Cheating...

So I have been totally cheating on my vegan diet while visiting my mom and brother in St. Louis (I am marinating jerk chicken as we speak) and let me tell you, I feel like CRAP. Crap that has been dipped in crud then rolled over a waterfall in a barrel. Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme, but I definitely don't feel good.

Kale Chips

Well, those are two words that I never thought I'd put together. And I never thought I would follow those two words with these words "Oh my god, SO delicious and addicting!" So, yeah, the lady clan and I made kale chips this week. I'd seen them mentioned a few times on vegan blogs and had been curious. I guess my curiosity got the better of me. The girls and I could not stop eating them. I'm sure we've consumed at least five bunches of kale this week alone. "How in the heck do you make a kale chip?" you may be asking yourself. Well they're super simple.

One bunch of kale (or two or three depending on how many you want to make)
a little olive oil
a little red wine vinegar
salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne (and/or any other seasoning you like)
nutritional yeast (because I love it).

Pull the kale from the stems and break the leaves into 2 - 3 inch pieces. Toss in olive oil and vinegar. Arrange on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle with nutritional yeast and seasonings of your choice. Bake at 275 degrees for about 30 minutes or until they are crisp.

That's it. Oh, make sure to put them in an airtight container or zip lock back to store them or they'll get chewy. Not that my kids cared, they ate the chewy ones too.

Vegan Eating, Week One

So, I'm a procrastinator. I know it and will admit it freely. Generally I like to be done planning my weekly menu before the week actually starts, but that didn't happen this time. I just finished the menu today and have to go to the store this afternoon or no one will be eating anything! Alright, here's this week's vegan menu (side note, when I refer to milk it will always be either soy, rice or coconut):

Monday: Breakfast - cinnamon oatmeal with fruit (bananas/apples/raisins), Lunch - ramen (noodles with mushrooms and spinach), Dinner - stir fry (peppers, onions, mushrooms, broccoli) over soba noodles

Tuesday: Breakfast - cereal with banana & milk, Lunch - homemade hummus on toast with carrot stick and apples, Dinner - sauteed mushrooms over couscous and oven roasted asparagus.

Wednesday: Breakfast - millet (cooked, then pureed with almonds, milk, nutmeg and cinnamon), Lunch - PB&J with fruit, BBQ tofu with mac-n-cheese (I'll post a recipe for vegan mac and cheese below) and sauteed green beans

Thursday: Breakfast - cereal with banana & milk, Lunch - leftover BBQ and mac, Dinner - mushroom risotto and broccoli

Friday: Breakfast - Fruit Salad (apples, bananas, raisins, coconut, almonds with a peanut butter sauce...I guess I should post the recipe too), PB&J with fruit, Dinner - red lentils (I'm going to try something fancy with that...I'll post the recipe if it turns out tasty) over rice.

Saturday: Breakfast - smoothie (frozen strawberries, frozen banana, frozen peach, milk, OJ and maple syrup or sugar), Lunch - veggie wraps with hummus, Dinner - black bean burgers and roasted potatoes

Sunday: Breakfast - Oatmeal with fruit, Lunch - leftover black bean burgers, Dinner - Pasta with sauce and veggies, salad.

This menu is not super different from our regular menu, just much less cheese melted on things. I am also eliminating soda (which I am ashamed to say that I have a slight addiction to, but in my defense, I really only have one soda a day, two MAX and probably not even every day). Alright, disclaimer over. On to the recipes.

Vegan Mac-n-Cheese (sauce to pour over whole wheat macaroni, makes enough to feed a family of 6 for dinner and lunch the following day. And these are approximations because I rarely measure anything)

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp flour

2 1/2 cups unsweetened milk (I use soy, but it works with rice or coconut too)

1/2 - 1 cup nutritional yeast (depending on your own taste, I like a lot)

1/2 cup vegetable broth

1 tsp turmeric (it makes it nice and yellow)

1 tbsp mustard

1 tbsp basil

1 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp garlic powder (or you can use fresh garlic, minced)

sea salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add flour, stirring constantly for about a minute (you're making a roux - think that's how you spell that). Slowly add milk (whisking constantly) letting the mixture thicken before adding more milk. Add broth. Stir and simmer over medium low heat to thicken slightly. Whisk in all of the seasonings and spices (there's not order to this, just do it). Last, add the nutritional yeast. Whisk everything until it's smooth and creamy. I just pour the sauce over macaroni and serve, but it can be baked in the oven (in the fashion of baked macaroni).

Peanut Butter Sauce for fruit salad (this also works with cashew or almond butter)

1 cup of peanut butter

1 cup of milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup (or less depending on how sweet you like it) of maple syrup

Put everything in the blend and blend until smooth. You can add more milk if it's too thick. Pour over fruit salad of diced apples (I like Fuji or granny smith), sliced banana, raisins, almonds (or any other nuts) and unsweetened coconut flakes. It's a very filling breakfast

It's time again...

I think it's time for another round of better eating. Not that I have terrible eating habits, but the last couple of years have been a huge change from what I've been used to as far as eating goes. The fact that I was vegetarian for a good ten years consistently (and on and off from the time I was 12) makes eating meat now even more of an issue for me. My older kids were raised vegan for quite a while and all of the children are vegetarian, so for me to eat meat seems thoroughly hypocritical. Fortunately for me, they are grossed out by the thought of meat, so it's not a huge issue of them feeling slighted or anything. I still maintain a mostly vegetarian diet. It is SUPER rare that I purchase meat to cook at home, but I will eat it if I'm out. But I've noticed how tired I am and how stiff and achy I feel. All of those thing are nonexistent on a vegan diet. SO, I think I am going to attempt a 30 day vegan diet. You may remember that I tried a 30 day raw fast last year. I think I made it about 2 weeks, but in those two weeks I felt better than I had in a long time. I figured vegan is a whole lot easier to shop for and along the same lines as how I cook now, so it won't be too much of a shift for the kids. I do think that Zion will flip out at the lack of yogurt and string cheese in the house, though. That girl loves some dairy products! I think I will start Monday. That'll give us a chance to eat the stuff that's already in the house, eat at the going away party for my mom on Friday and probably make something cheesy for my brother while he's here over the weekend. No use setting myself up for failure by starting before then. So, now I'm off to find some good vegan recipes to create a menu for next week. I'll post the menu once I've put it together.

30 Day Raw Food Fast

So, somewhere in the last few weeks, I got the bright idea that a raw food fast would probably be a good thing for my health and general well being. Tomorrow marks day one of thirty. I figured I would post my progress here because I think this will make me more accountable for what I put in my mouth. I do have to admit that this last week has been like the feast before the famine (so to speak), but I'm looking forward to the next month. I've done raw before, so I know how time consuming it can be, but I also vividly remember how much better I felt everyday. I'm clinging to that memory as motivation. Keep your fingers crossed because I'm going to need all the support I can get....

Sick baby = sad mommy

So, Zion has had a runny nose on and off for a couple of weeks now. There have been colds passed round and round the house since the weather changed. On top of the fact that she has been teething for weeks (current tooth count, 4. 2 on top, 2 on the bottom), she has been a snotty mess. The runny nose returned a few days ago and initially I thought it may have been something that she was eating, but yesterday I noticed that she was breathing pretty fast and as the day progressed she began to wheeze and was running a temperature. We decided to take her to the ER just to be on the safe side. Of course with the whole swine flu madness going on there were a bunch of people in masks sitting in the waiting room. I opted to wait my turn out by the elevator. After 6 hours in the emergency room, one nasal swab, an albuterol treatment, a shot of antibiotics, a dose of Tylenol and a chest x-ray, we were sent home with a diagnosis of RSV and an ear infection in both ears. All of that seems like enough to make any adult crabby, but my sweet little angel took it all in stride. She has been in good spirits and if it wasn't for the runny nose, you wouldn't even know she was sick. She cooperated and fussed very little (even with the shot), she laid still for the x-ray, only fussed a little for the swab, but she did spit Tylenol on the nurse. But after all she'd been through, I think it was warranted. Today, she has been doing pretty well. She's still all over the house and she ate dinner this evening (she hadn't been eating much). Her breathing sounds much better after tonight's nebulizer treatment and we have the humidifier going near her bed. Hopefully by the end of the week we will be back to 100%. I read somewhere that babies display new abilities after they've gotten over a fever. I'm afraid that she will be walking or talking in sentences when she does get better. I think I would take walking over talking right now. I don't know if I could handle another talker in this house. I haven't been able to hear my own internal dialogue in years!