ~ reconstituted garbonzo beans, two cups ~ reconstituted fava beans, about 1.5 or two cu

I've been having a craving for this salad for a couple of weeks now. My plans are to start eating vegan only as of Monday, October 26, 2009, so Sunday night was my last opportunity to satisfy the meat craving for awhile. I left the making of the salad too late. I was way too hungry when I started chopping up and frying the bacon and shallots together. I was literally shaking from low blood sugar so I didn't wait for the bacon to brown before I threw in the sliced pears and pecans. Normally I would let the bacon and shallots brown before adding in the pears and pecans. After this mixture browned (mainly the bacon) a bit, I added a sprinkling of brown sugar and then threw in a couple of handfuls of watercress after having washed and cut off the ends. The watercress cooks down very quickly so don't let it go limp when you stir it in to the hot pan. Serve immediately after cooking and sprinkle blue cheese on top while the mixture is still piping hot. I really enjoyed th

My Dogwood tree in all her glory. Check out my slideshows of yesterday in Vancouver. I relished the small bit of blue sky in an otherwise cloudy and rainy week. Click the arrow to start the slideshows. Double click the snapshots to enlarge them and take you to the photo album. Enjoy! And then, the unthinkable happened. It got even brighter outside. God is good.

It seems I've been obsessed with food lately. Good food. I want to fill my body with healthy food and as hard as I try to eat more fruits and veggies, I just don't feel any better. I have even cut out a lot of meat protein and now use extra virgin olive oil rather than the cheaper available alternatives. I've increased the yogurt in my diet for the probiotics and try to eat leafy green veggies. I also eat sprouted grain bread and use heart healthy margarine on the rare occasions I do use margarine. My body feels beat up and out of shape and I simply have little energy to do much about it. But I think all that is about to change. I've decided to go radical and go vegan for health reasons . In order to do that I've enlisted the help of Naomi Rose , a darling girl from England who has so generously donated her time for my benefit. I'm going to give her suggestions a try and I've already purchased most of my supplies for the week's eating suggestions. In th

Hello friends, This is just a short praise report to let you know that a little boy named Kibet was able to get some medical help for his leg. I first saw Kibet a few weeks ago in a story here . I was able to send some funds and get this little boy and his family some much needed help. Kibet was very excited, and he could not hide his joy as my pastor friend took him sandals to keep his feet dry and clean and also a blanket to keep warm. It brought my friends Jonah and Thomas a lot of joy to help this poor family get basic things that some of us take for granted, like doctor visit and medicine for his foot, sandals to keep feet clean and dry, a blanket to keep warm at night and a small treat of fresh oranges. [Caption: Brother Thomas checks over the oranges for the children.] [Caption: The children are enjoying the oranges and the blanket.] [Caption: The children say goodby e to my friends .] [Caption: This little girl also needs to see a doctor] Please pray for Pastor Jonah and