Eat to Live - sort of

I mentioned in my last blog post that I went on the Eat to Live diet for 2 weeks. And that I lost 4 pounds on it. I bought the book and was very determined. I'm not finished with the diet; I just got off track a little for various reasons. I think that it forced Ryan and me into some very great habits, though. We're saving money, too, which is an added bonus beyond our health.

I also checked out Joel Fuhrman's book Disease Proof Your Child from the library. I think I was hoping for some kind of diet recommendation that was new to me, and I was absolutely motivated to stick with it. However, it really was pretty close to how I feed the kids already. Great book, though, and I'm still poring through it.

I have been making a lot of homemade salsa lately. I was just sure that these ingredients would make the most beautiful salsa.

However, I kind of ended up with salsa soup. This was my first salsa-making attempt. (It tasted good, though, and I ate it all.)

I'm getting better at it.

I made these veggie burgers based on Fuhrman's recipe (but I used beans from scratch, not canned). Same ingredients (sunflower seeds, oats, beans, ketchup, and spices); I just didn't go through all the steps of baking them. It tastes delicious before you even cook it. We have went through a lot of these lately, which is good since I'm used to paying $4+ for a box of FOUR veggie burgers.

Our new obsession is roasted asparagus. I had some from the Whole Foods deli awhile back, and it was one of the BEST tasting foods I've ever put into my mouth. MY asparagus doesn't taste quite as good as that (I don't know how they did it - maybe it was drenched in oil?), but it's still great. I love squeezing lemon on it after I take it out of the oven. I spray oil on the kids' but leave it off Ryan's and mine.

I am a cereal addict; however, I mostly ate fruit (sometimes with a sprinkling of nuts) for breakfast. I also ate my steel cut oats, but I definitely used the oats as more of a condiment.

This soup is loosely based on the "Famous Anti-Cancer Soup" recipe in Fuhrman's book. (The only reason I don't follow it exactly: it's a little more time-consuming. You're supposed to juice celery and carrots for the base. One of these days, I'll get around to that.)

I basically just pour a container of low sodium vegetable broth into a pot and add water. Then I just throw in whatever odds and ends of vegetables I have lying around. (This particular batch I stuck with the original recipe: split peas, onions, zucchini, leeks, carrots, and celery. It also has cashews.) You don't even have to chop them. When the veggies are slightly soft, I puree it all in my BlendTec. (You also leave some of the split peas whole at the bottom of the pot, then pour the pureed mixture back into the pot.)

After my second batch of soup, I was getting a little tired...of soup. I added some extra split peas into this bowl to "liven things up" a bit.

This is what my typical meal looked like while I was following the diet.

I love salads like this so much that it wasn't a big change to have a salad as one meal a day. I always use my favorite recipe for dressing: Vegan Caesar. It doesn't contain oil (although it does use almonds).

This is why I said "Eat to Live - sort of" - I'm sure not every ingredient I used is technically part of the diet. I used Bragg's. I did put a very small amount of salt in my salsa. I sprinkled Kelp Granules on my soup. I'm just trying to cut way back on salt, and I have to find ways to live through this. After about a week, it did get easier.

This past month we've moved over to what I call the "Wal-Mart Diet" (which I'll explain another day). Basically, it's part of our money-saving venture. We were doing SO WELL with our budget. I thought we were going to end up spending A THIRD of what we normally spend on food a month. Then Wednesday night, I cracked, just a little over a week before the month's end. I went to Whole Foods and filled my cart. I didn't feel proud of myself so hopefully I've learned my lesson. However, I hadn't had sliced bread in WEEKS.

I just wanted a sandwich.

And it was so good. Funny that my carrot, chickpea, tomato, salsa, avocado, mustard, miso sandwich was so scandalous to me. It was just the price ($5.99 for a dinky loaf of hemp bread) that was scandalous to my Wal-Mart diet. It was the dozen biscuits I made and ate over a 24 hour period that made me realize I needed to go to Whole Foods and buy a few things to help curb my cravings.

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BTW, what happened to Stacy (Shorty Can Burn)? Did she announce she was shutting down her blog?

I finally added comments to your responses to my last posts. I'm trying to get better about that. And Ryan thinks the only reason anyone said he was "handsome" was the food. He says you would have thought that of any man with raw, vegan food in front of him. I said that he makes a good point. BUT that he is handsome, anyway. :)

And I really don't always eat an entire citrus fruit one juice pocket at a time. I just really like how they feel in my mouth. But I didn't want you to think I'm that much of a woman of leisure.

Texas Revisited

Blogging hiatus is hopefully over for a bit. Had to have some time to get accustomed to our new schedule of activities. Also, I put myself on the Eat to Live diet for 2 weeks, and it was just too tempting, looking at all of your yummy meals. :) I have the afternoon free, though, and I plan to relax on my bed for a bit and do a little blog reading.

Early last month, my groom and I got to spend about 24 hours alone together to celebrate our THIRTEENTH anniversary. We decided to go to Dallas again because it's one of the closest big cities to us.

I packed a veggie burger for him and a Caesar salad for me to eat on the way. We also stopped at Whole Foods on the way out to pick up some car snacks. We chose: chocolate chips, watermelon, papaya chunks, Tofurky Jerky, Kale Chips, and B-Fresh Gum (which I always buy in a 10 pack to get the 10% case discount).

We drove straight to Bliss, a raw cafe we had never tried. It is a tiny place (but has more of an elegant feel to it). All of the seating is open-air, and I have to admit the temperature was definitely warmer than I'd prefer it to be while I'm eating. I liked it a lot, though, and I look forward to eating there again!

I ordered the Cowboy "Rawko" Tacos because that's just what I'd generally be drawn to on the menu, and I'd seen Amber Shea's (from Almost Vegan) post about them. Ryan and I each ate a taco, and we definitely liked them a lot. We felt very light and healthy, eating them.

I have to admit, Ryan was pretty bummed that I wanted to go to a raw restaurant, rather than Spiral Diner. It was definitely a tough call, but I knew we needed a new experience. Ultimately, we realized Spiral Diner is closed, anyway, on Monday's so that made it easier for him. He was glad we tried Bliss, though; he was impressed.

We also split the Rawsagna. (I'm a big, cheesey fan of cute, clever food names, by the way.) The lasagna was always delicious and very healthy-tasting. I think I preferred the lasagna, and Ryan preferred the tacos.

As we were looking over the menu, the waiter instructed us to "save room for their cheesecake," (what a mean thing to do, as you will soon discover) which is supposedly amazing and just like "real" cheesecake. Sign me up. Weeeell...when we were finished with our meal, we asked for slices of cheesecake. He told us they just sold the last piece! We did order this dessert to share - I forget what it was - a torte maybe? It tasted good, softer like a pudding.

We checked into our hotel, which was the Holiday Inn Market Center. It was great; I highly recommend because they were so helpful. We were able to park our car, and the shuttle van dropped us off at our next destination -

which was the American Idol concert. We thought it would be something fun and lighthearted to do together. This was actually the first season of the show either of us had ever watched. I never thought it was something I'd be interested in, but we really got into it, voting and everything. It was bonding time together after the kids went to bed.

Ryan got into it especially because he loved Lee DeWyze (the eventual winner), who is from his home state of Illinois.

Casey James - woo, woo!

It's as if the Heavens parted...

We were on the 4th row center. We really enjoyed the concert. We even enjoyed the contestants who weren't our favorites on the show.

The hotel shuttle came back to pick us up, even later than they generally run, which was so nice of them. When the driver found out it was our anniversary, he was very congratulatory and told us to go into the hotel lounge and order a drink on the house. I love nice people! I got a glass of orange juice. Which isn't what they had in mind, I'm sure, but I really like orange juice!

The next morning, we planned on stopping at a big Whole Foods I wanted to investigate. Ryan was a little like, "It probably wouldn't take any longer to stop at Spiral Diner... ." He really wanted to go. I'm so happy I have a husband who is just as excited to visit a vegan restaurant as I am!

I'm embarrassed to even say everything we got. Something comes over me when I'm faced with a menu with limitless options. I lose control a little bit. A lot.

Anyway, we took our food to eat on the road. We had the Chipotle Tempeh Quesadillas as an appetizer (Yeah - it's totally not meant to be an appetizer; it would be better served as a MEAL for two). Incidentally, I noticed there was a recipe for these quesadillas in the latest VegNews.

It was so filling - and decadent and delicious, and yet...we were laughing at ourselves because it was all sort of...disgusting. It was just that we were trying to eat it in the car. And I forgot to get napkins! Oil was dripping from us, and we felt like we were sweating because it was so spicy. The whole napkin situation was horrible. I did find a couple of tiny, flimsy napkins in the glove compartment, but they were no match for the oily Daiya quesadillas. It was one of those "you had to have been there" moments. Ryan got sort of quiet after he ate. His hand was off to the side, just curled up there, still covered in food for the longest time. I asked him (with a repulsed face) if he was okay.

He said, "I'm just still in shock over that quesadilla."

But did we stop eating? Nooo.

The Mitch

I got this same sandwich twice, last time we were in town. There's just something about it...the bread is so thin, yet there's that extra piece (like Ross's gravy-soaked extra piece of bread in his sandwich on Friends) - and with the thin tofu, bac'n bits, and Veganaise...I just love it. We split it.

"Ross, it's just a sandwich."

"Just a sandwich? I am 30 years old, I'm about to be divorced twice, and I just got evicted! That sandwich was the only good thing going on in my life! Someone ate the only good thing going on in my life!"

Meatball sub - mmmmm!!! I always pick the fruit as the side, as if that will somehow make up for my glutony.

I DID order several desserts, BUT it was more with the intention of taking them home for the kids. We just took sample bites of everything, then saved the rest in the cooler for them.

This was a tasty raw dessert. I'm always eager to try raw desserts.

I always go for the cinnamon roll, if it's ever an option. I love them, and I never get to eat them. I can't remember if I have ever made them, but I probably only get to eat one or two cinnamon rolls a year, if that.

The brownies were good. Soft in a way vegan brownies aren't always.

Peanut butter cup was good - probably no better than the ones I make at home.

So...what I've failed to mention is that I had also ordered nachos and a taco salad. I just sort of had it in my head that we'd still be on the road at suppertime, and of course, we'd be hungry again. I hate not having anything to eat when I'm traveling. To be clear - I was NOT hungry again. I didn't even eat supper. I think Ryan and Tornado ate the rest of the food for supper that night.

Have a good day - more about my Eat to Live diet later this week. I've lost 4 pounds so far. I feel like it's necessary to say that after my narrative above.

Sandwiches and Tacos Make Me Happy

Rose very "sweetly" gave me the Happy 101 Award. According to the rules of this award, I list 10 things that make me happy and pass the award on to other bloggers.

Okay, so besides all of the obvious stuff like my family,friends, and rainbows - here are some of the little things that make me happy.

1) head rubs

2) Libraries. And bookstores.

3) Watching t.v. shows on dvd in bed with my husband. A couple of our favorites are Friday Night Lights (sooo good!) and Prison Break (I talked about that here, including my Michael Scofield cheesecake.). Right now we are on Season 5 of 24. I really love romantic comedies so I can't believe I'm so into that. I'm such a pacifist and generally don't like violence in movies, but I find myself yelling, "Shoot him!" when someone is remotely a threat.

4) unexpected phone calls and emails from family and old friends

5) My new necklace makes me happy! One pendant for each kid. (It looks weird because I erased my kids' names from the picture.) My blogging buddy Kristi made this necklace for me. Check out her Etsy shop - she makes cute stuff and her prices are very reasonable.

6) I love to eat citrus fruit the regular way, but I also really love to eat it like this - pull every little bulb of juice apart one at a time. I love the way it feels on my tongue. The other day, the kids and I sat and ate a grapefruit almost entirely this way.

7) This is random, but my oldest son (who is my healthiest, non-picky eater) likes it when I make him a plate of lots of different foods. He calls it "extra stuff." When I ask him what he wants to eat, he says, "I want a plate of extra stuff." And it's just one of things about his quirky personality that makes me smile. This is example of one of his recent "extra stuff" snack plates.

(Breakfast pita with Earth Balance, bell pepper strips, a Brazil nut, pineapple chunks, strawberries, and olives.)

He finished it and said, "More extra stuff, please!"

(bell pepper, olives, almonds, tomato chunks, and dehydrated pancake pieces)

8) Watermelon alone makes me happy, sure, but what REALLY makes me happy is when my parents buy us a watermelon. My mom brings it over, already cut up in a container. I am lazy about cutting things up, so I love it when she does that for me.

9) Sandwiches make me happy. This one is melted Daiya and warm tomato sauce, peppered Tofurky slices, tomatoes, and red bell peppers. I ate this version of sandwich a couple of days in a row because it was so good.

10) Tacos make me happy! This particular one was pretty random, but I don't care because I just love tacos any which way. I think it was just lettuce, steamed broccoli, salsa, and Gardein strips.

I would have passed this award onto Rose, Michelle, Blessed Mama, Jessica, Stacy, Carissa, Shenandoah Vegan, Ali, Michelle, Jessica & Lima, Averie, Marja, and Andrea - because reading all of your blogs makes me HAPPY...but I think all of you already received it - AND some of you received it two or three times; I don't want you to go and get a big head or anything! I mentioned some of my newly discovered blogs (including Heather's) last time with the Versatile Blogger Awards...I'm going to pass Happy 101 to these other blogs that make me HAPPY.

I've Got a List for That - My sister's blog: her life through lists - she's funny and entertaining. She will just LOVE it that I gave her an award...or maybe not.

VEGeneration - I love Diane, and she loves taking pictures of food. From every angle. :)

Tofu Mom - You might enjoy her recent post about buying groceries on a budget.

Ashley's Green Life - She's very sweet and has been "greening" up her life.

Disposable Aardvarks, Inc. - She makes very fun vegan Bento lunches for her kids.

Vegan Dance If You Want To - I think I'm naturally drawn to the blogs of people who live in NYC because I can live vicariously through.

Okay, so once again, there ARE more blogs that make me happy (a few already just popped into my head), but I only have so much time to sit here. It already takes me 2 days to write a blog post because I do it in 5 minute intervals. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Giveaway Winner and Versatile Blogger Award

Thank you for taking the time to enter my CSN giveaway. The winner is...Michelle from lovinlivinvegan! I picked the number 24, which was Michelle. Just for fun, I picked another number to see who came in 2nd place (I'm lame and was a little bored.)...it happened to be another number that corresponded with Michelle. Clearly, she takes it. Send me your email address, and I'll pass it on to CSN.


So...I said I would post about the super fun awards I've received! I think I'll break it up into 2 posts so that you don't get sick of me talking about myself. My first award was from the very-fit Heather at Where's the Beach? I loved finding her blog because not only does she provide lots of yummy food pictures and recipes and seem super fun, we discovered we live in the same area!

So the rules for this award are:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

2. Tell 7 things about yourself.

3. Pass the award on to 10 bloggers you've recently discovered and you think are fantastic!

Thank you, Heather, for my award!

1. My younger son is entering kindergarten. My 3 year old will also be at home this year. My 10 year old will be starting his second year of public school. We homeschooled him for K-2nd grade. There's a good chance he will be homeschooled again, but for now, we think this is the best thing for him and his needs. I blog more about homeschooling and our family life at Academy at Thousand Oaks.

2) I was an Elementary Ed. major in college. So was my husband. That's how we met. We fell in love over file folder games and science projects.

3) I also had an English Minor. I taught 9th grade English for 2 years before we started having babies. When I was little, I mostly wanted to be a teacher or a writer. So now I get to homeschool and blog, which works for me.

4) I had thyroid cancer almost 8 years ago. My oldest son was 2 1/2, and one of the most traumatic things about this for me (besides being told you have cancer) was having to wean him from breastfeeding. My surgeon was not secretive about the fact he thought I was nutso for crying about weaning a child he thought was too old to be nursing in the first place. He apologized later because his wife told him that there are, indeed, moms who choose to breastfeed longer than a year. So, yeah, I don't have a thyroid now, which isn't very fun. My dad and brother and many other family members have messed up thyroids, too.

5) I am sensitive, stubborn, and self-conscious. Even though I'm totally the person who answers, "What do you want to do?" with "I don't care; what do you want to do?" - I'm actually pretty controlling...

6) which is interesting for me because I'm a Christian. I don't desire to be in control, but my willful nature takes over a lot

7) I grew up in southwest MO, and it's where I long to live now. Either there or NYC. I realize these places are complete opposites. I'd like to either live at "home" where most of my friends are - or in my favorite city with tons to do.

I feel like I'm being really wordy and narcissistic.

Let's deflect with a cute picture of my kid.

He had recently discovered our milkshake maker in the cabinet. I guess we hadn't used it in his memory. (My cabinets are a wreck, and I'm in the process of organizing them.) They were excited to use it. We hadn't had "icecream" milkshakes in awhile (we've gotten so used to our frozen banana shakes). We've been stocking up on the Purely Decadent coconut milk ice cream lately - it's normally $4.99 at Whole Foods (and probably $5.99 at Kroger); it's been $2.99 at Kroger and $3.99 at WF!

And here's my fabulous hubby with our oldest son, when we were at the River.

Can't leave out my cutie pie 3 year old (left), with her cutie pie 3 year old cousin.

Now to pass on the award:

Vegan Fox (She hails from the Ozarks, my home; what's not to like about that?)

Scottish Vegan Homemaker (Well, she's a vegan homemaker like me but much cooler because she's Scottish.)

Busy Vegan Mama (Another stay-at-home mom - she's fairly new to blogging; stop by and say hi!)

Food Feud (I just like it.)

Living Food Junkie(great food AND other great ideas)

Okay, I'm actually going to stop at 5 (I could keep bragging about my fellow blogging buddies all day.) only because I've got to feed the shorties who are standing next to me, saying, "I'm hungry." Over and over again.

Catch Up: my cooler, the movie, and the river

I occasionally hear my friends complain about being overwhelmingly busy - in a way that they just don't feel like they would ever catch up. I always nod understandingly, but honestly, I don't always feel that way. I feel like I do catch up sometimes, at least to a point, and I can usually shrug away the rest of it. Not this summer, though. I feel like I'm having one of those dreams...have you ever had one of those...when you're trying really hard to go quickly - like you're running late or someone's chasing you - but you can barely move.

I feel that way right now. I'm flailing about in the water.

I don't mean that as a complaint. I'm having lots of fun in the water. Just ready for the list of things hanging over my head to be checked off. And I'm starting a job this week! (Okay, so those of you who work real 8-5's are going to think my job is ridiculously wimpy, but it's a commitment, nonetheless!)

So on to a little blog catch up (and I'm still catching up on my blog reading, too - if you get 5 comments from me at once, you'll know why)...

As a part of offering my CSN blog giveaway (which is open until Sunday night!), I also was blessed to receive a gift certificate of my own. It was a tough choice! I considered some of the things you guys said you'd want (Really considered that cotton candy maker, blessedmama! That looks fun!). We ended up picking out this car cooler that plugs into your car. We are always on the go - whether cross country or just around town. With 3 kids and always bringing food and drinks along with us wherever we go, keeping it all cool is constantly an issue. We always have to get fresh ice or re-freeze our ice packs when we reach our destination. So hopefully this will make our lives a little easier! We purchased the electric adaptor to go with it so that we will have a ready-made fridge to carry into our hotel rooms! (Go to my other blog to read my full review.)

I kind of have dorky movie taste so don't judge me. :) I had been really excited about going to watch Beezus and Ramona. I took the kids one day (complete with our illegal movie snacks), and we loved it! I got teary-eyed several times throughout. Here is one of the kids' containers - filled with carrots, grapes, Sharkies organic fruit chews, fruit roll-ups, and Averie's Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls. Yes, there is a lot of sweetness in there.

Here are the healthier version of fruit roll-ups we buy.

They also took baggies of veggie straws.

They ate everything.

While my sister and her kids were visiting, we (including my parents) drove about an hour and a half to the Buffalo River. My brother and his family drove south about the same distance to meet us all. It was my entire family, besides my sister Tracy and brother-in-law Andy. It was super fun, as it always is with my family.

my hastily made mock chicken salad sandwich

I started to eat, and my lovingly sarcastic brother called out, "Don't forget to take a picture of your food!" It is a phenomenon to him that I regularly photograph my meals. I told him I'm not the only one who does it, but I don't know if he believes me.

my dad

We stayed until sundown.

More catch-up soon...I need to accept my awesome awards I've received and write about my fun anniversary trip with Ryan.