Veganize

When I first became vegan, I really thought it was going to be a struggle and in the beginning it most definitely was. However, it is getting easier and easier. I think the fact that I love to cook and I generally have time to cook, has really helped my cause. When I was eating the SAD (Standard American Diet), food was good but cooking got a bit boring because I found myself cooking the same meals over and over again. Now eating has become more exciting and adventurous for me because most of the time when I cook, it is something new and delicious and the best part is, I don't have to feel guilty about what I am eating.

A lot of time when I talk to people about being vegan, they tell me that they could never do it because it seems so hard and they could never give up meat. They also just have no idea what I do eat and sometimes seem to have a negative image in their mind about "vegan food" as if it is disgusting and repulsive. I completely understand though because I am sure that I felt the same way before I learned different. But let me assure you that I have a love for food and I NEVER eat food that tastes disgusting. In fact, everything that I eat tastes amazing and I generally let as many people as I can try it so they can see that you don't have to sacrifice flavor for good nutrition. I have eaten some of the tofu fake meats, and that stuff is pretty gross so I highly recommend avoiding it. I must add that now, since it has been so long that I have eaten meat, the thought of eating it actually seems weird to me....strange isn't it?

With the cold weather that fall has brought I have been making a lot of soups. Sometimes I just throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and other times I will google something and then "veganize" it. "Veganizing" is fun and easy once you learn all of the substitutes that are out there for vegans. This may or may not be something that you want to try but I decided to make a list for those of you who are interested.

Butter-Earth Balance Buttery Spread
Milk-Almond milk
Parmesan cheese-vegan Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast
Table salt-sea salt
Cheese-vegan cheese
White flour-wheat flour
White pasta-whole grain pasta
Chicken broth or bouillon-vegetable broth or bouillon
Cream cheese-vegan cream cheese
Soy sauce-Bragg's Liquid Aminos
Sugar-Stevia

I may be leaving out a few but I have used these substitutes for things such as gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin cheesecake, apple pie, cream of potato soup, spaghetti, spinach & artichoke dip and many, many more recipes. I would be happy to "veganize" any recipe you have that you want to try to make healthier or pass on any recipes that I currently have that anyone is interested in. So, let me know and I would be more than happy to help!

Eggplant Veggie Medley With Spices From Far Away

Sometimes I get the urge to cook something random. Darek and I went to an Indian restaurant in Orlando yesterday and the food was so delicious that when I got home I was inspired to try to cook something comparable. I tend to have a lot of random ingredients in my kitchen so I put a little bit of thought into it and I came up with something that we will call: "Eggplant Vegetable Medley With Spices From Far Away". It actually turned out quite delicious so I am going to share the recipe with you. Keep in mind that you can alter the portions of certain vegetables or even add a few different vegetables and it will still turn out delicious. I am going to list the ingredients as if you are cooking a meal for 3-4 people.

Ingredients:
1 Eggplant, chopped into cubes
1 8oz pkg of white mushrooms, chopped into medium size pieces
1 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 tbsp safflower oil (you can also use olive oil, safflower oil is just good to use when cooking with high heat)
2-3 tsp curry powder
2-3 tsp ground ginger
Juice from 1-2 lemons
garlic powder (I never measure garlic powder I just put A LOT!)
sea salt to taste
3 tbsp fresh, chopped cilantro

Note: If I was making this again I would add cauliflower and green pepper)

Heat oil in a skillet, add garlic then add everything else and stir! Squeeze the lemon juice over the vegetables as you cook them and cook until the vegetables appear to be done. You may want to add a little bit of water (about 2-3 tbsp while cooking).

The flavors were so awesome and I enjoyed this very much, I hope you will try it and enjoy it as much as I did!

Where Do I Get My Protein & Calcium?

As you can imagine (heck, you may even be thinking the same thing) a question that I get ALL of the time when I tell someone I am vegan is: "Where do you get your protein?" or "Where do you get your calcium?" Before I answer this question I want you all to think really hard about something: have you EVER in your life known anyone that has been deficient in protein? Okay, so here is my answer....

There is so much misinformation floating around out there regarding protein. It may be hard for many to believe this but I get protein from nuts, seeds, grains, beans and VEGETABLES! Yes, VEGETABLES! Wait....what? Vegetables have protein??? YES! All plant matter contains protein, in fact, plant protein is the only protein that the body needs to build muscle and carry out many other functions. There are nine essential amino acids that your body needs. All nine of these are not found in one plant but all nine are found in plants. All nine of these are found in meat, however, animal protein is a proven carcinogen and is directly linked to causing cancer. Therefore, the healthier choice for my source of protein is plant protein because not only is animal protein a carcinogen but it contains fat and we all know what happens when you eat fat.

My answer to the calcium question is not much different. Calcium is found in an array of vegetables, mostly a lot of green leafy vegetables. Also, not only is calcium from animal sources (namely cows milk), linked to cancer and a very long list of other diseases and ailments but it cannot be properly absorbed by the human body. Therefore, I get plenty of calcium, I am just getting it from a much healthier source that can be assimilated by the body. Ask yourself this question: "Where do cows get the calcium they need to produce the calcium rich milk that they produce?"

I know it is a very popular misconception that "milk does a body good." I believed that for most of my life as I am sure a lot of you have as well. Sometimes in life you go along thinking one thing and then one day you find evidence that that thing is wrong so what do you do? You change your view based on the evidence provided. This is a hard thing for a lot of people to do, especially regarding cows milk. This is because the dairy advertising industry, misinformed doctors and government agencies swayed by profits have done a fabulous job of conditioning us to believe that it is essential that we drink cows milk. I want you to think about this. What other species on the planet drinks milk as an adult? What other species on the planet drinks the milk of another species? Answer: NONE! We are not baby cows and we do not have 4 chambers in our stomachs like cows do. So why does it make sense that we should drink milk? In my opinion, it doesn't make much sense at all. And I grew up drinking milk everyday. Compare a human baby to a baby cow....see any differences? Human milk is perfectly designed for human babies and cow milk is perfectly designed for baby cows. So why are baby and adult humans consuming something, at epic proportions, that was designed for a creature that could not be more different? Not only are we consuming it, but we are being led to believe that it is essential for optimal health that we consume it. I hope this answers your question.

Not only does it not make a whole lot of sense to drink baby cow food but the protein found in milk, casein, has been directly linked to promoting cancer growth. The information about these studies can be found in "The China Study" by T. Colin Campbell. If you don't believe me then get yourself a copy and read it. It will change your life and could very well save it.

I am sure that I have made my feelings on this subject clear. While I know that people will still disagree with me I want it to be clear that you are free to make your own decisions in life. Just ask yourself if the decisions you are making are informed ones. Ask yourself if the decisions you are making about your children's health are optimal for their health and well being? While doctors are there for a reason, serve a good purpose, and generally mean well, they have rarely had more that 1 hour, YES...1 HOUR!!!, of education regarding nutrition. If something does not make sense then question it. The research has been done. The answers are out there. Sometimes you just have to look for yourself.

I hope I have opened some of your eyes on this subject. Either way I still love you all. I just want to do what I can to inform people because I want to help and I genuinely care about people and their well being.

Best regards my friends!

Vegan Life

I started out doing the Hallelujah Diet on August 1, 2011. The Hallelujah Diet consists of a diet that is 85% raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains while the other 15% of your food can be cooked. I stuck to the Hallelujah Diet for about a month where I was eating a lot of raw food but I must admit that while I still do eat raw food, I am currently eating more cooked food than raw. For the past 29 years I have eaten the SAD (Standard American Diet). For the past 2 months and 8 days I have been eating a vegan diet. I will not make excuses for why I have not stuck to a mostly raw food diet, basically I just wanted to cook stuff and have found it easier for me to stick to eating healthy when I can cook my food. Let's not get it twisted, if I became ill and was trying to cure myself of a deadly disease or condition then I believe 100% that I would be able to go back to eating mostly raw food and would have the ability to cure myself as so many others have. However, for now, I am going to be vegan.

Have I stuck to a whole food plant based diet 100% of the time for the past 2 months and 8 days? Well, mostly. I have only eaten meat on one occasion which was my class reunion a couple of weekends ago. I went to the reunion knowing that I was going to eat stuff I shouldn't and planned for it in advance by juicing the next day and basically flushing all of the crap out of my system. Sometimes I may go out to eat and have something that has a little bit of cream or yogurt in a sauce. But for the most part I do not eat any animal products.

How is my weight loss and overall health? I am still losing weight but the weight loss has slowed. My son will be 5 months old in 2 days and I currently weigh 134 lbs (13 lbs under the weight I was before I became pregnant). I feel good about my weight right now but would like to start lifting to get a little more toned. I do feel great though. I have a lot of energy, I rarely feel tired during the day at all and I stay up quite late and have to entertain and infant all day and work sometimes. My skin has cleared up and my mind feels clear as well. Some of my old clothes feel lose on me and I am down 3 notches in my belt. So I guess you could say that things are going quite well.

A lot of people probably think that being vegan is really hard and I can understand why they feel that way because I know I felt the same way at one time. I will not pretend that is is always easy but it does get easier as you learn how to make more delicious and versatile vegan dishes and find the restaurants that you can go to and eat a delicious vegan meal (Indian cuisine is by far, my favorite). The way I feel about my health and my physical appearance and the long term health benefits make it all worth it to me! Sure I have a weak moment every now and then but I eat as much food as I want and I truly enjoy everything that I eat.

I am interested to know something. When you hear the word "vegan" and you visualize someone who is vegan, what do you picture in your mind? I would love it if all of my followers would please post your responses as comments. That would be awesome, I would love to know what you think!

P.S. My better half, Darek, is doing great...he is down 45 lbs and looking and feeling great!

Darek's Results

As you know, the reason that we started this journey was because of Darek's results from his blood profile. Keep in mind that we started this on August 1st, so this is not even 2 months of eating this way. I would like to report that we received the new results from his blood work yesterday. Here are both the old and new results:

Starting total cholesterol: 219
New total cholesterol: 136
Starting HDL: 26
New HDL: 27 (this # actually needs to be higher)
Starting LDL: 159.6
New LDL: 93 <-----THIS IS AMAZING!!!
Starting Triglycerides: 167
New Triglycerides: 81

For those of you who are familiar with cholesterol numbers, this is quite impressive. I don't feel like I need to hark on all of the benefits of making healthy choices, the results speak for themselves. YAY Darek!!!

Zucchini Pasta

I don't know if any of you have an iphone. Well, I don't but Darek does and he found an app on his iphone called "Do Eat Raw". The app was only 99 cents and contains quite a few raw food recipes. This is one that sounded good so we had it for dinner last night and we both enjoyed it very much. The best part about it was that is was very simple with little prep time. I hope you like it!

Ingredients:
2 cups spiralised zucchini (or a little more)
2 cups diced tomato
1 avocado, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp lemon juice
pinch of dry rosemary
pinch of dry oregano
pinch of sea salt
dash of black pepper
(2 servings)


Description :
Place all ingredients into a bowl. Toss to mix. Serve and enjoy!

Tomolive Salad

A while back a purchased a tapas cookbook and I decided to browse through it recently to see if there were any healthy recipes that I could swipe. There are several different sections in this cookbook and they all of the recipes look delicious, there were a select few in the "made with vegetables" section that met my approval. Here is one that I made the other day and loved. It is a tomato & olive salad which I have renamed for my own intensive purposes! Here is the recipe, enjoy!

Ingredients:
(serves 6)

2 tbsp red wine vinegar
5 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp paprika
4 tomatoes, peeled and diced
12 pimiento-stuffed olives (I used more than 12 and I sliced them)
1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced
2 shallots, finely chopped (I used onions instead)
1 tbsp pickled capers in brine, drained (I didn't have these so I left them out but I think they would have been a nice addition)
2-3 chicory heads, separated into leaves (I used romaine instead)
sea salt

*I like to give you the original recipe and then tell you how I did it to stress to you how easy it is to modify or substitute ingredients to save you time and money or to simply get creative and use up some of the food that you already have in your refrigerator*

First, make the dressing. Whisk the vinegar, olive oil, garlic and paprika together in a bowl. Season to taste with sea salt. Let this sit for a while to infuse the flavors.
Place the tomatoes, olives, cucumber, shallots (or onion), and capers in a separate bowl. Pour over the dressing and toss lightly. Arrange chicory (or romaine) leaves on a plate and spoon in an equal amount of the salad and serve.

Try it and tell me what you think!