Savannah Mall - Ruby Tuesday

Well, this will be my last evening in Savannah. I'll be heading back home to Tennessee tomorrow. I couldn't decide which sightseeing picture to post today. I had a few of some statues from some of the squares, and a few more of the fountain. I finally decided on another pic of the fountain because it's just about one of the prettiest things that I've ever seen. This pic shows you the long covered walkway leading up to the fountain. It gets even prettier (and spookier) as the sun starts going down and the streetlamps begin to illuminate. At any rate, Savannah is a beautiful city, just like everyone told me that it would be. I'd probably like to come back at some point in the future on my own, when work isn't involved, so I could enjoy myself a little bit more and not have to worry about getting up at a certain time every day and going to class. It's a little expensive down here though, especially if you want to stay right down on the river. I'll probably be back sometime though because there were so many things here that I didn't have time to do this time around.

Unfortunately, today I ended up eating at a chain restaurant that you've seen me eat at before on here. I originally went to the Savannah Mall to try and locate a new restaurant that a bartender told me about. I don't know what it is, but I just seem to attract other vegetarians and vegans to me. I was sitting in a bar the other night, chatting with the bartender when somehow, the issue of food came up and I mentioned that I was vegan and was surprised that there was not an exclusively vegetarian/vegan restaurant in Savannah. Well, come to find out, the bartender was a vegetarian who had actually been vegan for several years before going back to being a vegetarian. He said there was a new restaurant near the mall that had a huge sign outside that said VEGETARIAN or maybe even VEGAN on it. I went to the Savannah Mall and looked all around it, but could not find anything like that. There is more than one mall down here though, so it's possible he was talking about a different mall. I guess I didn't get enough details. DANG IT!

So anyway, I ended up just eating at Ruby Tuesday in the mall because I was short on time and needed to get lunch over with and get back. I really like Ruby Tuesday, it's a good vegan option when you're travelling. I just thought I was going to be able to find something else more local, but I couldn't. So in a way, I guess Ruby Tuesday came to the rescue and helped me eat a filling vegan lunch when I couldn't find any other options.

I started out by making a nice salad from their incredible Salad Bar. I think that they probably have the nicest and most diverse Salad Bar that I am aware of in the chain restaurant industry. It's less than $3 to add it to your meal too, and it's unlimited trips. Plus, they have so many ingredients. I just grabbed a little bit of everything and piled it up into a nice salad. One thing I did do, that I've never done before, was put a few Jalapenos on my salad. I like Jalapenos, but I just had never added them to a salad. It was really good. I'll add those little suckers every time now when I make a salad, if they're available.

I wasn't sure about their salad dressing choices. Even the Light Balsamic Vinegar dressing looked like it might be "creamy", and made me wonder if it might have dairy in it. So I just opted for the oil & vinegar that were sitting there at the end of the salad bar in their separate bottles. You can't go wrong there. My salad was delicious, and I really could have just made a meal out of the Salad Bar. In fact, I probably should have done that since I feel like I have eaten like a PIG this week. But I decided that I might as well enjoy their veggie burger too while I was there. It's the best vegan veggie burger that I know of in the whole chain restaurant industry, and it will DEFINITELY fill you up.

Once again, I asked the server before ordering if that particular restaurant was serving the Veggie Land Burger, because there are supposedly a few Ruby Tuesday locations that serve a different brand of veggie burger that is NOT vegan. She informed me that it was indeed the Veggie Land Burger and said that someone else had asked her about that last week. I guess there must have been another vegan through there, YIPEE! And yes, I got the french fries with it. Not healthy, I know. But hey, I'm pretending like I'm on vacation. I am SO not losing any weight this week. Oh well...

I, of course, also asked her to leave off the mayo and the cheese to make it vegan and then also said that I didn't want them to butter the bun when they grilled it. She looked worried and said she would see what they could do. This was the same look I got at the location at home when I mentioned no butter on the bun. Come to find out, they butter and grill the buns in advance, so there's no way to remove the butter from those buns. So, I just told her that I didn't need my bun grilled, and asked that they just give me a plain bun straight out of the plastic bag, which they did. So I was happy. I have found butter on the buns to be one of those sneaky things that you really have to watch out for when trying to eat out as a vegan. I got burned with it once, a long time ago on a Portobello Mushroom sandwich, and I have been on guard for it ever since. I guess some servers, who really don't understand what veganism is, must think that I am crazy being so worried about butter on the buns, I even had one tell me one time that "they don't use very much and you really can't taste it." But oh well, I eventually get my point across that I don't want any butter on my food, and I guess there's lots of people who think I'm crazy anyway, so there. ;o)

Well, I'm about to head out and cut up a little bit tonight. I guess I can enjoy myself a little bit more since I don't have to get up early for my class tomorrow. I'll just get up whenever I wake up and then start the drive back to Tennessee. It's really not that far. It only took me 5 1/2 hours to drive down here. Hopefully, traffic will be comparable to the drive down and I'll make it back in a similar time frame.

I'll probably stop in Asheville, NC again for lunch on the way home. This time though, I'll try to eat at one of the other vegetarian restaurants there. It really is amazing how many vegetarian dining options there are there, so it's kinda' dumb to just keep eating at the same place over and over. I am planning on FINALLY trying out a place called Rosetta's Kitchen. I don't know what time I'll finally make it home to enter my blog post, but I assume it will be a little later in the day.

So thanks for following the blog this week as I scoped out vegan food in Savannah. There weren't a whole lot of options here, but the ones that I did find were delicious. There were a few more places that were recommended that I didn't even get around to trying, but I guess I'll save those for when I come back and visit the town again on my own and won't be constrained on time because of a work related class.

I'm going out right now to find some ghosts and a great big Margarita!

See everybody tomorrow!

Savannah - Middle Eastern Cuisine

I had a little time to wander around the streets of Savannah this evening and I made my way down to the famous Savannah Fountain and snapped this picture. This thing was beautiful. I've seen lots of pictures of it in the past, but none of them really do it justice. This is really something that everyone should see, if at all possible. It's so pretty as you walk up this long walkway that leads to it. The walkway is surrounded by lots of those huge Weeping Willows with all of the moss growing in them and drooping down towards the ground. BEAUTIFUL! I always thought that the pictures of the fountain were beautiful, but seeing it in real life was even more impressive than I thought it would be. I'm glad I got to see it.

For lunch today, I headed for a place recommended by my vegetarian server at the restaurant where I ate lunch yesterday. It's a little place called Middle Eastern Cuisine. She recommended it because she said that they had the best Hummus and Falafel that she had ever eaten anywhere, and that those items were, of course, vegan. It didn't take me long to find it. In fact, it's really pretty close to where I am staying and where my class is. As you can see from the pic, it has a very unassuming storefront. There was a cool screen door there on the building too that let the nice breezes blow into the restaurant. I think that this place is quite popular. The owner showed me some Savannah tourist magazine there too which had a write-up about his place in it. It's small, but I think that just makes it all that much more interesting.

Needless to say, I started out by ordering the Hummus. All of the ingredients were listed right there on the menu and this was just plain 'ol Hummus made with Chickpeas, garlic, tahini, lemon juice & salt. If there were any secret ingredients in there then they weren't listed on the menu. This Hummus was EXCELLENT. It seems kinda' strange that I've eaten Hummus every single day this week. I guess I'm starting to get addicted. Oh well, there are worse foods to be addicted to. I used to like "fancier" Hummus better, with Roasted Red Peppers or something else like that. But I swear, I can't imagine Hummus tasting any better than just this plain old regular recipe. This stuff was really good.

And then, for my main course, I ordered the Falafel. I have never made Falafel at home, although I have been meaning to. I had only tried it once before. I bought some pre-made brand from the freezer section of the local health food store. It was horrible. I couldn't even bring myself to swallow it. I actually ended up spitting it out in the trash can. I discovered later via some vegan message boards that frozen Falafel is practically inedible and NOTHING like the real thing. Kinda like canned Asparagus I guess. I knew that I wanted to give it another try because I had heard so many people talk about how much they loved the stuff. Well, what better place to try it than in a restaurant called Middle Eastern Cuisine?

The Falafel is homemade, of course, and the owner said that he baked his. It came wrapped up in a Pita with some lettuce, tomato, red onion and cucumber. You could choose from a few different things to spread on it, but I just ended up choosing to have mine slathered with a little more Hummus. OH MY GOD! This was so good. I am SO making some Falafel when I get back home to Tennessee. Now I see what people are talking about when they say how much they like Falafel. I kinda' feel like I've cheated myself by not discovering Falafel earlier in life, but oh well, better late than never. Hopefully I've still got a lot of years left to enjoy eating this stuff. I will definitely be seeking out places that serve Falafel whenever I eat out now. I don't think there are any where I live, but who knows? Maybe there is. I just never have checked. I will certainly be making some homemade very soon though, so keep your eyes peeled for that to appear in my lunchbox one day.

So there you have it, my second vegan lunch in Savannah, GA. If you're ever through there, then definitely look up Middle Eastern Cuisine, it is SO worth it. It's not far from the whole riverfront scene and it's a definite vegan treat. I'm glad that girl at the Mellow Mushroom told me about this place, because I probably never would have discovered it on my own. Although, NOW I know to look for places like this, that serve Hummus & Falafel, in the future, since those two items are inherently vegan.

So thanks for reading my blog today. I'm about to hit the streets again and do some more sightseeing, maybe with a big Margarita in hand. You know, it's legal to walk around on the streets here while drinking an alcoholic beverage. It just has to be in a plastic cup, and you can only have one drink with you. HA! Other than that, as long as you behave, it's perfectly legal. How cool is THAT?!?!

See everybody tomorrow!

Savannah - Mellow Mushroom

Well, as you can see, I made it to Savannah, GA. This first picture is obviously not a picture of the place where I ate lunch at, but a picture of the Mercer House. In case you don't know, it's the house where the whole "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" thing went down. I just thought I would throw in a few pics this week from around town in case some of you might be interesting in seeing them. It was kinda' cool to see this house in person after seeing it in the film. It's really beautiful. In fact, the whole town is. It's just FULL of beautiful old mansions like this with streets lined with palm tress and huge Willow trees with moss growing in them and dropping down toward the ground. It's really beautiful at night too, in a spooky way, which is why I guess there are so many ghosts that supposedly reside here. I'll show some more pics from around town as the week goes on, but now on to my vegan lunch that I enjoyed today.

I ended up dining at the Mellow Mushroom. In case you don't know, it's a chain of pizza restaurants that have this whole funky vibe going on. The atmosphere reminds me of something of a cross between my favorite local restaurant, Cootie Brown's, and a coffeehouse. It's decorated really wild and is full of college kids and hippies and that whole scene. It's really neat. There's actually one an hour away from where I live but I just never had gone to it. After this experience though, I will definitely be visiting the one closer to me on a regular basis. Their food is REALLY delicious and there are several menu items that are vegetarian and can easily be made vegan just by omitting an ingredient or two. The staff was extremely helpful and was happy to help me plan out my vegan meal.

I started out with some of their Hummus. I just had some yesterday up there in Asheville, NC and I wanted to try their Hummus here and see how it compared. WOW! This stuff was good. It came with Pita Bread to spread it on and it was topped with something that was absolutely delicious. Maybe some of you guys know what it is. I couldn't figure out if it was just Taco Seasoning, or a mix of Chili Powder & Cumin, or maybe just some type of Smoked Paprika. Whatever it was, I LOVED it. Definitely some of the best Hummus I have ever eaten. I was actually pretty full just from eating the appetizer, but I still had a large pizza on the way! I ordered a large so I would have lots leftover to carry back to my hotel room to munch on later tonight and for breakfast in the morning.

I ended up ordering the Mega-Veggie Pizza, without cheese, of course. They have a regular Veggie Pizza that has a few less toppings on it, but I wanted the one that goes all out. I can't even remember what all was on there; Portobello Mushrooms, onions, green peppers, roasted red peppers, broccoli, artichokes, olives, tofu and I can't even remember what else. It was REALLY good. I really like their crust and their pizza sauce. And needless to say, as you can guess from looking at the picture, I ended up walking back to my room with LOTS of leftovers.

So there you go, my first vegan lunch in Savannah. I really like the Mellow Mushroom and will probably visit there again one night for dinner this week. My server there was actually a vegetarian and was excited that I was looking for some vegan food in Savannah. She wrote down a couple of places that she recommended, so I've got a few leads on other places to try out this week.

Well, it's almost 9PM here. I think I'll head out for a little while and find some spooky bar to have a couple of drinks at. I noticed last night that they've even got a Haunted Pub Tour down here where you go from bar to bar (buying a drink at each one, of course) listening to all of these ghost stories. That really sounds like fun, but I can't have THAT much fun tonight because I've got class again in the morning. I am gonna' go out for a little while though because the town at night is SO pretty.

So thanks for checking in today. See everybody tomorrow!

Laughing Seed Cafe in Asheville, NC

I am actually sitting here in Savannah, GA as I write this blog entry, but the lunch that I'm going to show you is actually from where I stopped in Asheville, NC earlier and ate lunch on my way down to Georgia. Asheville is one of my favorite places in the world, and it's very vegan friendly. There are numerous vegetarian restaurants there and Laughing Seed Cafe is my favorite, so far. One reason is because I like it so much that I never can bring myself to try one of the other restaurants when I am over there. I always want to go to the Laughing Seed. Perhaps someday I'll get around to trying all of the other places, but today, while driving through North Carolina on my way down to Savannah, I was in the mood for some awesome vegan food. I've gotten kinda' worried about what I'm going to be able to find in Savannah, so I wanted to start my trip off with a bang and get some awesome vegan food at a restaurant that I knew wouldn't let me down.

I ended up starting out with an appetizer of some Roasted Red Pepper Hummus that actually had some Artichoke blended up in it as well. Of course, it was delicious. And it just reminded me of the fact that I don't eat anywhere near enough Hummus. That stuff is so easy to make, and I like it so much, that I should be snacking on this stuff all the time. Of course, snacking on it all of the time could add up to some calories if I consumed it all on Pita Bread, but I guess I could always try some healthier options like veggies or something. But anyway, the hummus that they had prepared for their appetizer special today was fabulous. YUM!

The lunch menu is a little bit toned down from the dinner menu. There's more sandwiches and stuff like that one there. I ended up ordering the Tempeh Reuben. I love making Tempeh Reubens at home using the VwaV recipe. In case you haven't tried it, those are AWESOME! This one was good as well. It tasted exactly like I expected it to. The Russian dressing is vegan, and you can order it in either a vegetarian version, which has some cheese on it, or leave that cheese off, like I did, which makes the whole sandwich vegan. Mmmmmm... Tempeh Reubens. DELICIOUS! Their french fries are really delicous too, but not that healthy, I know... They fry them up with onions and jalapeno peppers which makes them exceptionally tasty.

Then, just to make a complete hog out of myself, I asked if they had any vegan desserts today, and they did. It's a Strawberry Napoleon which is basically, just some fresh strawberries between layers of yummy pastry, all topped with some type of delicious vegan coconut "cream" sauce. EXCELLENT!

Needless to say, this road trip to Savannah may not be good for my diet. When I weighed myself this weekend I weighed 201 lbs. That means that I lost another 2 pounds last week which brings my total weight loss to 24 lbs. Not bad. Only 16 more to go to get to my goal of 185 lbs. If I keep eating like this though, on this trip, then I may not be reporting any loss next week. I guess it will depend on whether I can find any vegan food as delicious as this down in Savannah and how much walking I manage to get in.

I'm not gonna' beat myself up over it though. Even though this trip is for work, it's a mini-vacation too and I intend on enjoying myself down here in Savannah. If I end up having a week where I don't lose any weight, then that will be just fine. I've been losing weight for several weeks in a row now and I deserve to enjoy myself a little. I'm not gonna' go wild or anything and gain all 24 pounds back in a week, but if I end up not losing any pounds this week I'm not gonna' feel bad about it. I'll just get back with the program when I get back home. Anyway, who knows? I might walk so much down here that I DO lose a pound or two. Stranger things have happened.

So there's what I ate for lunch for Monday. I know it's not in Savannah, but hey, I couldn't drive past the Laughing Seed Cafe and not stop for lunch. Wish me luck as I start to explore Savannah and see what kind of hidden vegan treasures I can find. I've already gotten some good tips from a few locals, so who knows what I might find. I think I'll go explore right now!

Thanks for reading my blog. Remember that my posting schedule will be messed up this week because I'll be in class most of the day. So the posts will probably be coming a little later than usual.

See everybody tomorrow!

Vegan Turkey Sammich

Well, there's nothing fancy about today's lunch so there probably won't be too much to talk about. Today was one of those days that I really just wanted to bring a plain old sandwich. It's been a while since I've had one in the lunchbox, plus I didn't feel like cooking too much stuff last night, so it all worked out. I was really wanting to bring a Bologna sandwich, but the Turkey was all that I had. Of course, I'm not talking about real Bologna or Turkey. I'm talking about the Light Life Deli Slices. I just love the Bologna style on some bread smeared with a bunch of Vegenaise. YUM! But, like I said, all I had in the fridge was the Roasted Turkey style, so the decision was kinda' made for me. I really like it too. In fact, I think it's kinda' scary how close they actually got to the taste of real turkey. Definitely a good vegan product if you like deli-style stuff on sandwiches. The Light Life Deli Slices are obviously based on Seitan, but they have really got the texture thing down. I'm not sure which ingredient it is that makes it so similar to the texture of deli meat, but whatever it is it works. I notice there is Tapioca in there, and I've seen that in a few seitan recipes as a texture modifier, I assume, so maybe that's it. I've never even bought Tapioca before, but I did notice all kinds of it at the Asian market last week, so maybe I should get some and experiment with it in my homemade seitan and see what kind of effects it has.

I made my Turkey Sammich (I just like to say that sometimes instead of sandwich) using some Light Bread that only has half the calories of regular bread. You would think it would be smaller since it has fewer calories, but it's actually larger than the regular bread I buy. It looks like they either do something with the yeast or add a bunch of baking soda or something to get the bread to really poof up full of air pockets, a lot more than you would normally see in regular bread. So it's a lot more "airy" than my usual bread, which makes it bigger, and also lower in calories since all that air is in there. I just noticed this because with my old bread I can cram two sandwiches into this lunchbox, whereas with the Light Bread, only one would fit. Heck, if I'm using Light Bread trying to cut back on calories then what the heck am I doing trying to pack TWO sandwiches in my lunchbox. IDIOT!

Anyway, it's hard to see the Light Life Roasted Turkey Deli Slices, but they're under the Spinach leaves there. I think I put about 4 slices on this sandwich. I also sliced up a Roma Tomato and put that in there, and I spread a little Vegenaise on the bread. I went a little easier on the Vegenaise than I used to since I want to continue losing some weight this week.

To go along with my sandwich, I brought some more of Joanna's Lemon Butter Rice. This stuff is probably my favorite side dish now because it is so easy to make and has such intense taste. It just tastes healthy too you know, Brown Rice and fresh Lemon. Mmmmmmm...

For dessert I just threw in some Raw Almonds & Raisins. Keeping a few different kinds of dried fruit and raw nuts around usually makes it easy to improvise a dessert for lunch if I don't have anything special to bring. Just grab one or two different types of nuts and one or two different types of dried fruit and throw it all together. If you have enough different types of nuts & fruit, you could come up with different combinations for days before you had to repeat yourself.

Well, I guess that does it for Friday's lunch. Nothing fancy, but kinda' noteworthy since it's something that most people (i.e. omnivores) don't even know is an option if you stop eating animal products. I just wish more people realized that stuff like this is available and how super easy it is to be vegan now with all of these meat replacements just sitting there in the coolers at regular grocery stores. I guess that's why I'm blogging huh?

So thanks for coming by today and I'll see everybody on Monday.

Everything's worked out at home and my housesitter/babysitter (for my Yorkie and my kitty) is coming to stay at the house later this weekend so that I can go on my little trip to Savannah, GA next week. I've got to go for work, but I plan on taking in some of the sites and having a little fun too. It looks like my dining options are going to be severely limited there though. It looks like my only choices for food are going to be an Indian restaurant that's classified as vegan-friendly, a coffee shop that sells some vegan stuff, and a pizza place that has some fancier toppings, but no vegan cheese. I've really got more options than that HERE where I live, but I guess we'll see how it goes. If all else fails I can always call Papa John's. So, don't be too disappointed if the posts aren't all that exciting next week. I'll do all I can to make it as interesting as possible, but if it ends up being a vegan dining wasteland, then I don't guess there will be too much I can do except eat salads. It'll be interesting. Who knows what my blog posting times will be like either. In other words, next week may be kinda' screwy here in my blog, but I'll try to make it entertaining. Hopefully it will be fun.

Actually, now that I think about it, since I didn't go anywhere on vacation last year, this will actually be my first time travelling somewhere new, for more than one night, as a vegan. So I guess we'll see how big of a challenge it will be for me to find some decent vegan grub huh?

Have a great weekend. See you in Savannah!

Soy Boy Ravioli

Today's lunchbox contains a storebought vegan item that I've been wanting to try for quite a while, but I just never was able to locate it at any store. Well, that changed a couple of weeks ago when I was browsing through the freezer section at The Health Barn, one of our local health food stores. I have discovered several different vegan items there that I NEVER thought I could find around here, and that day was no exception. My jaw dropped open when I spotted Soy Boy Ravioli sitting there in the freezer. I was already aware of their products from their advertising in Satya magazine, but I had never seen any of their products in stores. The Health Barn has quickly become my favorite place to shop because they have so many of the hard-to-find vegan items that no one else seems to want to carry. I even made it a point when I was there to compliment the guy who is the grocery buyer and tell him what an awesome job I think he does and how much I appreciate being able to come in there and buy ready-made vegan food items.

The Soy Boy Ravioli is just stuffed with a tofu mixture that's spiced up with some herbs & garlic and such. Pretty standard stuff, like a tofu ricotta. It's good, but I must admit that I like the Spinach Ricotta that SusanV uses in her lasagna recipe better. I guess that's a clue that I need to make my own dang Ravioli sometime and stuff it with exactly what I like huh? I've never made Ravioli before, but it seems like it would be fun. But, the Soy Boy product is good, and VERY convenient since all I had to do was just boil some water and plop the Raviolis in and let them cook for a few minutes. For the sauce, which is NOT radioactive despite how it looks in the picture, I just stirred in some storebought Spaghetti Sauce. I honestly can't even remember what the brand was right now. I'm not really picky about pasta sauce because I pretty much like them all. I usually just grab whatever happens to be on sale and give the ingredients list a quick scan to make sure there's no cheese or anything else in it that would spoil the vegan vibe. I'll definitely buy this Soy Boy Ravioli again, because it IS good. Making my own might be a little better, but it would also be more work. So I guess there's a trade-off there somewhere. In a nutshell, the Soy Boy Ravioli is a tasty and very convenient pre-made vegan product. I'm glad that I found it and I will buy it again.

To go along with the Ravioli, I brought another Spinach Salad. I liked the fresh squeezed Lemon Juice & Olive Oil that I had on my salad yesterday, so I brought that again too. And for dessert, I just threw together my own little homemade trail-mix combination there of raw Sunflower Seeds, raw Almonds, raw Cashews and Raisins. Mmmmm... Very good. I could eat a 5 pound sack of this stuff.

I'm also happy to report that I have been getting in my lunchtime walks like I promised, so hopefully the exercise thing is back on track after that wretched cold snap. I went out and ate dinner last night with my parents to celebrate my mom's birthday and we went to our favorite Mexican place. I normally blow my diet all to pieces when I eat there, which is why it's been a looooong time since I went there. But I was actually pretty good last night. I tried something new and got the manager over there (I kinda' know him) and asked him what they fried the mushrooms in when they grill them. He said they used vegetable oil. I asked him if they put any lard in there or any butter, and he said that they did not, it was just mushrooms & onions grilled with some vegetable oil. So I ended up getting 3 soft tacos with grilled mushrooms & onions on them (instead of meat) and lettuce & tomato. I poured a little salsa on them too and I was good to go. I think they think that I am LOCO, but they made it and it was delicious. Mushrooms have so much more taste than meat. I also only consumed one and a half margaritas (7 oz. size) instead of my normal 20 (just joking, but I normally did drink a lot more margaritas than that and they have SO many calories). So yeah, I blew my diet a little bit last night by going there, but it was a special occasion and I did a lot better than I normally do when I eat there. It was worth it and I'll probably still lose some weight this week. I don't think one little splurge will ruin anything.

So I guess that does it for Thursday's lunchbox. Definitely try the Soy Boy Ravioli if you find it where you live, and you like Ravioli. It's yummy.

Thanks for reading my blog today. See everybody on Friday!

RAW - Carrot & Sunflower Seed Burger

Well, I never thought I would actually get around to doing it, but lo and behold I've finally made one of the fancier (and more time consuming) raw vegan dishes for my lunchbox. It seems like I've been working on this one for a week now. Of course, it's not hard work or anything. It's mostly just a lot of time waiting for things to soak, and to sprout, and to dehydrate, etc. Half of this dish is actually from a recipe and half of it is made up. After I've finally gotten into it and started making some of this stuff, I can see where it would be easy to just make recipes up and wing it based on what ingredients you might happen to have on hand. At any rate, this raw vegan lunch is actually pretty tasty. I don't think I could live on this 100% of the time, but it makes for a nice change of pace, and you can definitely tell that it's healthy for you when you eat it. And yeah, it may look kinda' small, I guess all raw food kinda' looks small now that I think about it, but believe me, it is dense and rich, not as in sweet, but just meaning that it would be difficult to eat more than one of these raw veggie burgers.

The raw Carrot & Sunflower Seed Burger started out with me making the raw "bread" that serves as the buns for the "burger". I made them from a recipe in Alissa Cohen's book, "Living on Live Foods". The main ingredients are sprouted buckwheat and soaked flax seeds. There are quite a few spices added in there too which make it taste really good. Basically, you just mix all of that stuff up in a food processor and then spread it out into sheets and dehydrate them. You can mound it up into big hamburger bun shapes if you want to, but I just did mine in thin sheets and then, when they were about halfway done dehydrating, I took the sheets out and used a glass to cut out small circles that I knew would be able to fit into the lunchbox. I stopped the dehydrating when they were about the texture of bread. You could easily let them continue on and dry down further until they got crunchy and then use them as Live Crackers. I'll probably try that soon, because I do like the taste of this stuff. You'll probably see me use them as mini pizza crusts too at some point. Basically, this stuff made from sprouted buckwheat & flax could serve as any kind of bread, or cracker, or wrapper for a raw vegan food dish.

The "burger" part is just kinda' made up based on one of my favorite cooked veggie burger recipes, which in turn is a clone of the Sunshine Burger, which is one of my favorite storebought veggie burgers. SHEESH! I just soaked some sunflower seeds for a few hours, then put them in the food processor with some carrots, onion, garlic and basil and then just processed the whole thing until it turned into a dough like consistency that I could mold into patties. I just dehydrated them for a few hours and they were done. To make the complete burger I just took a couple of pieces of the "bread" and put a patty between them along with some raw spinach and tomato. Like I said, this does taste good, but it is kinda' hard to eat too much of it because it tastes so nutrient dense. I don't know if I'll ever bother making these again, because it does take a while to do, but I'm glad I tried them just so I could see what something like this tasted like. I like it.

To go along with my "burger" I've got a salad (a.k.a. some Spinach), and in keeping with the raw vegan theme, my salad dressing is just a small container of some cold-pressed Olive Oil and a big lemon wedge that I can squeeze on the salad. For dessert, I just cup up a few fresh Strawberries.

So there you have it, my very first attempt at some of the fancier raw vegan cuisine. I was pleased with how they came out, but like I said, I'm not sure I like devoting that much prep time to such small food, even though it's not hard work. I'm sure I'll try some more raw cuisine, but I see now that I am definitely not cut out for being a 100% raw vegan at this point.

Today's lunch is definitely healthy though, and low calorie, so it will hopefully help me lose some more weight this week. It's finally starting to warm up again around here, so I can finally get back into the groove of walking every day. With that cold snap that we had last week, my walking schedule was seriously interrupted. In fact, I was surprised that I even lost any weight last week, but I did. Of course, the cold is really no excuse considering that I have a treadmill at home (hangs head in shame). Anyway, I AM walking today and the rest of this week.

So thanks for checking out the blog today. See everybody on Thursday!

Lolo's Crispy Sweet & Sour Seitan

When I was thinking about what I was gonna' fix for lunch today, I knew that I wanted to make something from the beef-style seitan that I made this past weekend. And it really wasn't hard to decide which recipe to use because there's one that's been going around the message boards and it seems like everybody and their brother has been making it and loved it. So, last night, I finally got around to making the Crispy Sweet & Sour Seitan from Lolo's VeganYumYum blog, which just so happens to be one of my favorite vegan blogs. If you don't already know about it (heck, you've probably already made it, I feel like I'm the only vegan on the planet who hasn't made it yet) it's supposedly a very accurate clone of a dish served at a certain restaurant which I know absolutely nothing about. All I knew was that the pictures that everyone had been posting looked awesome, and the recipe itself sounded like it would be delicious. It sounded a lot like General Tso's sauce (or however in the world you spell that), and I LOVE that stuff. So I made it last night.

The recipe was really easy to follow, and I didn't have any trouble making the dish. It turned out just as delicious as everyone said it would. And it does remind me a lot of a General Tso's dish, except maybe a little heavier on the Rice Wine Vinegar. After cooking it though, and eating the first bite, I realized that this was most definitely something that I should not be eating a lot of, or eating on a regular basis if I want to continue to lose weight. There's quite a bit of oil involved in this recipe, and I really didn't have much to drain off at the end of the frying like the recipe says to do because the corn starch on the seitan seemed to have soaked it all up. So yeah, this IS delicious, but it's also full of corn starch & oil. No wonder it tastes so good. I just ate a little bit of it last night, and this is really WAY too much in the lunchbox. I'm planning on probably just eating about half of what I brought. I probably really should have packed it into one of the smaller containers. Anyway, this is a super tasty dish but I definitely need to eat it in moderation. This is one of those things that I would classify as a vegan TREAT, that I should probably only eat from time to time. Of course, you could alter the recipe and make it a lot healthier, which is probably what I'll do the next time I make it. I think next time I'll probably just fry the seitan in a skillet sprayed with a little Canola Oil and leave out the corn starch all together. I know that's what made it so crispy, but I think it would still have a little crispiness to it just from the frying. I made a double batch when I made it last night so there was like 1/2 cup of peanut oil in it. I'll probably try this again in the future and try leaving all of that out. I know it won't be the same recipe then, but I just can't trust myself with something with that much fat & starch in it.

Eating this dish did get me stirred up to make some more General Tso's Tofu (or Tao's or WHATEVER!) though (the recipe from vegweb) and use seitan instead of tofu. If I were to fry it in cornstarch I think it would be just like chicken, but I really don't want to do that in this dish either, so I'll probably just fry the seitan in a quick spray of canola oil to try and make it healthier. I recommend making Lolo's Crispy Sweet & Sour Seitan recipe if you like intensely flavored Asian food, because it's VERY delicious. It's just definitely NOT diet food, but nobody ever claimed it was. Definitely a vegan TREAT.

To go along with the seitan I brought some Steamed Broccoli and some Raw Almonds. And then I've got some "Beefy" Rice that resulted from a little experiment I did and it turned out AWESOME! Remember yesterday when I was talking about seitan cooking broth and how much I hated to throw it out after I was finished making seitan? Well, this time I saved the broth, which was "beef" flavored broth from the recipe in La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer and used it as the liquid part when I made some Brown Rice. I just took 1 cup of Brown Rice and 2 cups of the broth and then heated it to boiling, then reduced the heat and let it simmer, covered, for 40-45 minutes. The result is DELICIOUS. It really does taste "beefy". This would be so good too with some grilled onions added, or maybe peas & carrots, or mushrooms. I am NEVER throwing my seitan cooking broth away again.

So there you have it, two new recipes, one of which I knew was already delicious from everyone else's previous experience, and one that I just kinda' made up to see what it would taste like. Now I have an excuse to make more seitan, just so I can get the broth! Actually, I probably WILL be making a lot more seitan now because it's probably my favorite of the meat-replacement holy trinity, but I just always hated throwing all that broth out at the end, so it kinda' discouraged me from making it. NOT ANY MORE! Now I know that when I make seitan, I'll also be able to make delicious rice dishes, and you know, it would be good for making stuffing too, especially if it was chicken-style broth. I guess that'll be the next thing to try huh?

So thanks for reading my blog today. See everybody on Wednesday.

Mock Meat & Noodle Toss

Today's lunch came about as the result of a day long cooking marathon that I had yesterday. I don't know what got into me, maybe it was just because it was too cold outside to do anything else, but I just had the urge to cook yesterday. I made several things, a couple of which are present in today's lunchbox. It'll be a day or so before I can enjoy some of the other things because they are raw vegan dishes, and well, take some time with all the soaking, sprouting and dehydrating that you have to do. One thing that I definitely knew that I wanted to do yesterday was make some seitan. It's been a while since I've made any and it seems like new seitan recipes have been catching my eye a lot here recently out on the vegan message boards. Now, I had gotten into the habit of baking my seitan the last few times that I made it because I just HATE throwing all of that cooking broth out. Making those vegan chicken & dumplings a while back got me thinking though. Why do I need to throw the broth out? It's tasty. In the chicken & dumpling recipe it's easy, because the broth becomes the "soupy" part of the dish. When making "beef-style" seitan though, like I did yesterday, I mean, why do I need to throw the broth away? I could just re-use it to make some "beefy" rice or something like that. At any rate, I made myself a nice batch of beef style seitan and I saved the broth so I can experiment with it later in the week.

I used the seitan recipe found in La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer. It's probably the easiest boiled seitan recipe that I know of, and I really like the taste and texture of it. I would have made the baked type, but I was out of aluminum foil. Curses! Anyway, it came out delicious. Then I chopped a little bit of it up and used it in a recipe found in the same cookbook called "Mock Meat & Rice Noodle Toss". I didn't have any rice noodles though, so I just substituted Soba noodles. No big whoop. It came out really good. I would certainly like to cook this again sometime. It's basically just grilled seitan, onions and some edamame all cooked in some homemade Teriyaki sauce and then served over noodles. How could that not be good?

To go along with my main course, I also brought along some Raw Sugar Snap Peas. And I also brought along the thing that was probably most responsible for starting my cooking session yesterday, and that's Joanna's Lemon Butter Rice. It had been a couple of weeks since I made it last and I was craving it yesterday, so I just whipped up a big batch. I ate most of it yesterday, but managed to save a little bit for the lunchbox. I may have to make some more tonight if I want to enjoy it any more this week.

I also tossed in a few Raw Cashews. I just got these from the bulk bin at the health food store. Unfortunately, these are just the broken pieces, not the nice whole nuts, which are so much prettier. The broken ones are like half the price though, and I bought them with the intention of making some raw "cheeses" from them, so I figured why waste extra money on whole cashews if I'm just gonna' grind them up. I haven't gotten around to trying that yet though, and cashews never last long at my house. So no matter what I bought them for originally, if they sit in the fridge for more than a day or two, I am gonna' get in 'em. I think I could eat my weight in cashews.

And speaking of weight, when I weighed myself this morning, I weighed 203 lbs. That means that I lost another 2 pounds last week and have now lost a total of 22 lbs. (just a little more than halfway to my goal of losing at least 40 pounds). I'm starting to get a little excited now because I think my weight loss is really obvious now. Several people commented on it this weekend, and it's really starting to show in my face, which is great. I guess I've lost 10% of my body weight now (from my starting point of 225 lbs.) and that's supposedly an important milestone because losing 10% of your body weight supposedly lowers your risks for a variety of ailments significantly. I just remember that you got your own special star for that on Weight Watchers Online.

I was actually a little bit lower than this at one point last week, after eating 100% raw for a couple of days, but I guess switching back to regular food for the rest of the week averaged it all out to a 2 pound loss. I'll probably have another raw day or two here pretty soon as some of this "fancier" stuff that I'm working on gets completed, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I've lost track of exactly how many weeks I've been at this now, but I've obviously settled down into the 2 lbs. per week weight loss mode. That's what everything I've ever read has said is a healthy rate of weight loss, so I guess it's all good. I'm really excited that I've managed to shed 22 lbs. so far and I can't wait until I finally get back down to 185 (or less). Before that though, I'll also be really excited in another week or two when my weight doesn't start with the number 2 anymore. There's just something psychological about weighing 199 lbs. instead of 200 lbs. I can't wait until I drop below 200. Hopefully, it won't be long.

So there's my lunch and the weight loss update for Monday. It's been a while since I've had a good seitan dish, and this one just reminded me of how much I like the stuff. I've got a good amount of it made up now, so perhaps I'll try out some of those other interesting recipes that I've seen floating around on the internet.

Thanks for coming by today and I'll see everybody tomorrow.

Vegan Pizza @ Cootie Brown's

Well, I didn't have to go to work today since it was a holiday, so I spent the morning messing around with my raw "bread" that I put into the dehydrator yesterday. It's basically a mix of sprouted buckwheat, soaked flax seeds, carrots, and some spices like curry, garlic & rosemary. You just put all of that together in the food processor and blend it up and then spread it on the dehydrator trays and dry it down until it's bread-like, or cracker-like, whatever you want. I actually tasted of the wet stuff, straight from the food processor, and it was actually very yummy. I could definitely see using it as a Live Dip for some raw veggies. In fact, I ate quite a few pieces of raw carrot dipped in some of the leftovers and it was very delicious. It went into the dehydrator yesterday evening and should be done sometime today. But anyway, when lunch time rolled around, I pretty much decided that I would like to go out for lunch. I had no idea that it would be SO crowded out today, but I guess everybody else in the country had the same urge I did, to go out and eat for lunch on their day off.

Eating out here where I live, and being able to eat something that's both yummy & vegan, of course limits my choices significantly. One place that I can always count on though is Cootie Brown's. That's why it shows up so often in my blog. Unfortunately for most people who read this blog, there are only two of these and they're right here where I live & work. I wish everybody could try their food, but I'm also a little selfish and am so thankful that they are here where I live. Since it can sometimes be a challenge to find vegan food when you eat out, having a little gem like Cootie Brown's around, which offers several different delicious things that can easily be made vegan, is a lifesaver.

I went there today with my best friend and it was PACKED. We ordered the Mexicana pizza which comes topped with black beans, red onions, green peppers, sliced jalapeno peppers, roasted chilies, roasted red peppers & black olives. It normally comes with Monterey Jack & Cheddar Cheese on it, but I, of course, left those off to make my pizza vegan. I'm sure it's delicious just like that, with absolutely no cheese on it, but look at the picture of my pizza. What is that? It looks like it has cheese on it. Have I renounced my veganism?

No way. Believe it or not, it's actually some Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella (the BEST vegan mozzarella cheese replacement, in my opinion, and that of a bunch of other people). I cubed some up and took it to the restaurant with me in a little plastic storage container. Once I got there, the owner and his wife actually happened to be there so I asked them if they would mind putting my vegan "cheese" on the pizza instead of the actual cheese that they normally use. They didn't mind at all. AWESOME!

It's still kinda' blocky, because if you've ever used the FYH cheese before then you know that you usually have to hit it with the broiler at the end of your cooking in order to get it to really melt up. But they were extremely busy today and I kinda' felt bad about springing this on them right in the middle of such a rush, so I didn't request any special cooking adjustments or anything, I was just thankful that they would actually put my vegan cheese on my pizza. Some of it melted, and it all got nice & creamy, so it was VERY delicious. We only ate half of it at the restaurant. I brought the other half home and I'll probably zap it under the broiler in the toaster oven tonight for a late night snack. That'll be goooooooooooood.

And get this, the owner's wife rang me up and she said that they would actually look into getting that vegan "cheese" and offering it at the restaurants as an option on their pizzas! WOW! I made the comment that they probably wouldn't need very much since there probably wouldn't be many people ordering it and she told me that there are actually quite a few vegans who eat there regularly. Who are these other vegans here where I live? I wonder if they read my blog?

Speaking of people who read my blog, after I got done at Cootie Brown's I FINALLY visited Melanie's soap & candle shop. She's a local reader of my blog and frequent contributor in the comments section, in case you have no idea who I am talking about. It's so cool to meet someone in the real world that I met through blogging. I had already tried some of her soap, which I purchased in a local health food store, but I used all of that up and was in need of some more. So I already knew that I loved her stuff. Her store (and it's where she makes all of her stuff too) is REALLY neat. I ended up buying a few bars for me (I got the Vanilla Bean, Nag Champa (I love that smell), and some kind of Japanese Grapefruit) and a few bars for my mom. It's her birthday and I know that she'll love this soap when she gets it. Melanie even fixed it up all nice for me in a basket so it's all ready for giving as a birthday gift. Thanks Melanie! Even if you don't live near here, you can still order some of her awesome soap online (it's all vegan, except one with honey in it). It's all homemade and full of such yummy stuff. I just love the look and feel of homemade soap. It's almost like something that you should eat instead of wash with. If you're into fancy handmade soaps, you will really like her stuff. It's REALLY nice.

Oh yeah, I met her daughter Storm and her two kitties too. Hi Storm!

So there you have it, a little vegan adventure on my day off. I had some awesome vegan pizza, and maybe even started the ball rolling on a local pizza place serving vegan pizza, and picked up some awesome vegan soap too. Not a bad way to spend a chilly Friday.

So thanks for reading the blog this week. See everybody on Monday.

Happy Easter!

Finally! - Amy's Spinach Pizza

Well, I finally managed to locate that elusive new product from Amy's Kitchen; the new vegan Rice Crust Spinach Pizza that has the Follow Your Heart Vegan Mozzarella on it. I've been looking for this thing for quite some time but have had a hard time finding it, as have several other people from what I have read on some other vegan message boards. I know I could make something like this myself, but I think it's exciting that someone actually bothered to put a frozen pizza with vegan cheese on it on the market, so I wanted to support that effort and purchase one. There was only one in the freezer at one of the local Health Food Stores (THE HEALTH BARN, which is my new favorite place to shop). So when I saw it I actually gasped and grabbed it before anyone else could snatch this vegan prize from my grasp.

I just cooked it in the toaster oven and then cut out a nice big square piece from the middle that would fit nicely into the lunchbox. That left me with these four side pieces that I sampled last night to see what I thought about it. DELICIOUS! I already knew that I loved the FYH Vegan Mozzarella, but I had never had a Rice Crust before. It's really delicious. It tastes a lot like the homemade pizza crust that I like to make from Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. The texture is very much like that.

There are only two real drawbacks about this product and one is the amount of fat in it. I mean, just look at the nutritional information! This is WAY more fat and WAY more calories than I calculate for the homemade pizzas that I make, and mine even have vegan pepperoni and such on them. The other thing is the price. These things are not cheap. The one that I purchased was $7.69. So obviously, I could just buy some FYH cheese and make something similar homemade, probably without the Rice Crust, for a lot less. But like I said, I'm glad that they are making this product, so I wanted to purchase it to support the company, and really, if I ordered this in a restaurant and it cost that much, I don't guess I would think twice about it. I just wish it was a little less costly and lower on the fat and calories. Anyway, it's definitely delicious, there's no arguing about that. So if you're pressed for time, and want a delicious vegan pizza, then this would definitely make you very happy.

Since the pizza has so many calories, I just finished filling the lunchbox with some Edamame and some Dried Apricots for dessert.

I don't have to work tomorrow since it's a company holiday, so I'm not sure what I'll do for the blog. If I go out and eat for lunch, which I am kinda' planning on doing, then I'll just take my camera along and do another "Vegan Dining Out" post. If I make something at home, then I guess I'll just do a post about that. But anyway, whatever I do, it probably won't involve the lunchbox since I don't have to carry my lunch to work.

So thanks for coming by today and I'll see everybody tomorrow!

Reduced Calorie Vegan Chicken Sandwich

Today's lunchbox features a little idea that I came up with a couple of weeks ago as a way to reduce the calories in something that I eat ALL the time, and that's the Vegan Chicken Sandwich made with the Boca Chik'n Patties. If you've been reading the blog then you've seen me bring them before in a few different ways. I eat quite a few of these things since they're so convenient, but since I've started trying to lose some weight I've paid more attention to my food and it's kinda' bothered me that the patties have 180 calories. I mean, I don't guess that's a big deal, because if you combine it with a Light Bun, which has 80 calories, then you're still only looking at 260 calories for your sandwich. I've been trying to cut calories out everywhere that I can though, and one day I finally figured out how to remove a few calories from this sandwich.

It's easy, just use the Boca Chik'n Nuggets instead of the patties. It takes four nuggets to equal the 180 calories of one pattie, and it only takes three nuggets to make a sandwich, so you save 45 calories right there. Not only that, but based on the number of nuggets in a box and the number of patties in a box, 2 boxes of patties will make 8 sandwiches but 2 boxes of nuggets will make 9 sandwiches. The patties & nuggets cost the same here where I live, so that's kinda' like getting one sandwich for free. Granted, there is a tiny little area of the bun that's not covered when you use the nuggets, but it's not that big of a deal. You can still get some "chicken" in every bite. I guess 45 calories isn't THAT big of a deal, but when you eat as many sandwiches as I do (I practically live on them on the weekends, especially when I'm at the campground) those calories add up. So that's just a little idea I thought I would pass along in case anyone else might be interested in shaving off a few calories here and there.

To go along with my sandwich I brought some more raw Sugar Snap Peas. I love these things. They're great for snacking too. I had never tried them until a couple of weeks ago when I spotted some at the grocery store that were marked down to something like 50 cents so that they could get rid of them before they went bad. I gladly pay full price for them now because they taste so good and you can just tell that they're good for you when you eat them.

I also brought along a few raw Almonds and some Raisins for dessert. So, I guess that's a fairly healthy lunch. 3 out of 4 items are raw and the one cooked item weighs in at only about 215 calories. If I add in a nice walk during lunch then this should work out good for helping me shed the second half of that 40 pounds I want to lose.

And speaking of raw food, I was so excited this morning when I got up and went into the kitchen to rinse my Buckwheat that I am sprouting. I removed the towel that was covering the bowl and THEY HAVE SPROUTED! I felt like jumping up and down because I've never sprouted anything before. It really does feel like you're gardening on your kitchen counter. I don't have the recipe with me now for making the raw "bread" but I'm pretty sure I need to soak some Flax Seeds as well, so I don't know if I'll have time to do that between the time I get home and the time I go to bed, or if I'll just have to put the Buckwheat sprouts in the fridge and soak the Flax overnight. At any rate, I'm excited about making some raw "bread", and if it comes out halfway decent at all I'll show it on here.

So thanks for stopping by my blog today. See everybody on Thursday.

RAW

Well, sorry again for the late post. Even though I usually type most of my blog posts up the night before, I'm not able to get online right now and add last-minute comments before I activate the post from work like I used to. I'm not sure if this is just temporary or not, but for a while, at least, it looks like I'm gonna' be on a little bit different schedule with my posts showing up either a lot earlier or a lot later than they used to. At any rate, I'll still post every day, just don't be surprised if the timing is really weird.

For my lunch today, I just packed a simple raw lunch containing some fruits & vegetables, as well as a few nuts. I've got some raw Broccoli & Carrots and some fresh Strawberries for "dessert". I packed a few raw Almonds to munch on as a snack at some point in the day too. I just love raw nuts, especially Cashews & Almonds, although I did discover in some reading last night that the Raw Foodists are up in arms because there will soon be a requirement that ALL Almonds be pasteurized. So even though they might be labeled as "raw", and will still sprout, they are all going to be exposed to high temperatures. Not such a good thing if your a raw foodist and want all of your food to have all of its enzymes intact. Sounds like there will definitely be some fighting over this.

And as far as the raw food thing goes, I've eaten 100% raw for two days now, and I (once again) realize that I'm probably being unreasonable in thinking that I can eat like this for an extended period of time. If you've been reading the blog for very long, then you probably remember previous times where I've gotten stirred up and claimed I wanted to go 100% raw, but reality soon sets in when I realize how much work is going to be involved if I want to have any kind of variety, and how much it actually costs to eat that way all of the time.

So even though I was on here yesterday claiming I thought I could go 100% raw, after a second day of it, I realize that it's probably really not for me. Just eating raw veggies (and nothing else) gets old fast (in 2 days actually). And I would like to create all of those fancy raw dishes but I really don't have the time to do all of that sprouting & dehydrating and stuff. Just keeping this blog going takes up enough of my time. Plus, I enjoy cooking too much. I mean, if I went raw then I couldn't work on perfecting that veggie burger recipe!

So I confess, I've failed at trying to go 100% raw again. Of course, I did do it for a couple of days, and I did get a nice POP! in my weight loss this week from it. But it will be interesting to see if that holds out for the rest of the week as I go back to regular old vegan food. Of course, I'm still trying to lose weight so I'm not going to stuff myself or anything, and I'll still be working in plenty of raw fruits & veggies to go with my cooked food.

So, this ended up being strange. I posted some cooked food yesterday and told everybody that I didn't even eat it because I was eating raw from that point on, and then today I've posted some raw food and told everybody that I want to start cooking again. Sorry for being so indecisive. But anyway, nothing bad happened. I just ate raw for a couple of days and found out that it's not as easy to stick with as I thought.

I've still got my Buckwheat Groats sprouting in the kitchen. I do want to finish sprouting those and make some raw vegan "bread" items from them just to see what that tastes like, so don't be surprised if you see a funny looking bun pop up in the blog in a few days.

So, sorry for flip-flopping so much. I AM intrigued by the raw lifestyle, but I guess I just kept forgetting how much I was already enjoying the way that I was eating. I like cooking too much, and I've got a trip to Savannah coming up here in another week or so and I want to document all of the eating out that I do down there here in the blog. So this was definitely not a good time for me to try something like going 100% raw. Maybe someday. And if nothing else, perhaps I'll just start making one of those fancy raw dishes from time to time and featuring it in the lunchbox.

Speaking of fancy raw recipes, let me tell you really quickly about something that I tried last night. This was the recipe that got me so excited about going raw yesterday. It's for raw Banana Ice-Cream. I couldn't believe the recipe was that simple and could actually resemble real ice-cream. BOY! Was I wrong...

If you want to do something really cool sometime, just freeze 2-3 peeled bananas. I sliced mine and layed them out on a pan so they would freeze faster. After they are good and frozen, then just put them in a food processor and process them with the S-blade. They will look really gritty at first, and you'll probably have to keep taking the lid off and using the spatula to mash it back down in there where the blades can get hold of it. In fact, I finally added like 1 Tbsp. of water to help soften it up a little bit more until the magic finally happened. There will finally come a point where the whole thing just creams up and becomes the EXACT texture of ice cream, and I'm talking about the full-fat kind. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Just from frozen bananas. It tastes like bananas, of course, but my immediate urge was to sweeten it up some more by maybe adding some frozen Strawberries to the mix, or something like that.

So I guess, if nothing else, my little two day venture into raw food found me a nice recipe for a really healthy snack that seems like it's really naughty. So it's not a total bust. Well, I lost a little extra weight too.

So thanks for coming by my schizophrenic blog today. The lunchbox and I will be back tomorrow with some more delicious cooked vegan food, and maybe some raw too. I want some vegan pizza right now so bad I can't stand it, so maybe tomorrow. See you then!

Homemade Vegan "Chicken" Tenders

Sorry for the late post but I didn't have any access to the internet today. I normally type most of the blog entry up the night before and then just have to add a few sentences and post it from work during the day. I couldn't do that today though, and then I needed to mow the yard as soon as I got home, so here I am posting it this evening. But even though it's a late post, it'll probably be the start of something interesting, and not because of what I cooked for today. What in the world do I mean by that?!?!

For my lunch today, I made up a recipe for Vegan Chicken Tenders which was just the veggie burger recipe that I used previously modified to include the spices from the cooking broth from the Chicken & Dumplings. Then I breaded them with bread crumbs and baked them in the oven. They really didn't turn out that well. They're alright I guess, but too dry, and the breading ended up being WAY too thick & hard. DEFINITELY a recipe that needs lots more work.

To go along with the tenders, I made some Vegan Honey Mustard by mixing together some mustard and some Maple Syrup.

I also brought along the remainder of the Dill Green Beans & the Cooked Carrots that I opened up for last Friday's lunch. And I threw in a small container of Raw Sunflower Seeds to round out the lunchbox.

Now, why is this so interesting? Because I ended up not even eating this for lunch. I've been reading more and more in Alissa Cohen's book, "Living on Live Food". And today I may have reached critical mass as far as this eating raw thing goes. I've been thinking about it more and more, and there's even a 30 day Raw Challenge getting worked up over at the ppk, I think.

So I ended up not even eating this today. Instead, I had a Grapefruit for breakfast. Then at lunch I ran out to the store and bought a pound of fresh Strawberries and a Banana Cookie Larabar. On my way home this evening, I stopped by the health food store and picked up some Buckwheat Groats that I intend to sprout so I can make some Raw Buns & Bread using my big Excalibur dehydrator that I purchased over a year ago when I first started thinking about this raw thing. I can then use the "bread" in a variety of Raw dishes like burgers, "chicken" sandwiches, "tuna" salad, and more.

I've always been interested in trying this, and the more I read about it the more I want to try it, especially now while I am trying to lose weight before Summer is officially here. Speaking of losing weight, when I weighed this morning I weighed 205 lbs. So I lost 2 more lbs. last week. And so far I have lost a total of 20 lbs. since I started trying to eat healthier. That means I am HALF-WAY to my goal weight of 185 lbs. or less. Woo-hoo! I can't help but wonder how much switching to a raw diet could improve my weight loss. I am just too dang curious, and I would really like to try it.

I don't know if I can do it for an extended period of time, or forever, but I only know one way to find out, and that is to just jump right in and try it and see what happens. I assume my lunches might not be as interesting while I test these waters, although I don't know, they might be MORE interesting. Of course, I won't be eating gourmet raw food every day, most of the time it'll probably just be plain old raw food, but I want to try as many of those gourmet raw dishes as I can. I've got all of the equipment that I need to do it, and I'm tired of putting it off.

Of course, it will be a few days before anything "fancy" shows up in the lunchbox because I've got to sprout things and dehydrate things, but I'm going for raw "burgers" and sandwiches and stuff like that first. If I do manage to do this for an extended period of time, then I don't know if I'll keep doing this lunch blog like this because it might not be that interesting once I get into the groove. I don't know. I am definitely continuing this blog until I get down to my goal weight of 185 lbs. But I am thinking that after that, if I decide to continue eating raw, then I may need to start a different Raw Blog and just do posts that show the interesting dishes that I prepare and not just the every day run-of-the-mill lunch. I don't know, I guess we'll see.

Who knows, I may be over this idea tomorrow, but I doubt it considering all of the raw food that I just bought. We'll see. Don't worry I won't disappear again like I did last year. I promise to keep blogging right here until I get to my goal weight, but then if I've decided to pursue the raw lifestyle for good, then I might need to start a new blog that concentrates on that.

Like I mentioned before, I decided this early today and all I consumed today was the grapefruit for breakfast, a pound of strawberries & a Larabar for lunch. Then this evening I have had several Raw Almonds and a few Raw Cashews. That's really not much, but I'm not hungry at all. I am planning on enjoying a little Raw Banana Ice-Cream in a little bit. In fact, that was one of the recipes that got me so stirred up this morning. I was just like, "Okay this sounds really good. But can it really be this easy?" I plan on finding out in just a few minutes.

So who knows what to expect for tomorrow's lunch. I plan on eating raw again all day tomorrow so we'll see. My Buckwheat is soaking right now and I'm gonna' start is sprouting tomorrow. As soon as I get some Raw "bread" I should be able to really start experimenting with this food. Maybe this fascination will only last a few days, but who knows? It might last forever. I'm curious to find out though.

Thanks for coming by today and I'll see everybody tomorrow with another RAW lunch.