Vegan Experimentation ~ Fighting Fatty McFatFat

Obesity is a problem in our country.  We hear it all the time.  The solution?  Get moving.  Yep.  That's it.  Congress, the schools and the 1st Lady all tell us that we need to exercise each day.  I've done it.  I've done it and felt great.  I've loved it.  But, I've learned a lot.  The most important thing:  It doesn't really help you lose weight if you are still eating crap. 

That's right!  Weight loss is more what and how much you eat than your workout ethic. I exercised for 5 months and dropped 2 pounds.  That's it.  

This time around, I've decided to focus on our food first, partly because I know it works and mostly because I'm a little bit lazy right now.  In the last 3-4 weeks, I have lost 6 1/2 pounds.  That's not tons, but I'm trying to lose weight responsibly, since I am still breastfeeding.  Also, I've been kind of lazy and had a few fat girl days where I've enjoyed way too many of the sweets.  

Here are a couple of great recipes that P, the kids and I have tried and really enjoyed.  These are all easy things that you would probably have in your house any given week.

Vegan French Toast (adapted from the Engine 2 Diet)

Ingredients: Banana (mashed), Cinnamon, Vanilla, Almond Milk, Whole Wheat Bread

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a pie plan, dip bread in the mixture, cook on griddle pan.

Vegan Lemon Blueberry French Toast

add the zest and juice of a lemon and a handful of mashed blueberries to the above recipe

Veggie Latkes

Ingredients: 1/2 head of small cabbage, 2 carrots, 2 scallions, 2 potatoes, ground flax seed, water, flour, garlic powder, ground hot red pepper, salt, pepper

Directions: Mix 3 Tbsp. ground flax seed and 9 Tbsp water.  Set aside until it gels.  In the food processor, shred the cabbage, potatoes and carrots.  Drain as much water from them as possible.   Season with spices and add diced scallions, flax goop and approx. 5 Tbsp of flour.  The flour is kind of there to suck up the water and the flax seed acts as an egg to help keep them together.  Put mounds in a hot skillet, cover and cook on both sides for about 8 minutes total.

Variation: I added some left over mashed sweet potato and it was delicious!  

Serve with an Asian flavored sauce (soy, rice vinegar and ginger) or even just ketchup.

P's Stir Fry

Ingredients: 2 packages of Shirataki Tofu noodles, cabbage (bok choy is a yummy choice), mushrooms, carrots, red bell peppers, edamame, scallions, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, rice vinegar

Directions: Cook all veggies until desired softness, add rinsed noodles, 1 part soy sauce, 2 parts vinegar, and freshly grated ginger (to taste). 

Sprouted Hummus

Ingredients: 2 cups of cooked sprouted chickpeas, 1/4 cup tahini, juice of 1 lemon, 1 roasted red pepper, 1 big bulb roasted garlic, 1 small onion (caramelized), salt to taste

Directions: Throw all ingredients in a food processor and process until desired texture

Veggie Panini

Ingredients: whole wheat bread, spinach, tomatoes, spicy mustard, salad blend (I like the herb blend from Olivia's Organics), hummus, marinated artichokes

Directions: Spread generous amount of hummus on both slices of bread, pile the veggies high in between the 2 slices, put on a griddle pan and put something really heavy on top of the sandwich and cook for 3 minutes on each side.  Dip in mustard, if desired.

Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients: Frozen bananas, dark chocolate chips (if you are having a craving)

Directions: Place ingredient(s) in blender and blend until smooth.  Enjoy!

Homemade Pizza

Ingredients: Homemade pizza dough, tomato sauce (seasoned with basil, oregano, garlic, onion) or coconut curry sauce, spinach, artichokes, black olives, garlic, any other veggies of choice, cheese (if desired)

Directions: Top the pizza dough with a generous helping of sauce, especially if you aren't using cheese, add veggies and bake according to the pizza dough instructions.

We've had a lot of trials with this whole vegetarian/vegan/plant strong diet that we've been working on. Some foods have been harder to give up than others, like hot dogs for P and the kids, and cheese.  Cheese and milk. I've been more successful than the rest of the family, but probably because my true struggle is sweets...chocolate and sugar, in general.  I've never been huge on meat, and the cheese/milk urge has pretty much been decreased immensely by the documentary, Forks Over Knives.  

P has been doing really well, but admits that he doesn't think he'll ever be able to give up milk.  That's understandable, he's been drinking milk in his tea since he was a wee lad in jolly ol' England.  hee hee

I'm looking forward to trying some more veggie dishes, continued weight loss and some increased success and motivation on the exercise front.  Stay tuned!