Catch Up Pics

On Tuesday this week I had to have one of my wisdom teeth removed rather unexpectedly. Owww. That means I'm still in recovery mode, so I have a lot of catch up posting to do.

Lately I've been surviving on dairy free Jamba Juice smoothies (Mega Mango and Pomegranate Paradise), plain soy yogurt, vanilla soy ice cream, mashed banana, and butternut squash soup. I can barely open my mouth wide enough to fit in my medicine.

This afternoon I made the banana cocoa smoothie recipe in this month's issue of Vegetarian Times that my sweet mom got for me. It was good!

Here are a few pics that I was going to post before this whole incident occurred:

Breakfast on Sunday morning (I think this was from Sunday): banana oatmeal with a little cashew butter. I didn't really like the banana cooked into the oatmeal, but I ate it anyway. Next time I'd rather have it sliced on top.

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Lunch on Sunday after church and Sunday school - a quesadilla made with soy cheese, salsa for dipping, and apples on the side.

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In between services I had a corn muffin to tide me over. At our church they used to have doughnuts in between the first and second hour, but they don't anymore. Know why? Because some of the parents who had kids on healthy diets complained that it was too hard to say "no" to their kids when other kids DID get to have doughnuts. Um, hello? Be a parent and say no anyway.

Not that I could eat doughnuts, but they cut out food between services altogether. So I bring my own now. And everyone else can just watch me eat and listen to their own stomachs growl. So there.

Tomorrow's Lunch

Here's the lunch I packed tonight to take with me to work tomorrow:



L to R is rice pudding (I made a new batch this morning), blueberries for the rice pudding, my leftover burrito from last night's dinner (filled with lime rice, refried black beans, avocado, olives, and corn), and a vegan pumpkin scone. Everything fits nice and neat into my handy dandy pretty pink Laptop Lunchbox.

A Pumpkin-ey Kind of Day

Last night I made vegan pumpkin scones based on this recipe at Love of Oats. To make it gluten-free, I varied the recipe a bit. As a substitute for the 3 cups of flour, I used 1 cup white rice flour, 1 cup tapioca flour, and 1 cup sorghum flour. I also added 1 tsp. xanthan gum for extra rising power (since I wasn't using wheat flour).

Instead of 6 tbsp. of vegan margarine, I only used 3 tbsp. Then I added 3 tbsp. of applesauce. Next time I'll probably use applesauce as a sub for all the margarine, instead of just half. I also left off the brown sugar topping.

These scones came out so good! Just like pumpkin pie! (Well, almost. :-)

Good to the last bite!


This morning for breakfast I made pumpkin oatmeal with a tbsp of my leftover pumpkin:


One tbsp was just enough to add flavor, yet didn't make it too overpowering. Delish.

My New Addiction

I think I might make oatmeal for breakfast every day for the rest of my life! Lol. This morning's "flavor" was apple cinnamon.

While my oatmeal stewed in its pot, I cooked half a cut up apple with 2 tbsp. water and a teaspoon or so of cinnamon.


The finished product:


I think the apples could've been cooked for a little longer than 10 minutes, but it was still good!

Rice pudding

Last week I made a big batch of rice pudding to keep in the fridge. What a nice, cool creamy treat on a hot day! Good for breakfast too. I had it often after I got out of bed with blueberries from Costco and raspberries from the Farmer's Market before Dad and I took our morning walks. Sadly it's all gone now. I'll have to make some more.

Mid-Morning Snack

Half a Kinnikinnick tapioca rice bun (found in the refrigerated section at Whole Foods) with dairy free spread, cashew butter, and banana slices. Mmm.

Oatie Goodness

Inspired by the blogger Jenna at Eat, Live, Run, I decided to make oatmeal on the stove for breakfast yesterday. Whenever I've made oatmeal in the past, I've made it in the microwave because it's quick. After yesterday though, I can't believe what I've been missing all these years! Oh the creamy, chewy goodness of oatmeal! I had no idea!

Here's how I made mine yesterday: I brought 1 cup of plain soymilk to a boil on the stove. Then I added 1/2 cup of oats and stirred occasionally for about ten minutes. Once almost all of the milk had reduced down, I added a teaspoon or so of cinnamon. That's it! Delicious.

Farmer's Market Finds

The Farmer's Market in our town is held every Sunday year-round. Since the weather has been warmer, I've been dying to go, especially since I drive past another Farmer's Market every Saturday morning on my way to work. I see all those people browsing, shopping, and it makes me jealous! They get to be outside in the warm sun, and I have to go to work in a cold dark office building. Sigh.

So last Sunday Dad and I went to the Farmer's Market after church. It was soooo much fun. This particular one is pretty big. Besides the rows and rows of produce for sale, there was also a pet adoption van with cats (no doggies), a clown making balloons, an arts and crafts table for kids, all different kinds of food places to eat at (Afghan, Indian, African, Chinese, Mexican, etc.), and more. There was also live music with a band playing and tables set up for people to eat at. So fun!

We ended up getting peaches, green beans, artichokes (one of my favorite foods in the whole world), and raspberries. We also got some plants to start our vegetable garden! A beefstake tomato, a tomatillo, a pepper, and a pickling cucumber (sorry I didn't get a pic of those yet!).

Chipotle Dinner!

For dinner tonight I had a special treat. Mom and Dad had a late lunch at the new Panda Express that just opened nearby, and Em got Taco Bell on the way home from babysitting. Well, I can't have fast food, but one of the few places I can eat at is Chipotle.

So Mom treated me! I got a vegetarian burrito with rice, black beans, guacamole, and lettuce. Mmm. Their guacamole is so good. (Speaking of which, it looks like we're going to have a ton of avocados on our avocado tree this year!!)


My leftovers are in the fridge. I can't wait till lunch tomorrow!

Lunch on a Hot Day

I'm behind on posting pics. o_O Towards the end of last week we had a heat wave! It was quite lovely, actually. :-) Sadly it's cooler today. But here's what I had for lunch one day when it was warm enough to eat outside:

We found these at Whole Foods in the frozen food section:

They also had the same kind of thing in chicken nuggets and chicken patties. Nice.

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For dessert, a SO Delicious (that's the brand name) soy ice cream sandwich. SO refreshing (pun intended) on a hot day. :-)

Food Co-op Goodies

Here are some of the goodies we got in our food order from the co-op last week:

Left to right: Hemp seeds (full of Omega 3's), sorghum flour (gluten-free), sunflower seeds, and quinoa flakes (kind of like oatmeal).

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I tried the quinoa flakes for breakfast the other day, and wow! I was surprised at how yummy they came out as hot cereal! I ended up eating my bowl plain with nothing on it because the flavor was so good.

Here's how I cooked it: I brought 1 cup of soymilk to a boil on the stove, then dumped in about 1/2 cup of quinoa flakes in the boiling milk. I let it cook for 3 minutes. As it cooks, it turns into a porridge-like mixture. It's a very quick process!

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This is something else we got with our order: Amy's frozen meals. Here's the scrambled tofu:

Yum!

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Last week I also used the sorghum flour to make blueberry muffins. The flavor of sorghum flour is sweeter than wheat flour. Quite good!

Lemon Asparagus Pasta

Ta-da... here's what I made for dinner last night:


Didn't it turn out a lovely shade of green? Basically it's gluten-free pasta (from Whole Foods) with a pureed asparagus lemon sauce and asparagus heads. We topped it with soy Parmesan cheese and sprinkles of the sunflowers we got in our food order yesterday. DF & GF. Yummo.

In the past I never liked asparagus, but cooked this way it tasted delish. The puree-ing in the blender got rid of all the stringy-ness. :-)

Chips and Dip Lunch and a Hot Fudge Brownie

Here's what I had for lunch yesterday:


All right, so it may look gross, but it tasted pretty good. Left to right is white corn chips (from Whole Foods), black bean dip (made with black beans, tofu cream cheese, garlic, and spices), and the filling of a vegetarian burrito I ordered from Chipotle Restaurant the other day.

Chipotle stuffs their burritos so fat that I took out some of the filling and saved it in the fridge. It turned out to be a pretty good dip for the chips, although the lettuce was wilted.

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Now here is the luscious dessert I had:


It's a hot fudge brownie with homemade chocolate syrup, and yes, it was low fat, DF, & GF!

Food Co-op Goodies

Today my mom and I went to pick up the food we ordered from a food co-op. We got some fun, yummy things including...

• Roasted, salted sunflower seeds
• Hemp seeds
• Carob chips
• A bunch of Amy's frozen meals (the gluten-free and dairy free ones)
• Quinoa flakes
• Sorghum flour
• Some individual Thai rice noodle bowls (GF & DF)
• Ummmm, I forget what else. Some things I can't eat like raw cheese.

Now I have to find a good chocolate chip cookie or muffin recipe (low fat and dairy-free) that I can use the carob chips in. I think I have an idea, but I want to do some more research first.

For dinner tonight I made asparagus and lemon pasta. It turned out sooo good. Pics to come!

French Toast and a Veggie Burger

For breakfast yesterday I made a yummy and healthy French toast recipe called "Decadent Strawberry-Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast." Yes, it really was healthy and low fat! Ingredients below.

The stuffing consisted of tofu cream cheese, chopped fresh strawberries (from our garden!), and honey. I dipped the bread in a mixture of egg whites, vanilla soy milk, and vanilla. That's it. So simple and so good. French toast used to be my most favorite menu item whenever we went out to breakfast. So I was glad to find this dairy-free recipe.

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Here's what I had for lunch: A leftover tofu veggie burger from the other night with a tapioca rice flour bun spread with a touch of Veganaise.

Summer-Inspired Meal

Last night for dinner on Mother's Day we ate the first corn on the cob of the season! It was delish! Dad cooked it on the barbeque with chicken. And the side salad of fresh watermelon completed a perfect summer-inspired meal.


For dessert I had asked Mom earlier in the week to choose a cake for me to make her, and she picked lemon poppyseed pound cake with lemon icing. Even though I couldn't eat any (I can't have dairy), everyone else said it tasted good! I still love baking for people even though I may not be able to eat what I make. :-)