A Few Recipes & a LOT of Garlic

We’re mid-Lent, which means it’s the time of year when Christians are doing a few “weeks without”. I’ve finished my “Week Without Aisle 11” (paper towels, Kleenex, Ziplock bags, etc.) and I’m currently between challenges.

Although I’m not giving up meat for Lent, I HAVE been getting a little more adventurous in the kitchen, including quite a few meatless meals. My new strategy at the grocery store: Tell my fiancé to “go pick out a couple of weird vegetables”. If you’re curious, here are some of the recent recipes I’ve tried:

Whole Wheat Healthy Pancakes (Momma Hen’s Kitchen)

I topped these with pumpkin butter and walnuts. Yum! Thought this would be an easy recipe, but I had to make a lot of substitutions (skim milk + lemon juice = buttermilk; ground flax seed + water = the little bit of egg that I was short of). Nikki, check the fridge before you start a recipe. Duh.

Quinoa Egg Bake (Whole Foods)

This has become my fiance’s favorite breakfast, so I make it often. Morning is when he struggles most with blood sugar issues, and this recipe seems to help. Plus, I can throw in whatever veggies I have on hand, like a yucca root (see weird veggie explanation above). I also added Caribbean jerk seasoning, which sounds odd, but tastes great in this!

Crockpot Vietnamese Roasted Chicken (Crockpot365) *Meaty, non-Lent recipe*

My first experiment with Fish Sauce! I cooked a single serving of rice in a coffee mug and served the chicken on top of it for dinner. Pretty good.

Hummus (Simply Recipes)

It had been awhile since I’d made a batch of homemade hummus. This recipe is a good basic one. I looove tahini!

Hearty One-Pot Meal Miso Soup (Fat Free Vegan)

This recipe was my destiny. It perfectly used up all of the unusual ingredients I had on hand, including bok choy, edamame, and miso powder. I hope it tastes as good as my kitchen smells right now.

…This list makes me sound awfully healthy, but remember that I’m the same girl who hasn’t made it to the gym in over a month. Also, I may or may not have eaten a spoonful of peanut butter and chocolate chips tonight. Worth it! Plus, since I can’t think of a good segue, here’s the story of my cauliflower incident:

For years, I’ve been meaning to try mashed cauliflower in place of potatoes. People on Pinterest say to try it. My friend April recommends it. Jillian Michaels recommends it! So, after roasting some cauliflower the other night, I thought “What a perfect excuse to use my immersion blender!”. It worked beautifully. Then, I thought “These would be great with some garlic!” …followed by an accident with the garlic powder that rivaled the BP gulf spill. But by then, I’d already spent a good half hour baking and blending. I was eating that cauliflower.

Garlic is not spicy in the same way that peppers are spicy. Garlic is flavorful, but not hot. This was so much garlic, my mouth burned. And I still stubbornly ate a good half cup of it.

Fiance walks in the door: “What’s that smell?”

Me: I can explain!!

I thoroughly brushed my teeth and mouthwashed (is that a verb?...it is now.) THREE times before bed and I still had garlic breath until the next afternoon.

So, aside from lethal doses of garlic breath, who's got an idea for what to give up next??

Discreps

When I used to work as a director for the TV station, we’d have a very brief meeting after the evening newscast. We’d go over everything that didn’t go as planned (breaking news, technical difficulties) and figure out where mistakes/discrepancies happened so we could prevent them in the future. The crew called this meeting “discreps”. Here are my discreps from the 3-week challenge:

- Wedding food tasting

Technically, I knew about this in advance. I had a few bites of meat, a little cheese, and I’m sure a few other bits of “outlawed” foods, but this was contained to the afternoon of the first day, and it was for my wedding!

- Peanuts

Whoops! Since I could basically only eat fruits, veggies, nuts, & seeds during Week #1, I assumed peanuts were legal. Then I remembered they were actually a legume & common allergen. I ate them 3 times in the course of the challenge.

- Pickles

Really? My tried & true standby diet food? Even YOU have added sugar? No excuse here. I read the label. It said “less than 2% high fructose corn syrup”. I was tempted. I rationalized it and ate some.

- Olive oil spray

I got sick of all of the oil in the recipes, so I tried this and realized even the can labeled “Olive Oil” contains propellant & lechithin.

- Bottled lemon juice/lime juice

I learned that “Real Lemon” is a half truth. The bottle actually contains lemon juice from concentrate, sodium benzoate, sodium metabisulfite, and sodium sulfite. But because nearly every recipe called for lemon juice – I gave in and allowed myself the cheat. A couple teaspoons here & there can’t hurt – right?

- Craisins

It is flippin’ impossible to find unsweetened dried cranberries. Impossible, I tell you! Even at the health food store, the best I could do was “cranberries infused with pineapple juice”. I did what I could, but I ended up eating about 2 tbs of Craisins, which contain sweetner. Blurg.

- Coconut/Oat Flour

You heard me – coconut flour & oat flour! What? You don’t have these in your cabinet? I got –­­­really curious after perusing recipes on vegan blogs. I found a vegan, gluten-free, no-sugar added cookie recipe! It used these two types of flour, plus some sunflower seed butter and a few eyedroppers full of stevia. All of these were WHOLE ingredients (only “coconut” and “oats” were listed on the flours’ ingredients), so the only processing was the milling. I ruled it legal and shared the cookies. Yum!

­­­­­What I’ve learned:

- Although I couldn’t do follow all of these restrictions long-term, I think I could totally go vegan OR gluten-free. In fact, we’re going to attempt to prepare a vegan/whole foods dinner weekly. Who wants kohlrabi??

- People who tell you green smoothies are delicious are lying liars. Lettuce and parsley do not a breakfast make. Even with pineapple added.

- The health food & specialty food stores in this town are awesome! I will definitely be doing more of my shopping at Open Harvest or Red Clover or Akin’s or Trader Joe’s!

- Roasting vegetables is super easy & Ben loves them! It’s so easy to throw some frozen cauliflower or sweet potato wedges or kale on a cookie sheet with some olive oil & whatever seasoning you want. This’ll be a habit that sticks.­­

- The garbage disposal in my sink doesn’t like to eat vegetables as much as I do. When fed too many, it spits them into the sink and dishwasher in rebellion. Yuck.

- Weird food alternatives & are not just for hippies and people with food allergies. Coconut flour, ­­almond milk, and stevia drops are all in my kitchen. I baked with sunflower seed butter. I drank coconut water and beet juice (Not mixed together. Gross.) I grilled bok choy & learned to love prunes as dessert.

- Failures –although sometimes inedible– are often funny. My no-egg-no-baking-soda falafel turned into an oily sesame soup…and the salvaged part wasn’t much better.

- You knew this already, but the interwebs rule. When I got tired of the challenge recipes, I was actually able to find vegan-whole-food-gluten-free-no-sugar-added recipes. I’ll never understand the people who rotate through only 7-10 go-to recipes. I love me some vegan blogs.

- I learned that I should get my thyroid checked out! After 3 weeks of cutting out calories & possible culprits, I’ve lost ZERO weight. I also just found out about some family history of thyroid problems. And since January is National Thyroid Awareness Month, why not? If it’s not to blame, at least now I know it’s not the chocolate, either J

- And finally – I learned that I have a phenomenal support system. Fo’ reals. Ben put up with my whining, my caffeine headaches, helped me prep meals, and dried when I washed. My future father-in-law saved the day when my vegetable peelings clogged the sink and dishwasher. My friend & lunch buddy Audrey actually jumped on board and started doing the cleanse w­­ith me! My other co-workers lent their juicer or gave me healthy snacks. My family offered to eat cleanse-friendly meals with me for Sunday night dinners. And Facebook friends, blog readers, fellow cleansers & and even Martha watchers J have been great cheerleaders & resources. Not to be melodramatic – after all, this was just a 3 week detox diet – but my friends & family pretty much rule. It made this a fun experiment.­­

So…what am I giving up next?

Home Stretch

Less than 2 days to go! I’d like to say that by now this feels like a normal diet which I could continue. That is not the case. The cravings have hit hard. My fiancé gets weirded out because I’ve started staring at him as he eats. It’s not my fault! He eats things like delicious chicken fingers and wheat dinner rolls and cheeseburgers! They smell soooo good.

Meanwhile, I’ve been forgoing many of the Week 3 recipes and experimenting instead. I cooked slabs of tofu in a little oil with homemade taco seasoning. OK, but not the same as tacos – especially with no tortillas. My fiancé promptly ate all of the tofu, but left the accompanying shredded veggies untouched. *sigh* Last night, I found this recipe for blueberry oatmeal & put it in the crockpot. It was awful, but not because of the recipe. It was awful because I didn’t FOLLOW the recipe. Not only did I not have all of the ingredients, but I didn’t have enough of the ingredients I had on hand….which led to some odd substitutions. And instead of baking it in a dry heat, I used my crockpot, for way too long. Long story short, I wound up with a purple tasteless goo. I choked down a bowl for breakfast and regretfully washed the rest down the sink. Blech.

I still wasn’t feelin’ the recipes today, so I dug through my cupboards & found a curry mix from the natural foods store. Unbelievably, the ingredients didn’t include any chemicals, sugar, dairy, or wheat! It’s supposed to be used with chicken, but I dumped it into the crock pot with a bag of frozen cauliflower. Fingers are crossed.

I’ll have fish, quinoa, & a salad at my parents’ for family dinner night. If I can pack some healthy stuff tomorrow at work, I’m home free! Runza, here I come! J

The Best & the Worst of the Challenge Recipes

This is the most often I’ve blogged about a “week without”, but that’s because it’s proven to be my hardest challenge yet. Feeling pretty good, albeit deprived. I’ve gone through almost an entire shopping cart full of vegetables, including 4 raw beets and 2 giant bunches of kale. I am getting a little tired of those two…

Favorite challenge recipes/foods:

- PRUNES! I bought some a couple days ago & they have been my dessert. So good.

- Guacamole ala Nikki (Made it up last night from all legal ingredients)

- Cranberry-Pumpkin Seed Trail Mix

- Kale-Cabbage Slaw (I’ve made this one twice)

- Roasted Caulifower & Peppers

- Fresh fruit as a snack (apples, pears)

Least favorites:

- Green Machine smoothie (AKA cow cud)

- Roasted garlic & beet soup

Also, I went to a bar last night for a friend’s art show and helped her set out the snacks. Then I went to the store, bought & prepared snacks for a couple friends that I could NOT eat (pop, wine, jalapeno poppers). I can’t believe I didn’t cheat.

I’m about to kill someone for some cheese & crackers.

Minty Pee & Eagle Arms

I’m having a good day! Maybe it’s the cleanse….or maybe it’s the fact that I took the day off, slept in, went to my first ever yoga class (I’m so behind the times!), and lounged in my car to read a magazine. Plus the my great new haircut doesn’t hurt J

I got so excited about shopping and cooking last night, I forgot to eat dinner (unheard of!) After spending last night making beet soup, trail mix, and minty pea dip (which my brother-in-law misinterpreted as “minty pee dip”), I put myself to bed tonight with some chai tea. Technically, I made a cup of chai tea, left it on my night table, and promptly forgot about it until it was barely warm. I drank it anyway.

Today, I woke up after 9am, made myself a mango-coconut water smoothie, and went to the gym for yoga. Since the class was in the middle of a weekday morning, most of the students were retired women – much older and much more flexible than me. My mat was directly in front of the fireplace. The instructor had to correct me on my Eagle Arms (is that right??) and one other pose, but for an ungraceful klutz, I think I did pretty darn well! No bruises! haha I did a little meditation in the steam room, took a shower, and left the gym feeling great – no lack of energy, etc. due to the new diet. Same with lunch. I made this kale-broccoli slaw. I snuck a little more than the recipe’s serving size, but left the house feeling satisfied, not full – which is good, because I had a scheduled tasting for our wedding food. Fortunately, the tasting didn’t have a lot of processed foods or added sugar – but it did have meat, dairy, and starch. Luckily it was all very small tasting bites – so not too much damage done to the cleanse, I hope.

As I type this, I’m developing a caffeine headache, but that’s to be expected. I’m gonna keep chugging water and go take a day-off-work-nap!

New Year's Cleanse

Happy New Year! I’ve gone a few weeks without a “week without”, so I’m kicking off 2012 with a doozy:

I’m going three (3) weeks without: processed foods or beverages, added sugar, dairy, gluten, caffeine, and alcohol. I’m doing Whole Living magazine’s 21-day Challenge. It’s basically a cleanse, which I’ve never done or even considered before. The closest thing I’ve done to a cleanse is when I decided to just eat fruits and veggies for a week. I think I made it about 5 days. The whole first week of this is vegan. Because I still need to grocery shop, I'm starting this one day late.

I always thought cleanses were for crazy people, and 9 times out of 10 when I hear the phrase “rid your body of toxins” – it’s to advertise some product that’s a bunch of crap. (I’m lookin’ at you, Body Wrap! Those aren’t “toxins” – it’s sweat!)

However, I can definitely see a connection between what I put into my body & what I get out of my body. (I meant performance, not poop. You’re gross.) I tend to overdo it on many of these things, specifically alcohol and caffeine. I don’t expect to lose a ton of weight on this, but am interested to experiment with this for 21 days and see if it really does improve the way I feel. It’s a new year, and I’m ready to try something new!

If you’re intrigued & you want to try it (Translation: Please! I want to do this with a buddy!), here’s a link.

If you don’t want to try it, you should at least check out Whole Living magazine. I got a free subscription from MyCokeRewards. (ironic, eh?) I look forward to reading it every month & I keep begging Ben to read it, too. It’s fantastic.

EDIT: I am an idiot! Just as we drove away from the grocery store with $138 worth of fruits, veggies, and bird food in my trunk, I realized we're tasting wedding food from the caterer tomorrow! I may have to delay this challenge for one more day - but I'm still excited to try out a smoothie or roasted chickpeas tomorrow!