More Muffins

I made the mandarin orange muffins today. I used a large can of mandarin orange slices packed in water with no sugar added - drained well, of course. I added a little almond flavoring to change it up a little and sprinkled a little coarse turbinado sugar on the tops before I baked them. Wow! These were awesome!

Muffin Update

The muffin recipe continues to be the hot hand at our house. Last week I did pumpkin muffins. I used 1 cup of canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling) along with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg. I threw in a few raisins and they were awesome - moist and tender and delicious. Last night, I added about 1/4 c. cocoa and a cup of vegan chocolate chunks. Yummy! The original recipe is here.

We bought a can of mandarin oranges yesterday so we'll probably try those at some point this next week. Maybe combined with a little bit of pineapple. That should be good. :)

One year on the Journey

On August 18th, we celebrated our one year anniversary on this low-fat vegan diet. And, yes, we DID celebrate. I remember when we first discussed making the switch, we thought we would try it for one month and see how it went. When that month went by, we thought we would do it for 3 months. That was our last discussion.

We are thoroughly enjoying our meals. I cook more than I ever have and we eat out much less. Subway is the easiest place for us to eat but we also have had naked burritos at Qdoba, the California Chicken Salad (sans chicken and blue cheese crumbles) at O'Charleys, side salads and baked potatoes at Wendy's, and even a fresco bean burrito from Taco Bell (ok, that one probably wasn't the best - but only a little fat.)

We use our bread machine and rice steamer lots and my old black cast iron pot has never had so much use. Our meals are flavorful and hearty and there are many of them that we have fed to our non-vegan friends and family with good results. Sometimes they don't miss the meat until they are done. :) We have learned to cook with tofu and seitan and quinoa. We buy tons of produce at Sams and use it all up in a week or so. We buy rice in 15 pound bags. We sometimes buy 3 bunches of bananas in a week. John has learned to eat spinach, mushrooms, squash, onions, tofu, and probably a couple of other things he would never eat before.

I have lost 48 pounds and John has lost 25. Our cholesterol is well below 200, though not where we would like it to be. Though I have been diagnosed with LPR (laryngopharyngeal reflux), I have not had the sinus and allergy problems that I usually have - and I have not had a single recurrence of my asthmatic bronchitis! I attribute that to the removal of dairy from my diet.

Neither of us takes any daily meds - though I am supposed to for the LPR. (It makes the condition worse - not better and I am controlling with a couple of lifestyle changes.)

All in all, it's been a good year diet-wise. The switch was much easier than I EVER would have dreamed. We have adjusted well to travel and are learning to eat our meals before we go to church dinners - or take enough of our delicious foods to share with our friends.

I cheated only once (knowingly) and that was to eat a big ole brownie at church. I thought I had gotten away with it until about 3 hours later when my stomach began to grumble and roll and twist. I'm not too interested in having another non-vegan brownie anytime soon. :)

If you are thinking about making the switch, give it a try. You'll be pleasantly surprised. :)

Yummy Muffins!

I found a good basic muffin recipe and modified it to make a great one. It's posted here. The first couple of times I made them, I used fresh blueberries from the farmers market. Then I realized that I could use the base recipe and make all kinds of muffins! Last week, we used 1 cup of chopped apples and added some cinnamon to the recipe. I also made a batch using a cup of mashed banana and a few chopped walnuts. They were delicious and stayed moist for several days in a ziploc bag. They really made some pretty good "road food" for our trip to Chattanooga.

Today, I used a cup of shredded carrots, some raisins and a few chopped walnuts - along with a teaspoon of cinnamon. They were awesome. John loved them and he doesn't like carrot cake.

I can imagine using zucchini and spices for a batch. . . and how about some fresh peaches . . . or maybe some strawberries . . . or adding some cocoa and some vegan chocolate chips? John thinks we could use some mandarin oranges and maybe add some orange zest. Lots of possibilities with this easy recipe. Hope you enjoy it! :)

Long Time No Post - Rice and Chocolate Cake

Not together!

We eat so much rice these days - we finally broke down and bought a 10 cup rice cooker. It's probably the best purchase we've made for the kitchen - except for maybe the bread machine. We found a 15 pound bag of basmati rice at Sams and we have made a pretty good dent in it. Looks like it might last us 3 months - maybe. :) Anyway, if you are doing this food lifestyle, I highly recommend it. Dillards had the 10 cup cooker for $59 and Target has an 8 cup for $49.

Wendy, Sean and the family are coming for supper tonight. We are making the old standby - naked burritos. The rice cooker is full and I'll start chopping veggies soon. I wanted to have a nice dessert and I found the recipe for this chocolate cake. I only made 1 change - of course, no oil in our cake - so I used baby food prunes instead. The batter was to die for and the cake was even better. I baked mine in a 9 x 13 pan and it was just right. Frosting has always been an issue but this recipe is great. Again, it calls for 2 T. of oil - but I just left it out. Yummy! I'm not sure this would work for a stacked cake - might have to do a double batch if you try it - but it sure tastes good. NOTE: This is full of sugar! No Fat - but LOTS of sugar. John and I tried a piece - after all, we couldn't be serving anything to company that might not taste good :) This will definitely have to be a "company" recipe for a treat.