Mmmmmmm. . . . chocolate cake

Kim sent me an awesome easy recipe for a chocolate cake. It's a Weight Watchers cake modified to fit our new lifestyle. I used a box of Cherrybrook brand chocolate cake mix (found at Kroger) and a can of Diet Coke. Yep. That's it. And that's ALL. At her suggestion, I sprinkled just a little confectioners sugar over the top and it is delicious! The texture is a little fudgy and that is perfection to me. Thanks Kim!

I miss scrambled eggs . . .

and no, this is NOT an "indiscretion", it's Scrambled Tofu! I've been missing scrambled eggs - mostly because I had the flu and I always eat scrambled eggs when I'm sick. As I was chasing some links last week, I saw a reference to scrambled tofu and did a Google search. There must have been hundreds of hits! I read thru several of them and put together about 3 of them to make this recipe. It was easy to fix - though a little more involved than real eggs - and really delicious. The texture is right, and they taste really good. Add a couple of slices of Ezekiel toast with some 365 brand apricot jam and it's a yummy breakfast (or supper if you do the whole "breakfast for supper" thing.

Now, this brings up a whole new topic: How about making just the tofu part of this with the seasoning, adding some of the fat-free sandwich spread, some mustard and some sweet pickle relish, salt and pepper to make egg salad???? Wouldn't that be good on an Ezekiel pita?

Something different for Breakfast

I told you that we mostly eat oatmeal for breakfast, but today I was in the mood for something different - and besides, doing this blog inspires my creativity - so I took some Ezekiel Raisin Bread and dipped it in a concoction of the equipvalent of 2 eggs made with En-R-G egg substitute powder and a little soy milk. I just cooked it in a non-stick skillet til it was brown on both sides and served it with a sprinkle of powdered sugar and some maple syrup. This was pretty good! It almost seemed a little too sweet (I know, how can that be right!) - and I think you could use the regular Ezekiel Bread and get good results as well. It was hot and hearty and I enjoyed the change-up.

For lunch, I did one of our favorites. I used a box of Spanish Rice by Rice-a-Roni and made it by the recipe except for the oil. I just browned the rice and pasta in a dry skillet and then added the water, seasoning, and canned tomatoes like the box says. Then I added one can of drained and rinsed black beans and a can of drained whole kernel corn. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes or so and serve it up! It's a good hot one-bowl lunch and easy to boot. Leftovers are in the fridge and may or may not make it til lunch tomorrow.

Sometimes you just NEED a burger.

Occasionally, we get an urge for a burger and the trimmings. We have found that this lifestyle allows for that if you are careful. We buy Sunshine Burgers at Wild Oats. They come 3 to a package and are fairly reasonably priced there. Heated in a skillet and served on an Ezekiel bread bun with all the regular trimmings (we use Nasoya no-fat sandwich spread instead of mayo), these are pretty darn good. Today we had hash brown potatoes cooked in a non-stick skillet and some Bush's Vegetarian Baked Beans doctored up a little with some maple syrup and some Walden Farms barbeque sauce. Yummy! Now, these burgers are made with sunflower seeds. I haven't seen anything banning them and we do use flax seeds and flax meal so I am assuming that these are OK. We buy the Garden Herb flavor. I bought the Southwestern flavor one time and really lit up my life!

Simple Hummus

Someone requested a hummus recipe. We don't eat alot of hummus right now but when we first started the lifestyle, I adapted a recipe out of Dr. Esseltyn's book and made a very simple batch. I am posting on the Family Recipe page. The recipe originally called for lemon but I only had lime so that's what I used. (I have never been very good at following instructions.) Anyway, try it out and let me know what you think.

A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise

Yippee! She said it would be OK so here is the link to some wonderful (I believe) ice cream recipes!
A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise has tips, ideas and recipes once you get past all the Obama stuff. We will need to be careful because she uses alot of soy creamer - which I thought would be fine until I looked at the label. They contain added oils :( However, if you read all the way down the page, there are some tips and disclaimers and you can use all soy milk in the recipes. It just won't be as rich. Hey, at this point, a reasonable facsimile of ice cream will be great, won't it? Thanks Agnes!

Pizza

I was craving pizza this afternoon. I had some Ezekiel Bread Pitas in the fridge so I took one, smeared a little leftover spaghetti sauce on it, added some fake Canadian bacon, some onions, and some green peppers. Then I put it in the oven until the sauce was bubbly. It really was pretty tasty! Made the house smell good too. Wish I'd had some mushrooms. . .

Ice Cream? Legal???

I had bought John a soft-serve ice cream maker for his birthday and thought we would have to put it away but I found an interesting website today. It's full of vegan ice cream recipes that sound absolutely fabulous. We'll be trying these receipes from time to time and probably making some minor adjustments since we eat fat-free. I will exchange emails with the author and see if she minds if I provide a link if the recipes are good.

Maybe we'll leave that ice cream maker out after all.

So what do we eat?

Oatmeal is a staple of our morning meal. John has his with maple syrup and raisins. I, not particularly fond of oatmeal, have mine with Splenda and cocoa! (Remember the no-bake cookies with chocolate, peanut butter and oatmeal?) I leave out the peanut butter now and feel like I'm having a bowl of cookies for breakfast. Yummy!

For lunch we had the leftover lasagna from last night. Then we polished off the rest of the apple pie.

Tonight, we part ways. John is having a can of Hormel Vegetarian Chili with Beans. I am making a cabbage soup. (cabbage, onion, carrots, tomatoes, and veggie broth). I love it. He hates cabbage and anything made with cabbage. I'm making a big pot of this stuff so I'll probably be eating the leftovers for a few days. I don't mind.

He'll probably turn to one of his favorites: a big baked potato covered with a can of cream style corn :)

The Starting Block

John gives blood about every 6 weeks or so - or when the vampires call - and Lifeblood posts cholesterol results on the web each time so we have a record of his results for about a year. The time that he gave blood before we started this lifestyle, his cholesterol was 203. After only 6 weeks, it is 149. He's due to give blood again in a couple of weeks and we are anxious to see the results. He's lost 16 pounds.

I went to the doctor and had some bloodwork done after one week on the diet. My cholesterol was 189 - really not too bad - but my glucose levels were just a little bit high (105). Six weeks later, I bit the bullet and donated blood myself and my new level after 6 weeks was 168. I have lost 22 pounds.

We both complain because we are not losing weight faster - BUT - we are eating really well and we eat all we want. It certainly doesn't feel like we are on a diet - and if you saw our plates at Care Group last night, you wouldn't think we would EVER lose an ounce. So, I guess, all-in all, we shouldn't complain.

Sometimes it's for health reasons.

John and I started eating a vegan diet on August 18th, 2008. Neither of us has any real health problems but I have about a quarter-ton of weight to lose and he had a nice little pot belly. He was hooked on Oreos and Mountain Dew and I was hooked on anything chocolate.

We have a friend who turned us onto this new lifestyle. He HAD some health problems and had found this while recuperating from an episode with his heart. His cholesterol had dropped from 212 to 71 in just a few weeks (the bad LDL dropped from 155 to 34!) and his weight had dropped 50 pounds in about 4 months.
As he sang the praises of the new diet, I reminded him time and again that I was an old Atkinser and had only had good results as a carnivore. Still, as soon as we hung up the phone, I ordered the book. (See the link.)

After a week of travel, the book arrived and we started our new eating regimen on a Monday morning. Remarkably, this is the easiest diet I have ever been on to stick with. I have traveled, we have socialized, we've had "comfort food", and now even lasagna! Nobody is more surprised than I that we have enjoyed it so much.

Anyway, after lots of requests for recipes and hints (and all those people watching to see if we can really stick to it), I've decided to chronicle the journey.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome.