31 Days to Better Health - Day 22

I have been having the best weekend though I have no idea why.  All weekend I have been in the most incredible, upbeat and happy mood for no reason at all. If I could bottle this and send it to you I would.  Who knew that a few snowflakes could have such a profound impact on my mood?  ;-)  Actually I don’t know that the snow had anything to do with my mood but it was a change and I do love snow so maybe that was the reason.  ;-)  I hope your weekend has been equally good or better than mine.

As I am writing this I noticed that the days are growing noticeably longer now.  It is after 5:30pm and the sun is just setting.  Mother Nature is putting on an interesting show this evening. The sky is cloudy but with the prettiest red/purple popping up between the clouds. Sorry that my photos didn’t do it justice.  It was fascinating to watch as the fast moving clouds were changing the sky quickly.  I get the biggest kick out of watching the sky change colors.   It fascinates me that the older I get the more easily pleased I am with the little things in life. 

What have you thought of the posts so far this month? Do you have any favorites yet? The reason I am asking is so that I know what topics you would like me to write about in future posts. If you have something that you would like me to write about don’t be shy.  For those of you who are just joining us here is the recap of what we have accomplished so far to remind us all of how much we have covered during the first 21 days of January:

Day 1 – Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back

Day 2 – Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion
Day 3 – Listed Our Goals for January
Day 4 – Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While
Day 5 – Looked at Optimism vs. Pessimism and Fear vs. Intuition
Day 6 – Practiced Conscious Eating
Day 7 – Hara Hachi Bu
Day 8 – Taking the Stress Out of Meal Time
Day 9 – Acknowledgments
Day 10 – No Excuses, Do it Anyway
Day 11 – Is it True?
Day 12 – Have You Really Connected With Someone Today?
Day 13 – Motivation is a Decision
Day 14 - Successfully Navigating Dinner at an Unfamiliar Restaurant
Day 15 - What Do You Want, Have You Asked?
Day 16 – Treating Others as You Wish to be Treated
Day 17 – Food as a Budget
Day 18 – Silence Your Inner Critic
Day 19 – Replace I Have to With I Want to
Day 20 – Identifying Your Rituals
Day 21 – Face Your Fears

What did you think of yesterday’s post about facing your fears?  I hope seeing my fears caused you to reflect on your own and to make a plan to tackle at least one of yours.   Please try to remember that we all need to continue to learn and grow or we will start to wither inside.  If any of us continue to do what you have always done then we really shouldn’t expect anything in our lives to change.   I have tried many diets during my life, probably more than I can count. It took me years to figure out what works and more importantly what doesn’t work.  Once I gave up dieting then my health dramatically improved and I want the same thing for any of you who are looking for change.

I realize that many of the things that I have written about recently may be too close to home for some of you. My reason for writing these posts is to shake you out of your comfort zone because I know from personal experience that this is necessary to get results.  Everything I have been writing this month comes from a place of love and wanting to help and I hope that you all know that. 

Give Up the Diet Mentality:

Today’s topic was inspired by a conversation that I had with a friend.  That interchange has been rolling around in my head for the last 48 hours and I think it is very important which is why I wanted to write about it in this post.   There is definitely something that all of us can learn from this concept, me included.  

January is the time when almost everyone tries to make changes to improve their health.  We are all conditioned to make resolutions on January 1^st.  I imagine many of you are either looking to lose weight or to improve your health, this is what we do each January.  Most of us start off the month with a new diet or heading to the gym every day.  However as gung ho as we are all early in the year most people fall off the bandwagon by the end of the month.  Why does this happen?  I have spent a lot of time pondering this and I think I know part of the reason why.

I am sure that each of us has a friend who struggles with their weight or we have or continue to struggle with our own weight. If you listen to people who are struggling with their weight you will find that they have a few things in common.

·         They are always going on or off a diet.

·         Each new attempt at dieting starts with a bang and somehow fizzles out.

·         We seem to believe that the current quick fix (diet) will solve our problem right up until it stops working.  This is driven in large part by the diet book industry IMO.

·         Diets are seen as something that we do until we get the result that we want.

When you read this list do you see the problem?  I think that it is always easier to see a problem when it isn’t ours (when you are on the outside) but much tougher to see when you are inside.  When any of us pin our hopes on the latest diet we have set up a temporary situation that may work in the short term but won’t work in the long term.  In order to achieve long term results you have to willing to make long term change. No one wants to hear that but it a fact of life.  The problem with any diet (it doesn’t matter which one) is that most people view them as a short term solution, I will eat this way until:   I lose 20 pounds, after the wedding, after my class reunion, etc.  We plan to go back to our old habits once we have lost the weight.  In order achieve lasting success you need to be willing to make long term changes.  The specific changes are not what it is important, what matters is your commitment to long term change.

The first thing to reflect on is what is the result that you are trying to achieve?  Do you want to be a healthy weight for life or do you want to lose weight for an event or situation?  Many people think they can lose weight on a diet and then go back to eating the way that they used to and yet they expect to keep the weight off.  I refer to this as having their cake and eating it too.  However how many of us has either been on that diet roller coaster or know people who have and we all know it doesn’t work long term.  This is the reason that the statistics are so horrible for people losing weight and keeping it off.  Here is the bottom line; if we aren’t willing to make permanent changes we won’t see permanent results. This is not difficult to see in other people or with other situations however for some reason most of us want to believe that diets are exempt from this law of cause and effect.   Diets don’t work specifically because we see them as a “short term” solution.  However no other long term problem has ever been solved by a short term solution and why would weight be any different?

Let’s look at some of the specifics to help this make more sense.  This time of year diets are everywhere. Almost every magazine that arrived in my mailbox this month has had a diet in it.  Grab one of those magazines and flip to the diet.  What do you notice?  The plan tells you what to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  What is wrong with that?   None of us can live our lives eating what and when someone else tells us to.  Life doesn’t work that way.  What if you are not home and don’t have access to tuna and whole wheat pita for lunch and that is what you are “supposed to eat”?  There is also the obvious problem of what if you don’t eat tuna, or if you just don’t feel like tuna that day for lunch?  Do you see how this isn’t sustainable for the long term?  No matter how disciplined any of us are we will grow tired of eating what someone else prescribes for us.

In order for any of us to improve our health we need to be able to make decisions for ourselves in the moment. We need to learn which foods are good for us and which ones are harmful.  The idea is to eat more of what is good for us and less (or preferably none) of what is bad for us.  The goal is to learn to consistently make good decisions when it comes to fueling your body.  This sounds complicated to anyone who struggles with their weight/health but it is actually very simple.  I have very few “rules” around what I eat which probably surprises many of you who think the way we eat is very restrictive (I hear that from many of you by email BTW).    Here is the only thing that I keep in mind when deciding what to eat:

What is the healthiest thing that I want to eat right now?

That doesn’t seem very complicated does it?  At some meals the healthiest thing that appeals to me may be a big salad, savory oatmeal or a green smoothie. Other times the healthiest thing that appeals to me is veggie sushi, whole wheat pasta with red sauce or tofu chocolate mousse.  I recognize that my mood changes and that some meals are healthier than other meals and that is okay.  Overall I am happy with my choices and feel like they generally serve me well.

However this is not to say that I don’t reevaluate my choices often because I do.  I monitor my results and make adjustments all the time, but these adjustments aren’t big so you would not necessarily notice them.  I will give you an example.  When Dan was in the hospital my food choices were not as healthy as usual (veggie subs) and as a consequence I put on a few pounds.  Once we were both home I made a few adjustments so that those extra pounds came back off.  This is the reason that I find it helpful to get on the scale every morning. It isn’t the absolute number that matters; it is the trend of the numbers. Example if the scale is rising I know that I need to make changes immediately.  Other people may need to make changes if the scale is not falling or if it is falling depending on your baseline and goal.

While I am not a fan or diets I am also not a fan of the concept of moderation.  One of the reasons that I always rail against moderation is that the concept is incredibly vague.  No one actually knows what moderation means yet everyone claims that the practice it even Paul Deen.  Really?  *scratches head* This just doesn’t make any sense to me.  If we all think that we practice moderation and over 65% of this country is overweight or obese how any of us can actually think that moderation works?  Is it just me or do you see the same problem that I do? 

Moderation is all about having your cake and eating it too. Another way to look at moderation is that we are giving ourselves permission to eat food that we know isn’t good for us, because we are eating it moderation and we want to believe that somehow makes it better.  Would you eat arsenic in moderation? Would you use heroine in moderation? Would you give your children alcohol in moderation? Do you see the inherent problem with moderation?  Can you tell that I really don’t think much of moderation?

I hope that what I wrote about the diet mentality and moderation causes you to ponder these concepts.  I used to believe in both diets and moderation too.  However giving up on both these has improved my health and happiness and I think that it will do the same thing for you.

I am sure a few of you are thinking, okay so diets don’t work and neither does moderation but what should I be doing?  Easy!  The next time it is meal time just ask yourself what is the healthiest thing you want to eat now. Continue to make each meal decision with that thought in mind and you will improve your health.

Something tells me that some of you still want more suggestions.  Here are things that you might want to keep in mind. 

·         Fresh (raw) produce (vegetables and fruit) are always good.  Any time that you can add fresh produce to your meals you should.  Raw produce is low in calories, high in fiber and high in micronutrients.  Go produce!

·         Increase the amount of protein that you get from plant sources.  The beauty of plant protein is that it comes without saturated fat and with fiber. Whenever you can add beans to a meal instead of animal products you are doing your health a favor.  I try to eat beans in some form each day.

·         Concentrate on eating whole unprocessed plant-based food.  Try to eat at least 50% of each meal as whole unprocessed plant-based food.  Once 50% is easy to achieve increase the percentage.  I try to eat 95% of my food as whole food but I didn’t get here overnight.  Examples of processed foods for me include:  anything made with flour, sugar, oil, as well as things that come in packages.  When you eat mostly whole unprocessed plant-based foods everything about your health starts to improve.

·         Drink more water.  Our bodies are predominantly water and they need water to function properly.  Most Americans are chronically dehydrated.  Instead of reaching for a diet soda or a cup of coffee drink water.  If you don’t like water make it green tea, or you can add cucumber, fresh herbs or citrus slices to your water for flavor.

When you put these ideas into practice you will naturally crowd out the unhealthy foods.  If you don’t think you can make all these changes at one time pick one and concentrate on that. Once that change becomes a habit add another change.

Today’s exercises are:

1.      Record what you eat today in your journal. At the end of the day review the list and reflect on your choices. Are you happy with your choices?  If you are happy with them wonderful!  If not identify the choices that you would like to change in the future and think about healthy substitutions so that you are prepared the next time. Write those new choices down too.  Here is an example to give you an idea:

Veggie subs from Subway could become fresh fruit and nuts from home or hummus and crudités (both of which I did after a while at the hospital but not initially).

2.      Select one of the items above to add to your diet.  Most people find it easier to add things that to take things away.  However by adding more nutritious items you are less room for the unhealthy stuff.  Look carefully at your diet and start with the change that will have the biggest impact for you. For example if you eat a lot of pasta substituting quinoa might be the right choice and would definitely be a great way to reduce your processed food impact.

I know that I need to eat more mushrooms. We got out of the habit of having them when Dan was in the hospital.  In order to make this easier to incorporate I am going to get back into the habit of preparing flavored mushrooms a few times a week to have on hand for salads.   Sorry that I couldn’t come up with a better example here but I have been working on my food choices for a while so there isn’t much left for me to change in our dietary habits.  ;-)

What did you think of this section on ditching the diet mentality?  Did I explain it in a way that makes sense?  I hope that I did.  Like always if anything that I wrote is unclear or you think that it requires clarification please don’t hesitate to let me know either by commenting or sending me an email.

Progress on my goals:

1.       Newsletters – Saturday was another productive day for me which feels great.  I love being able to see the progress that I am making.  *woo hoo*

2.       Body Bugg – I continue to wear my bugg and I have gotten back into using the way I had intended when I purchased it.  Go me!  J

3.       Date with Dan – The hubby and I have spent a lot of time together this week.  With the weather we have stayed fairly close to home but we can have fun anywhere home or out.  ;-)

4.        Measuring calorie dense food – I am making a little progress on this but I really need to focus on it with every veggie meal to help my body absorb the fat soluble vitamins.

5.       Working on my business – Saturday I took the day off from working on the business.  The January posts are taking me many more hours to write than usual. As much as I love these posts I will be happy to see February arrive since I really need a little time back to work on other things, the business being one of them.

How are you feeling about your progress so far?  I hope you feel like you have made a few lasting changes this month.  J

Random Thoughts:

When did people stop cooking in this country?  I was looking at a recipe on Real Simple today for samosas and it called for refrigerated or frozen mashed potatoes.   What?  People buy prepared mashed potatoes.  My first thought was this was a joke but no they really exist.  When I looked up the ingredients I was surprised that I couldn’t find it detailed.  Hmmm, I wonder what is in there that they don’t want us to know about.   Is it any wonder that people in this country struggle with their health?  *sigh*

One of the toughest things in life for any of us to do is to be true to ourselves.  Human nature means that we all want to conform, to be included in the group, basically to be accepted.  However when you have beliefs that are counter to what the rest of the world believes it is difficult to “fit in”.  This was one of the scariest things about changing our diet initially.  I knew that on some level everything about life would change.  Many of our social activities would change (cooking class for example), and friends would not understand why they saw us less.  However we both knew that we had a choice to make, do what we believed was in our own personal best interest health wise or compromise ourselves for others.  I think you know us well enough by now to know what we decided to do. 

If you are worried about how eating more like us will impact your life I won’t mislead you it is difficult at first.  People will not understand your choices and they will try to convince you that “a little bit of ……” won’t hurt you.  My question is where do you plan to draw the line?  Is one unhealthy meal a week okay?  What is the point at which you have gone too far?  Dan and I follow a diet that most people consider extremely restrictive. The funny thing is that neither of us perceives it that way. We both think of food and fuel and most people don’t.  When your focus is on your health making the best choice is very simple.

Acknowledgements:

Have you made any progress writing acknowledgements?  I hope are working on this exercise. I find that it helps me stay positive and recognize the things that I do every day.  Here are my acknowledgements:

·         We have had a very good weekend.   We got out of the house for exercise even though it was icy.  I took this picture to try to give you an idea. Sorry it doesn’t really do it justice. I was pleased with us for getting out despite the weather, that is when you know you are committed, is should that be you should be committed?  LOL

·         The split pea and barley soup that I made on Friday was a bit hit this weekend.  Is there anything better than a thick bean soup when it is cold and snowy outside?  *pats self on back*  ;-)  I describe the soup in more detail below in case you want to make something similar at your house.

·         We finally took all the Christmas decorations down. We had planned to take them down the evening that Dan ended up in the hospital.  While the decorations were up much longer than usual, and longer than they should have been, at least we were able to enjoy them more this year which was nice.   I can almost always find a bright side to everything you know.  LOL

·         Other than to check the weather we haven’t had the TV on in days.  I love that we are able to talk, read and enjoy the other persons company without the distraction of a TV set.  J  I am one lucky woman to have married my best friend.  I guess this proves that good things are worth waiting for.

·         My hubby is such a sweetie. He walked to the store on Sunday, just to get out and move around, and called to see if I needed anything. He came home with a beautiful bunch of kale (better than flowers) and bananas.  J

Saturday:

Breakfast for Dan was wild blueberry oats with goji berries, a few cranberries, cinnamon, powdered ginger, nutmeg, stevia, raw pumpkin seeds, raw sunflower seeds and hempseeds.  Can sweet oatmeal get much healthier than this?  Probably not much healthier LOL.  ;-)

You will not be surprised to hear that I had savory oatmeal.  This time I flavored it with nutritional yeast (to make it cheesy), cumin, paprika and no-salt seasoning.  I add in frozen organic veggies (corn, peas, carrots and green beans) and stirred in some fresh organic spinach right at the end of cooking. I topped it with a little of the leftover red sauce with mushrooms and finished it with a few of the smoked mushrooms that I made for the split pea soup.  Delicious if I do have to be the one to say so.  ;-) I never get tired of savory oatmeal in case you hadn’t noticed. There are so many different flavor combinations yet to explore.  LOL

We took our time getting breakfast so I ended up skipping lunch. Dan polished off the remainder of the healthy tofu chocolate mousse experiment so that I could work on the next batch and get the recipe “right”.  Dan is just a giver isn’t he?  LOL

Dinner was a bowl of the split pea and barley soup topped with the smoked mushrooms.  It was the perfect cold weather meal.  J  For those of you who are curious I pressure cooked a pound of beans, then added the ½ cup barley and cooked that normally until the barley was soft.  I seasoned the soup with bay leaves, a touch of Dijon mustard, dill, caraway, onion, garlic and no-salt seasoning. The smoked mushrooms were even easier. Take dried mushrooms and rehydrate them in water, then squeeze out the excess liquid and move them to a sheet pan.  Add a little liquid smoke (maybe ¼ - ½ teaspoon, some no-salt seasoning and toss to combine.  Bake the flavored ‘shrooms on 350 degrees until they are just starting to get chewy.  The exact time will depend on your oven and how dry the ‘shrooms were when you started to bake them. Mine were in about 30 minutes.

Happy thoughts:

Have you gotten into the habit of writing your happy thoughts?  I find it helpful to remind myself how often things go well and that I shouldn’t take these things for granted.   As always there are so many things to be thankful for that I almost don’t know where to start. Here are my happy thoughts:

·         The mystery fever has been gone for almost a week now. We are both convinced that whatever caused it is now gone.  Good riddance I say.  J

·         The ice covered tree branches were beautiful last night when we were out.  I am sorry that I couldn’t get a good picture of it with me phone.  The trees seemed to be covered in diamonds when the street lights shined on them.  It was definitely a gorgeous sight, but one that I was happy to walking in rather than driving in.

·         Saturday our friend Jackie (Walid’s wife) stopped for lunch and saw Ian. I am not sure how it came up but she mentioned the trip to the hospital and not long after that I had an email from Ian.  Are you starting to see what a small group we all are?  It is sweet that everyone at the restaurant worries about us but I wish that they wouldn’t.  *ugh*  While it is nice to have so many people care about you but it also comes with responsibility.  I hate to cause people to worry.  Looks like I need to go out to lunch one day this week and fill the gang in. 

·         Sunday morning I received a nice email from Lauren (the very sweet nearly vegan nurse we met at Hopkins).  We hadn’t run into each other on the street and she wanted to let me know that she was definitely interested in getting together for lunch.  It is always nice to make new friends isn’t it?  Who could have imagined that I would find a new friend from literally around the corner while at the hospital?  Life does seem to work in mysterious ways sometimes.

·         Have I said recently how nice it is to be eating my own food again?  I feel so much better then I eat things that I had made from scratch.  The weight I picked up while Dan was in the hospital is almost gone (it should be completely gone by tomorrow), and I feel fabulous.

·         Next week we are expecting temperatures in the low 50s all week. *woo hoo*  You know I will be spending as much time outside as possible right?  I love getting outside to breathe the fresh air.  *happy dance*

·         Binky was adorable today as we were taking down the end of the Christmas stuff. He had to get into every box and investigate each item we were putting away. I love that our cats still act like kittens though they will all be 11 years old this year.  Our three fur children certainly bring a lot of love and laughter into our house.

Signing Out:

I haven’t even thought about dinner yet.  It needs to get off the computer and get my behind into the kitchen soon otherwise we will starve! Okay we would never really actually starve because we both like food too much, but I tend to have a flair for the dramatic.  ;-) Since Dan brought home a big bunch of kale that may make its way into dinner tonight.  Then again I am fickle so I am sure another dozen ideas will flow through my head before I actually make dinner.  Who knows what we will end up eating.  See why I don’t bother to pretend that I am going to write a menu for the week? There would be no point since I would never stick to it.  LOL

I have been shocked by the flood of emails that I have gotten about IIN. I had no idea so many of you were interested in this.  If you are interested and you yet sent me an email at veganepicurean@gmail.com please don’t be shy I promise that I don’t mind answering any questions that you have.  It would probably be easier for us to talk by phone so that you can get all your questions answered if that works for you. Send me an email so that we can exchange phone numbers and set up a time to chat.  However if you are shy and would rather communicate by email that is fine too, whatever works for you is okay with me.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.  I hope you had a fabulous weekend and are rested and ready to start your week, assuming you do the 9-5 thing like my hubby that is.  ;-)  Talk with you again soon!

Dinner With Friends and Cute Cats

Like usual I had a very hectic Friday. I had so many things to do today that I bailed on most of my food on Friday, sorry. I will describe the first two meals at home and then go into more details about dinner.

I went for my usual morning walk but held it to two miles today since I was so short on time. Given the time constraint I opted to go up and down hills to get a little extra oomph in this morning. Darn those hills can be tough. ;-)

When I got home breakfast was green smoothie containing the usual suspects: raw kale, banana, chia seeds, cinnamon, powdered ginger, wheat germ, water and ice.

After breakfast I walked to the grocery store to pick up provisions for the evening with friends. I had a few things that I knew I needed to make but dessert was up in the air. I considered a few dessert items: tofu chocolate mousse, avocado chocolate mousse, fresh fruit salad, and chocolate dipped pineapple with coconut. However the beautiful organic strawberries that I found out the market dictated that chocolate covered strawberries were a strong contender. I did also buy soft tofu in case I decided to go with the mousse.

Knowing that I would be eating too many calories for dinner I decided a giant salad was a great idea for my lunch. This one was simple consisting of organic mesclun, salsa, cucumbers, shredded carrots, red peppers, and raw pumpkin seeds.

Then it was time to prep everything that I was taking to Walid and Jackie’s for dinner. First up were the chocolate dipped strawberries some that I rolled in nuts. These are very simple you melt chocolate (either chips or candy bars ... it isn't hard to find vegan chocolate) and then dip the strawberries and roll them in chopped nuts. Refrigerate them on parchment until the chocolate is hard. This is a very simple preparation and everyone loves them.

Since I had leftover melted chocolate I made some quick chocolates with fresh blueberries that I finished with chopped walnuts. For the mold I used a silicon heart shaped ice cube tray from IKEA. The only mistake I made with these was not putting a little chocolate in the mold first, then blueberries and finishing them with more chocolate. These disappeared quickly so I don’t think anyone minded. Both Walid and Dan really liked the combination of blueberry and chocolate.

I also made a batch of my cheeseless queso which Jackie had requested since both she and Walid really like it. Next time we get together I am going to make this with Jackie because they would definitely make this even though they aren’t vegan. Can you get any higher praise than that for a healthy vegan dish? ;-)

In addition I thought we needed some artichokes tossed with dill because you can never have too many artichokes. I am fairly sure my love for artichokes is an Italian thing.

I baked some tofu to take with us since Jackie was making a veggie stir fry for the entrée. Later in the evening we water sautéed the veggies and they turned out great. Jackie and Walid added shrimp to their stir fry and we added tofu.

Jackie had put together some crudités, hummus, pita, marinated cauliflower, peppers, olives, salsa and grapes. Do you think we had enough food? LOL, we were laughing that we had enough food for double the number of people that we in the house. Oh well, leftovers are good right? The funny thing is that we never even got to the soup I brought. I left some of that so they could try it later.

There was lots of talking (nonstop actually) and carrying on like usual. We had a great time as evidenced by the fact that we didn’t get home until after 2:30 in the morning. Just imagine how long we would have stayed if Jackie didn’t have to work on Saturday? LOL

Here are a couple of pictures of her adorable felines (Buddy has long hair and Skipper short hair) who were also part of the festivities. I adore Jackie’s cats because they behave just like ours. The entire evening they were right in the middle of everything that was going on.  I think the pictures of the cats say it all. They are so laid back and content. For years I have said Jackie is the only person I would trust to watch my fur children.

This is a picture of our friend Walid who is one of the nicest men I have ever met. Sorry I didn’t get any pictures of Jackie and I, we were both too busy talking. Something tells me all the ladies understand that.

Here is Dan looking a little tired but it was after 1am by the time I took this so he should look tired.

Sunday we were both dragging all day after being up so late. At least Dan managed to sleep in later than I did. For some crazy reason I was up by 8 that morning. I will try to get up an abbreviated Saturday post later today. There isn’t much to share about Saturday other than a German inspired mushroom soup that was well received.

Happy thoughts:

• We both had a fabulous time Friday night. It was great to spend time with Walid, Jackie and the boys (Buddy and Skipper). There is nothing like spending time with friends.

• Saturday we were fortunate not to have anything pressing to do so that we could take it easy after so much fun Friday night. ;-)

• I am pleased with how the German inspired mushroom soup turned out on Saturday. Even though my husband and father both have German backgrounds I typically make my favorite Italian food. However I do like German flavors so I should make that more often if for no other reason variety.

• The farmers’ market was great Sunday morning. We are back to our usual routine of helping Rudy unload his truck. We came home with more plants for the herb and tea garden (basil and lemon balm) as well as leeks, baby collards, beets and organic hot house tomatoes. With the beets and collards I had to break out the juicer this morning. It is nice to be back into juicing season.

Signing out:

Since yesterday was extremely unproductive we have a lot to get done here today. I am hoping to get another post up about yesterday’s soup late today. At least I documented the recipe so I need to do now is the write the post. ;-)

If any of you want to follow me on Facebook send me an email at veganepicurean@gmail.com that way I will recognize your friend request. I hope you are having a great weekend. Talk to you again soon.

Chocolate Mousse Pie

My husband has been craving a rich decadent dessert something fierce these last few weeks. There have been many hints of this that have come my way. As a surprise I decided to take a variation of his favorite tofu chocolate mousse recipe and turn it into a pie. I assumed if I doubled the chocolate that would make the dessert thick enough to slice . Did it work? You will need to read on to find out (muahaha). Here is what I did:

Chocolate Mousse Pie
Serves 6

Ingredients:

¾ cup almonds
6 dates
5 ounces dark chocolate, melted
12.3 ounces silken tofu, firm or extra firm
1 tablespoon bourbon (optional)
Cinnamon, to taste
Vanilla, to taste
Sweetener, if necessary

Directions:

Place the almonds in your food processor and process until they are finely ground. Now add the pitted dates and process until everything is incorporated. Place the crust (almonds and dates) into an 8 inch tart pan and press to evenly cover the bottom and sides of the pan. It helps to use the bottom of flat measuring cup to flatten the crust. The crust will try to stick to the cup. You can either wet the cup with a little water of spray it with canola non stick spray.

Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on 30% power until it has melted. Place the tofu and melted chocolate in your food processor and process until it is thoroughly combined. Add the flavorings that you desire (I used bourbon, cinnamon and vanilla). Process again to combine. Taste the filling for sweetness; add stevia or agave if necessary. Pour the filling into your crust and refrigerate for at least two hours so the chocolate can set. Serve chilled.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 282.52
Calories From Fat (52%) - 147.31

Total Fat - 17.81g
Saturated Fat - 5.13g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 23.94mg
Potassium - 297.38mg
Total Carbohydrates - 26.15g
Fiber - 4.27g
Sugar - 6.89g
Protein - 9.02g

Comments:

My poor husband is still suffering through his second piece of pie. He had his first one last night but it was too late to post the recipe, and I couldn’t seem to get a good picture. Tonight’s picture wasn’t much better but I wanted to get this posted. Sorry about the pic.

How does this taste? According my husband it is “Smooth, creamy, and rich with a deep chocolate taste.” Yes, he seems to like it. The texture reminds me of a cross between chocolate ganache and chocolate mousse. Would I make this again? Absolutely! I will keep this recipe tucked away for when my hubby “needs” dessert.

Unrelated note:

Sorry for disappearing again today on you guys. It was one of those days that I have been having a lot of lately. But my schedule is reasonably open for the next week and a half.

Tomorrow we pick up our first tray of wheat grass. I can’t wait to get that home. It will be nice to not have to rely on the frozen wheat grass juice.

It is getting a little late tonight so this will be my only post today. I will check in with you all tomorrow. I hope you are all having a great Friday. TGIF!

Dense Flourless Chocolate and Walnut Brownies

This recipe is based on the flourless brownie recipe found here at the Whole Foods website. I replaced the eggs, butter, and sugar with healthier ingredients and added a little mace for flavor.

These brownies are denser than my husband likes. To say he is particular about his brownies would be an understatement; he prefers brownies that are somewhere between "cakey" and "fudgey". I will need to play around with this recipe a little to suit his taste. However, if you like dense fudge-like chocolate brownies these are quite tasty. The texture is similar to a flourless chocolate cake.

When I tasted the raw batter I thought I could detect a little bean flavor. However when the brownies were cooked I could not taste any remnant of the beans. The brownies have a wonderful deep chocolate flavor. We like the combination of mace and chocolate, but you could substitute cinnamon or cayenne for the mace for a very different flavor.

Dense Flourless Chocolate and Walnut Brownies
Makes 16

Ingredients:

4 1/2 teaspoons egg replacer
6 tablespoons warm water
15 ounces cooked black beans, drained and rinsed (mine were still hot from cooking)
1/3 cup canola oil
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 pinch kosher salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup amber agave
½ cup chocolate chips
½ cup walnut pieces, roughly chopped
1 pinch mace (could substitute cinnamon or cayenne instead)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Place egg replacer and warm water in your food processor and process until frothy. Add the beans, canola, cocoa, salt, vanilla and agave and process until smooth. Stir the chocolate chips and walnuts into the batter (reserving a few walnuts for the top). I think the beans were easier to process because they were still hot from cooking. You may want to heat the beans in a saucepan or microwave before processing to make it easier to disintegrate. I find it is also easier to get smooth hummus if the beans are warm so I think this makes a difference.

Pour the batter into an 8 by 8 inch pan and smooth to create an even layer of batter. Top the brownie batter with the reserved walnut pieces and sprinkle with a little mace.

Bake for 20 minutes and check to see if the brownies are just set in the center. I cooked mine for 25 minutes with my oven set on 350 degrees convection. If you don’t have a convection setting you may need to cook yours another 5 to 10 minutes.

Allow the brownies to cool completely in the pan on a rack before cutting. Serve cold, the texture is better if the brownies are completely cold.

These brownies have a moist dense texture. I am storing mine in the refrigerator because I think they would deteriorate more quickly at room temperature and the texture is better cold.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 135.11
Calories From Fat (56%) - 75.58

Total Fat - 8.84g
Saturated Fat - 1.64g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 20.5mg
Potassium - 140.74mg
Total Carbohydrates - 12.44g
Fiber - 3.78g
Sugar - 0.37g
Protein - 3.43g

Comments:

While beans in dessert may sound odd other countries use beans in dessert often. One of my favorite desserts is adzuki bean ice cream. This love of red bean ice cream is what made me want to try making the black bean brownies. Overall the flavor of these brownies is better than I expected. As I indicated earlier if you are a fan of dense brownies these are quite good. While my husband and I would prefer these to be more cake-like my parents liked the dense version and took home some of the extras. No one could taste the beans and we all thought these had a nice flavor.

Each brownie contains 44 mg’s of folate, and over 3 grams of fiber. While the fat is higher than I usually make most of it is mono or poly unsaturated which are the fats we should be eating more often. The omega 6 fat in each brownie is only 0.85 of a mg which I really appreciate. I also like knowing they are made with agave and contain a little protein.

Chocolate Mousse - Reduced Sugar Version

Today I decided to run with scissors and modify a “sacred recipe”, the tofu chocolate mousse. My husband loves this recipe and will be horrified that I changed it until he tastes the revised version. When I get recipes “right” as he calls it, he doesn’t like me to play around with them. Sometimes I can’t help myself especially when I working to make things healthier.

This version uses less agave which make is healthier. While I prefer agave to sugar, I don’t like my husband to have any more sugar than necessary since sugar feeds cancer. I substituted some of the agave for stevia and the sweetness level is fine. The cocoa powder was reduced a little since cocoa is a little bitter on its own. Alcohol is also cancer promoting I decided to remove the alcohol from this version as well. Alcohol brings flavor so I added mace to this version to pump up the flavor I removed with the alcohol.

Even with all the changes this recipe still works and the nutritionals were improved from the prior versions. Now I need to perfect my low sugar, low fat whipped cream and all the dessert requirements at our house will be met.

Chocolate Mousse - Reduced Sugar Version
Makes 5 small servings

Ingredients:

12.3 ounces firm silken tofu, low fat
2 tablespoons agave
2 scoops stevia powder
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 pinch kosher salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon espresso powder
1 pinch mace
2 ounces dark chocolate

Directions:

Combine tofu, agave, stevia, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla, espresso powder and mace your food processor or blender. Process until combined.

Melt the dark chocolate (in a double boiler or in your microwave on 30% power). Add the dark chocolate to the tofu mixture and process until completely combined.

Put the tofu into serving vessels, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 94.79
Calories From Fat (38%) - 35.73

Total Fat - 4.44g
Saturated Fat - 2.38g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 119.65mg
Potassium - 111.33mg
Total Carbohydrates - 11.55g
Fiber - 2.31g
Sugar - 0.64g
Protein - 5.56g

Comments:

The mace adds an interesting background flavor to the mousse that more than compensated for the missing alcohol. Substituting some of the agave from stevia worked fine in the end result. The mousse is still a rich, decadent dessert. My husband would eat the chocolate mousse everyday if I would make it for him. Don't be surprised if this disappears as quickly as you make it.

Oatmeal with Peanut Butter and Chocolate

Sometimes the weather changes dramatically and yesterday was one of those days here. We went from air conditioning the day before to a high of 76 yesterday. Last night we had the windows open and needed our fuzzy winter bed cover on the end of the bed for cold feet. When we got up this morning it was 57 degrees. Boy, did that feel colder than I thought it would.

Needless to say a frozen smoothie had no appeal to me this morning. I decided we needed oatmeal this morning, but not just any oatmeal, decadent oatmeal. Think of this as chocolate lava cake meets oatmeal and peanut butter. Here is what I did.

Oatmeal with Peanut Butter and Chocolate
Serves 1

Ingredients:

½ cup of rolled oats
1 cup of water (you could use almond or soy milk but it doesn’t need it)
½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon of peanut butter
1 tablespoon of chocolate chips
1 pinch of kosher salt

Directions:

Combine the oats and water and heat in your microwave until hot (1 minute in my microwave). Top the oatmeal with the cinnamon, peanut butter, chocolate chips and kosher salt. Stir and enjoy.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 279.87
Calories From Fat (36%) - 101.67

Total Fat - 12.31g
Saturated Fat - 3.77g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 365.52mg
Potassium - 274.19mg
Total Carbohydrates - 39.71g
Fiber - 6.73g
Sugar - 1.74g
Protein - 9.03g
MyPoints - 7.42

Comments:

This was so rich and delicious. It really reminded me of chocolate late cake with all its warm chocolate deliciousness. We won’t be having this every morning, but if you want a treat for breakfast this is really good.

The portion above was for me, my had a double serving before he left for work.

Layered Chocolate and Peanut Butter Mousse with Bourbon

My poor husband has been waiting for this mousse for months. I thought of the idea at least 3 months ago, told him about it and then never made it until today. This is a variation of my chocolate mousse with espresso, which is one of his favorites. Well, he also loves chocolate and peanut butter cups (which I don't make often) so I thought that he would like the flavor combination in mousse form. Needless to say, he loves it.

This dessert is very easy to make. The portions are intentionally small because the mousse is so rich and decadent tasting. I don’t like to have much at once and my husband can always eat two, so this small portion works well at our house. I have made the chocolate mousse for many people (never vegan) and everyone has loved it.

I included bourbon in this recipe since I knew it would work well with the peanut butter, and it is an amazing flavor combination. You can omit the bourbon if you wish, but it does add to the flavor and more importantly to the aroma, and only amounts to ¼ tablespoon per serving.

Layered Chocolate and Peanut Butter Mousse with Bourbon
Serves 4

Ingredients:

12.3 ounces of low fat silken tofu, firm
6 tablespoons of agave
½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of Bourbon (used Woodford Reserve)
2 tablespoon of natural organic peanut butter
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
4 tablespoons of dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Place the tofu, agave, vanilla extract and bourbon your food process and blend completely.

Remove ½ of the tofu mixture to be made chocolate shortly.

Add the peanut butter to the food processor and blend completely.

Put the peanut butter mousse in the bottom of 4 cups. Scrape the processor bowl well or wash it and return it to the machine with the reserved tofu mixture.

Add the cocoa powder to the food processor. Melt the chips in the microwave on 30% power until soft (I needed 3 minutes). Scrape the soft chocolate into the food processor and thoroughly blend.

Top the peanut butter mousse with the chocolate mousse. Cover the top of the cups with plastic cling film and refrigerate until firm (about 2 hours). Enjoy cold.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 190.82
Calories From Fat (45%) - 85.99

Total Fat - 10.36g
Saturated Fat - 3.47g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 135.81mg
Potassium - 215.38mg
Total Carbohydrates - 16.62g
Fiber - 4.32g
Sugar - 2.43g
Protein - 9.66g

Comments:

This recipe has a little more fat than I would like, but much of it comes from the natural peanut butter so I don’t think it can be that bad for our health.

Chocolate, peanut butter and bourbon are a flavor match made in heaven. The chocolate layer is a little thick, the peanut layer softer, and together they are magical. If you want you can add some chopped peanuts or mini chocolate chips to either layer. I would put peanuts in the chocolate and chocolate in the peanut butter.