Eating Can Be a Challenge

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 for 40 minutes.
To get it looking like it does below was a bit of a challenge. It required scooping out the eggplant meat from the shells, adding it to a blender along with some mint leaves, some tofu and some soy milk. It kept getting stuck in my blender so that was no fun. After I finally got it looking more edible, I added some more chili flakes and lemon as suggested. I'm afraid I didn't like the taste as much as I had hoped. I found I did not like the addition of the fresh mint so next time I will leave it out.

This ended up tasting quite good however as a base in which to put chopped red onion, parsley and tomato...all wrapped up in pita bread like a donair but without meat and with out the yogurt, lol. It was rather yummy.My hunger was not satisfied today. I need to get something more filling tomorrow. I found I didn't ride the vegan wagon too well today as I had some more pomegranate sherbet purchased yesterday..the one that has milk ingredients in it. Today it wasn't as good...too sweet...so all of a sudden everything seems too salty (the falafel) or too sweet. Other snacks included a cored and quartered apple, about 12 nacho chips, a Starbucks grande soy latte, 1 small half inch square of chocolate (50%) and 1/2 diced fresh cantaloupe sprinkled with fresh juice of lemon. I'm still very hungry. I think I'll have a few more nacho chips, some soy milk. I know that's probably not a good thing but I don't want to have some pasta or beans at this hour. It is really bed time.

At least I started back on my vitamins today at last and my energy level has been up. I got some real work done tonight around the house, hunger pangs and all. Whatever hunger pangs I might be feeling are time limited compared to what my friends in Kenya experience on a weekly basis.

Talk soon.

Vegan Experiment On Track

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" topping. Ready for eating.

It was good! My taste taster however, said that while it tasted good, I should have made "real" lasagna with meat. I reminded him that I could not because that wouldn't be vegan eating. He had a two large pieces at dinner and another one later for a snack.

Looks like I ended the day on an error as I had some refreshing pomegranate sherbet. Later, upon reading ingredients I learned that this sherbet contains milk! I usually read labels first, but I really thought I was fine on this one.

An earlier snack included about 8 nacho chips and 4 squares of dark chocolate (50%) at different sittings as well as a half pitta circle filled with alfalfa sprouts, a few slices of avocado and tomatoes. I didn't feel like eating more pasta when I felt a hunger pang.

My First Day Vegan

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 cups
~ 8 green beans chopped
~ 1 large carrot, peeled and slided
~ 8 reconstituted mushrooms chopped
~ half a red onion cleaned and diced
~ 1 can of tomato paste
~ 2/3 cups of water
~ stir in baked cloves of garlic 1 or 2 baked garlic heads as in Naomi Roses recipe
~ water as needed. Less water for stew-like consistency. I did not use canned beans so you will have to add more water than the 2/3 cup that Naomi's recipe recommends.
~ salt and pepper to taste when done.

This was absolutely delicious and filling! Actually I had a half filled blue bowl (less than in the photo) and I feel too full now that it is digesting. I also had enough for my roommate who has a huge appetite and saved some for another meal & snack.

Right now I have a wonderful aroma permeating the house as Braised Red Cabbage is cooking in the oven. Here is a sneak peak. I will cook it for several more hours to get it reduced to an almost like sauerkraut consistency. It is piping hot from the oven to be stirred and you can see the steam rising from it. I'm not actually sure what is for dinner but it will likely include this cabbage dish. I think I will have the tempeh burger and the cabbage. Tonight I will try to make some vegan lasagna to have on hand for tomorrow night and figure out how to make falafel for another day (both suggestions of the wonderful Naomi Rose.
Please drop by my other blog post for the day called Window Shopping.

Watercress, Pear, Bacon & Pecan Salad

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 this salad. I don't know if I even made the recipe correctly, lol. It has been awhile since I've eaten this salad and some of my papers with recipes are still in boxes after the late summer move. I didn't bother to search for the recipe tonight due to the hunger I was experiencing. You can see that my photos are blurred due to the shakiness I was experiencing from low blood sugar levels. My shakes subsided after eating (and "no" the salad wasn't too sweet as I did not add very much brown sugar to it).

Ingredients:

- sliced bacon (half package)
- diced (peeled) shallots (6-8)
- sliced pears (2)
- 8-10 pecans cut in half lengthwise
- couple tbsps. of brown sugar, or to taste
- couple handfuls of watercress rinsed and ends chopped off
- crumbled blue cheese for topping

Try the salad. I think you will love it as much as I do.
I will let you all know how my new regime goes. Keep me in your prayers.

I Love Autumn

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.