Day 29 -One more day

In case anyone is wondering, this whole food, plant-based way of eating just flat out sucks. It's time consuming. It's frustrating.  It's bland. It's exhausting. It's borderline depressing.

Stay tuned in the next few days for my official "after action report" and what I plan to do next.

For now, it's time to dream about my favorite burger........

Day 25 - Not always as it appears

Everyone who lives this lifestyle says that I should keep it simple. Take a few things and just add to them or rotate them throughout the week with a few variations. It's easy to get caught up and overwhelmed, they say. Well, as much as I like keeping it simple, I love food and I love to cook. So if I'm going to do this, I'm not just going to eat a salad or beans and rice, I'm going to go after some intricate recipes in hopes that they are mouthwateringly delicious! It's Day 25 and that still hasn't happened but I'm still trudging along!

In thinking back over what I've made during this challenge, I found some pictures that I don't think I've shared.  It was in looking at these photos that I realized that things aren't always as they appear.

For example, take the Polenta Crostini with Chickpea Pesto  shown below. I was pretty proud of how this looked. It was easy to make and it looked like it would be tasty. Nope. Completely tasteless. How can something look like this and not have flavor? I was so disappointed and am all over again looking at this photo.

Next are Oil-free potatoes and onions with garlic.

Looks ridiculous. Granted, it's still on the parchment paper which doesn't help, but guess what? It was really good! I love potato chips and Hubs and I don't keep them in the house. Why? For good reason. We'd eat a bag a day! But this recipe was super easy and completely natural with three ingredients! Looks absolutely wretched though.

Lentil and Walnut Taco Salad

I can't tell if this looks yummy or gross, to be honest. It was supposed to be in a lettuce wrap but the lettuce leaves were too small so I turned it into a salad. Peppers, onions, tomatoes, avocado (because avocado makes everything better) and taco "meat" made out of food-processed walnuts and green lentils with seasonings. It was edible which is a plus but it sure didn't make me believe it was good as ground beef.

Tomato and Chickpea Ragu

Now this looks utterly nasty to me but it was surprisingly good. It was spicy which is probably why I was ok with it - because there was some sort of flavor. Chickpeas are completely boring to me but if I can mix them up into a tomato, onion and mushroom deliciousness then bring on those little nuggets of protein!

Now, these!!

These looked good AND were yummy!

Summer Rolls

I love summer rolls.

I often buy them at Wegmans, when I am home, and devour them.

So I figured, we're on the home stretch now and I have rice paper in my pantry, so let's do this thang!

I held my breath, I followed the directions and I was ready for disaster, but......alas! Something finally worked! Am I getting the hang of this now that it's almost over? Ha, that's funny. No, I just got lucky and these really aren't that difficult to prepare.

Pick whatever veggies you want, slice 'em up real thin and roll 'em up in that thing like a burrito. I have to admit, the first one I took out after soaking in warm water for five seconds resembled and felt like a condom. Actually, it was probably a Dollar Store condom because it tore almost instantly.

Dear God, this went downhill quick.

Anyway, carrots, cucumber, red pepper, orange pepper, cilantro, vermicelli rice noodles. Some had shrimp in them. I said that I wasn't giving up seafood - just minimal (tuna and shrimp - no sauces and not fried). I would NEVER give up seafood. Meat is one thing. Dairy is one thing. But I live at the beach and my daddy would instantly strike me down from the heavens above if I committed such a crime!

I even made the WFPB peanut dipping sauce and it wasn't too terrible. There was something there that stuck out that I wasn't fond of but in general, I was pleased. Much better than all that crap you can't even pronounce or understand on a grocery store bottle of peanut sauce!

One thing I've learned over the course of these last 25 days is that you truly cannot judge this food by the way it looks. I mean you can, and I do, but it's not always as it appears!

Day 22 - Another Hurdle Overcome

Well, you probably thought I fell off the face of the earth, huh? It's been over a week since I've posted. You're probably thinking that I gave up and couldn't face admitting that to everyone, right? Nope. Not one bit. A lot has been going on though. I've been frustrated, sad, depressed, irritated and I think my taste buds are dying with each passing day. But I haven't given up. Only 8 more days to go!

 

As if eating in a whole-food, plant-based way wasn't enough of a challenge, I went "on the road" for four days. Not having my pantry at my disposal for a long weekend was definitely a challenge and it would have been easy to throw in the towel or to cheat - just a little - but I didn't. Not because I didn't want to but because my awesome Hubs and the Best Mom Ever wouldn't let me! Truly, the two of them have been such an incredible support system and I doubt I would have lasted this long without them.

Instead of that yummy bacon, egg and cheese on an asiago bagel or the spinach and feta pastry, I drank the purple kale, blueberries and banana juice. I snacked on grape tomatoes or a nut and seed mixture that I threw together if I got a hunger pain. I had a breakfast of blueberries and strawberries or almond butter on 21-grain flourless bread.

Dinners were tough but I sucked it up. Zoe's Kitchen made it easy for me as I chose the baked falafel pita (minus the tzatziki and feta), and a side order of red pepper hummus. I had never had falafel before and I figured the best place to try it would be at a café that specializes in Mediterranean food. It wasn't bad. But it also wasn't good. Again, to follow my unfortunate theme, pretty tasteless. Thankfully, I like hummus and thought ahead and ordered Zoe's because it gave the sammich flavor. Phew! I don't need falafel again though but it served its purpose that day!

One night, I prepared the first WFPB meal I ever made again and shared it with Mom. Lucky Mom, huh? Yeah, quit being so negative! She liked it!! Lentil Bolognese Casserole. I admit, I told her to go ahead and add some mozzarella cheese to hers. I didn't want to make her suffer because of my self imposed losses. It was good though and the cashew garlic "parmesan" on top wasn't too shabby either.

The last night, we ordered take out from Not Your Average Joe's which was difficult for me. I LOVE their homemade foccaccia bread and olive oil, red pepper flakes, garlic and parmesan cheese dipping oil! I love it so much that Hubs found the recipe for the oil last year and we've been able to replicate it at home! I could have had our favorite cobb salad with bacon and blue cheese crumbles or the four cheese pasta bake, but I was good and chose the spaghetti squash and mushroom bolognese. No dairy. No meat. No happy. Actually, it was good but, of course, cheese would have helped and so would grilled chicken. It was more like a ratatouille and I like ratatouille but I can make a better ratatouille at home.

Good news, I was able to eat dessert!! Mom love desserts and always has them at her house so I knew this would be a struggle. While my friend, Sarah, came to visit and brought big, sloppy, sweet cinnamon rolls (which I wanted to inhale), I ate a few scoops of the dairy, soy and nut free coconut "ice cream" that I found at Mom's Organic Market the day before! Chocolate, coconut and hazelnut. It was pretty darn delicious and had the consistency of custard.

I survived the four-day road trip. It sure wasn't easy. This way of eating isn't easy to begin with and it's pretty labor intensive. But like the Best Mom Ever said, "You've made it this far!" How on earth could I stop now? It would make the past three weeks completely worthless and I am surely not doing this because it's fun!

Triple Almond Energy Balls

As much as I am frustrated by the lack of flavor in most dishes during my first two weeks of the 30 day challenge, the one thing that surprises me is the deliciousness of the treats I've made. I made sea salt dark chocolate granola and chocolate chip cookies last week. Check out my previous blog post titled, "I don't bake")Keep in mind, that Hubs ate the majority of both of those things. I took a small ziplock of granola with me to work one day and it lasted me all week. I also took a handful or two as I passed by it once or twice but that was it. I only had three of the 12 cookies that were made also. But you know what the best part is? Not a big of processed crap went into any of those treats! All natural flours, sugars, and no dairy! (

Well, thanks to the Oh She Glows website, I found out about these tasty little morsels this past weekend!

Triple Almond Energy Balls

Best part?

Not a drop of added sugar in them!!

The natural sweetness comes from a half cup of raw medjool dates!!

I've never had a date before in my life.

Ha - the fruit, goofballs. I'm talking about the fruit of the date palm tree!

Raw almonds, raw cashews and medjool dates!

Almond butter, cinnamon, almond extract, sea salt and water

Mix it all up in a food processor, roll it into a ball and it's that easy!

I rolled a few of mine in unsweetened raw organic shredded coconut and a few in organic vegan cacao powder.

They go in the freezer for an hour to firm up and then they are absolutely delicious!

Honestly, the plain ones had better flavor to me than the cacao powder ones. I love coconut, so that just made perfect sense to roll them in that heavenly drupe! These look and taste like I'm eating something so horribly bad for me and the best part is I'm not!

If there's anything that will stick with me after this 30 day challenge, it will definitely be the dessert/treat recipes that I've found. Why would anyone made sweets with processed crap, sugars and other ingredients that you don't even know how to pronounce when you can make all natural sweets and they are truly just as delicious!??! Coming from someone who doesn't bake and who hasn't found any flavor in most of these dishes, this is a huge compliment!

Now if I could only eat these all day every day, I could handle this lifestyle with ease!

If you want any of the recipes, feel free to leave me message and your email in a comment on a blog post!

Day 16 - Pizza or Jackfruit

Last night, Day 15, the halfway point of this whole food, plant-based challenge, I was extremely weak. Not physically weak, but mentally weak. I had three meals planned that I could have prepared for dinner but I truly didn't want a single one of them. None of them sounded remotely good to me.

All I wanted was pizza.

A Sicilian pizza from Southern Shores Pizza.

Hubs could pick it up like he usually does and I'd get the plates and beer ready for his return.

Lots of sauce, gooey cheese, Italian sausage and pepperoni on a thick soft-in-the-middle, crispy-on the-outside-crust

If we were gonna cheat, we were gonna do it right!

I wanted that pizza so badly I could taste it and smell it. But I didn't get it.

The only reason I didn't is because Hubs was home. He wanted it too but wouldn't let me do it. (Damn, I love this man!) I've made it this far. I'm halfway through.

We're on the downhill stretch now, right?

So many people are telling me that they stopped even wanting cheese by now. Seriously? My love of cheese has not faded one bit. "Give it time", they say. Honestly, I don't want to lose my taste for cheese. It's not like I dream about cheese. I didn't even crave cheese before but I do like high quality cheese as a snack, with a glass of wine and bread, or to top off a burger or melted in pasta dish.

 

Some studies say that cheese is as addictive as crack because of a chemical called casein. Casein triggers the brain's opioid receptors which is linked to the control of reward, pain and addiction. Other studies say that the real science behind it is much more complex and highly-processed foods are the extremely problematic ones - high in carbs, salt and fat.

I was told from the start that if I cut out all dairy and processed foods that I would reach the goals I set for myself at the end of this 30-day challenge. 14 more days and we'll see. So far, physically, it is working but mentally is a totally different story!

Since I'm not allowed to have cheese, pizza was out. And no, don't even think about telling me I can do pizza without cheese - that is NOT going to happen. I'd rather not have it at all.

In the vegan and WFPB world, jackfruit is all the rage now.

Jackfruit is a species of tree in the fig and mulberry family native to southwest India.

This tree has the largest tree-borne fruit weighing as much as 80lbs!

High in fiber and with the look and texture of meat, jackfruit is, with good reason, very popular among vegetarians.

I needed to see what all the rage was about and chose the Tex Mex version over the original BBQ version, hoping it would be more flavorful. Plus, if I'm going to have BBQ, I'm having High Cotton or Pigman's pulled pork BBQ. I don't want a knock off - just can't mentally do it.

I made fresh salsa to go on the jackfruit tacos.

 mango, red onion, red pepper, jalapeno, cilantro and fresh squeezed lime juice

It's good thing, I made the salsa because that's pretty much where the flavor came from. The jackfruit wasn't disgusting. It wasn't offensive. But it also wasn't anything extraordinary. I'm still waiting for something to "wow" me.

Was it better than the lentils and walnut "taco meat" from last week?

Yep, but I truly believe that was a texture thing and not as much of a flavor thing.

There was only enough jackfruit for Hubs and I to have two very small soft tacos each so that was disappointing because we were pretty hungry. So, I cut up some sweet potatoes into fries, tossed them in turmeric, onion powder, black pepper and paprika and baked them for dessert.

I didn't have much to clean up in the kitchen.

Our stomachs weren't growling any more.

It wasn't a complete waste.

But I still wanted the pizza.

My food & family connection

I grew up in a family of meat and potato eaters. My mom's dad was a butcher and a caterer. I always remember very heavy comfort food meals at my grandparents' house growing up. There was always gravy involved. I remember my grandfather always having a plate that looked like everything was running together. That drove me crazy because for the longest time I couldn't stand any of my food touching. There are still some things that I don't want touching on my plate!

My grandfather died when I was 11 years old and I remember it as if it was yesterday. He drove himself to a doctor's appointment that morning and the doctor couldn't believe it.  Doc said his heart "exploded". Granddad was in the hospital's Cardiac Care Unit for about 15 days and never came out. He died way too young at the age of 64.

My grandmother never cooked. Why would she? The love of her life was a butcher and loved to cook and bake. Grandmother loved her desserts and there was never a table that didn't have some sort of sweet as part of the meal at their house. During the summers, the food may not be as heavy but it was usually some sort of fried goodness. After my grandfather passed and my grandmother got older, she started leaning toward frozen food meals ridden with salt because of the ease in which they came. She never gave up her sweets though. Pepperidge Farm. Little Debbie. Cakes, pies, cookies, brownies. She didn't discriminate. When my grandmother was 78, she had triple bypass surgery and a pacemaker placed as well. A few months shy of her 90th birthday, my grandmother died from complications of heart disease.

My grandparents were overweight but not obese. They didn't have the healthiest of lifestyles when it came to eating but that's the way they were raised. Honestly, they didn't know any better back then. None of us did. I sure didn't. They were happier than any couple I have ever witnessed in my almost 45 years, though. No one (aside from my dad) enjoyed life as much as my grandfather did. If you were able to ask Granddad right now, I'm sure he'd tell you he didn't regret a thing and would probably do it all over again the exact same way.

Growing up, we always had some sort of meat, potatoes and bread on the table too. It wasn't just at my grandparents' house. But think about it, my parents grew up that way because their parents did. It's all they knew. I loved mom's roast beef. No matter how many times I tried to do it myself, I couldn't get it to taste like hers. Roast beef cooked in the crockpot with mashed potatoes, gravy and carrots. Dad and I would always make a hot roast beef sandwich out of it and we were so proud of ourselves. A piece of white bread - slices of roast, mashed potatoes on top, another piece of white bread and then smother it in gravy. Top it off with a ton of black pepper. Dad would do the same thing but he'd put the mashed potatoes first and then the meat. We'd always laugh that the other one did it wrong. Mom would always shake her head at us because we did such things with our food. We'd often want more because it was so delicious but we'd have an open face one for the second helping.

When I knew I was going to start this 30-day challenge, I spent a week eating all of the things that I knew I loved and wouldn't be able to have during those 30 days (and maybe never again).  Mom's roast beef was one of those things and yes, I made the obligatory hot roast beef sandwich. No doubt, Dad was with me in spirit. It made me smile, and yes, I enjoyed it thoroughly because Mom made it.

After high school, probably in college, I started changing my eating habits. It didn't take long and I was able to help transition my parents' way of eating as well. Before long, there weren't any more fried foods being presented at the dinner table. Steak wasn't a weekly staple. There were salads and rice and more vegetables. Items were being grilled more. Olive oil was being used instead of butter. Mom still had to have her bread and desserts though and that won't ever change. Dad would still salt everything out of habit before he ever even tasted it which made me absolutely crazy. But we all have our vices.

We are all a product of our environments. I am a product of my parents eating habits but I was luckily able to break the mold pretty early on and help them to a certain extent as well. It's not easy to change after being a certain way for so very long. I never blamed any of my family members for that but I knew that with a family history of heart disease, I needed to do something to take charge of my health while I still could.

Where am I going with all of this? Am I just blabbing on and on? In a way, I guess I am. Stream of consciousness, really. The bottom line is food is a big part of me. Family is a big part of me. Food and family have always gone hand in hand for me. Family meals were important and for the most part aren't even practiced anymore. It truly makes me sad. Most of my fondest memories revolve around food and family. Sitting around the dinner table was always the one time out of each day that we would always spend as quality time. Holiday meals were always filled with tons of people and tons of good food. Over the years, those tables would get smaller because people would either move away and create families of their own or their time here on this earth was up. Still, even if it was just the three of us - me, Mom and Dad- we still had incredible times around the dinner table. Perhaps that's why I love entertaining so much. Perhaps that's why I love cooking so much. It's in my blood. I know that when I am in my zone in the kitchen it's because of my grandfather. I literally can feel him at times, pushing me to continue, motivating me and helping me find my way in the kitchen.

So, this challenge truly is a challenge for me. It's not just changing the way I eat. It's changing all that I know about food. In a way, it's taking away my childhood. My connection. It feels like it's taking away my happiness - the joy that I have always found surrounding food. That joy isn't there right now and that makes me sad. It also makes me angry. My grandfather was taken from this earth suddenly and way too soon. Was it due to his eating habits? Most likely - it sure didn't help any. My grandmother lived to almost be 90 but if it wasn't for her heart disease she wouldn't have suffered for three long weeks and she'd still be here.  Was her demise a product of her eating behaviors? All signs point to that being in the affirmative.

My grandparents. They loved food. They loved their lives. They loved each other. They enjoyed every moment. Out of 64 total years, my grandfather only suffered for 15 days. Out of almost 90 years, my grandmother only suffered for three weeks. Those 15 days and three weeks were absolutely devastating nightmares for all of us and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. But it didn't consume them. It wasn't a disease that had changed their lives here on earth. They lived their lives and they lived it with such happiness and pure love and joy... and surrounded by delicious food.

Right now, I'm looking at this eating challenge as a way to improve my health and to physically feel better and look better. I'm looking at the future and knowing the odds are against me for heart disease because of my family history and I don't want to make it worse for myself. Odds are, I won't be lucky like my grandparents were because I don't have any children or siblings (not like my dad's was ever useful) to take care of me when I get sick or am dying. I don't want to put that burden on Hubs; not if I can help it. Not if I have any control over it. It's kind of like continuing to smoke cigarettes even after the doctor tells you that if you keep at it, he won't be able to help you and you'll soon have a heart attack and will die. Why keep doing it when you know it's not going to be a positive outcome? Wouldn't that be enough to make you stop? So shouldn't this be enough to warrant me making a change in my eating?

Of course it should, and that's a big reason why I chose this path.

But then I hear my dad. He would truly think that I had lost my mind by doing this challenge and by considering changing my entire food lifestyle. He knows how much joy I find in food because he shared in that joy. Did his eating habits cause his cancer? Absolutely not. I know without a doubt that Agent Orange, as a result of being sent to Vietnam, is what caused his cancer. But, if he had changed his eating habits, could it have prolonged his life and perhaps even cured his cancer? It definitely wouldn't have hurt and probably would have helped. I wish he would have changed his diet when he was first diagnosed 21 years ago. I wish that diet and knowing about whole food plant based eating would have been at the forefront back then. I wish I would have known back then how monumental this lifestyle is to healing. But by the time I did, it was too far gone. In 2015, when chemo was the only option left to treat my dad's prostate cancer, with the help of my lifelong best friend who is a nurse, I tried to get Dad to understand the healing power of food. We got a holistic doc on board and she started him on supplements and a nutrition plan but he didn't follow it 100%.  He changed some of his habits but not enough and honestly, at that stage in his life, I couldn't blame him. I could blame me, though and I did. Actually, I still do.

So when I whine and bitch because I want a burger or I want to eat an entire block of cheese for dinner with a bottle of wine, or I want that fried chicken breast or I want that filet mignon with hollandaise sauce, or I want to eat that entire chocolate cake, I have to remind myself that it's not ALL about the food. In the same respect, it's not NOT all about the food either. I have to step back and remember. I couldn't save my grandfather, my grandmother, or my dad. But I have a chance at saving me. By doing that, I don't feel like they completely died in vain.

To quinoa or not to quinoa

To quinoa or not to quinoa?

That is the question.

At least it was last night.

Quinoa

Pronounced "Keen Wah"

I think it gets a bad rap and, actually up until recently, I had been involved with that misconception.

I would see quinoa and black bean burgers or quinoa salads on menus and wonder why anyone would want to eat "that stuff" when I really didn't know anything about "that stuff".  

This herbaceous annual plant grown as a grain crop was first domesticated about 4,000 years ago by the Andean people. This crop was held sacred by the Incas and referred to as the "mother of all grains".

Quinoa also has plenty of health benefits and is a staple in the whole food, plant based way of eating!

 Honestly, I had never tried this particular whole grain before this self-imposed challenge. Early on in this journey, I made a quinoa salad which was not appealing. Hubs ended up eating the rest of it - at least it didn't go to waste. We figured it must have been a texture thing with me. It looked pretty though.

Considering I still had about four cups of quinoa left, and I refuse to waste food, I decided to give quinoa another chance. I'm so glad I did, because not only was this recipe easy and all made in one pan,  but it was pretty good! So good that I thought I'd share the recipe with you!

One Pan Mexican Quinoa

2 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tsp)

1/2 jalapeno, minced

1 cup quinoa

1 cup vegetable broth, plus 1 tablespoon

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 (14.5 oz) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1 cup corn kernels, frozen, canned

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

ground black pepper, to taste

1 avocado, diced

Juice of 1 lime

chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Directions:

1. Heat tablespoon of vegetable broth in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and jalapeno, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant.
2. Stir in quinoa, cup of vegetable broth, beans, tomatoes, corn, chili powder and cumin.Season with pepper, to taste.
3. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until quinoa is cooked through, about 20 minutes.
4. Stir in avocado, lime juice and cilantro

(recipe adapted from Damndelicious.net)

To quinoa or not to quinoa?

The jury is still out but where this dish is concerned,

we're going with quinoa for the win!