Spaghetti with Vegan Meat Sauce

In case you haven't noticed from some of my older blog posts, I absolutely love Spaghetti. I like it with Marinara Sauce, I like it with Vegan Meatballs and I like it the way that I brought it today, with a Vegan Meat Sauce. Of course, there's not really any meat in it, but it sure does look and taste like it. Normally, there really wouldn't be that much to say about another spaghetti lunch, but since I'm trying to lose some weight, I did do something a little bit different. Plus, the story of how this whole lunch came about is a story in itself. So let me tell you about it.

This lunch actually started when I had Sloppy Joes a couple of nights ago for dinner. To make the Sloppy Joes, we used the Fantastic Foods Vegetarian Sloppy Joe Mix. It's basically just TVP and all of the necessary flavorings & spices. All you have to do is boil some water, dump the package of stuff in it and POOF! You've got Sloppy Joes (they also make my favorite Taco Filling mix). Anyway, you can just prepare the stuff as is, by mixing it with water, or there is a recipe there on the back of the box for Mama's Sloppy Joes (or something like that) that involves making the mix and then jazzing it up with a few more ingredients. I thought I might like it better if it were jazzed up a little bit, so that's what we did. We added some chopped onion, some diced tomato, some Basil and some Chili Powder, along with a few other things. Anyway, it ended up not tasting too much like Sloppy Joes to me. I ate it anyway, as a Sloppy Joe, that night. But there was just something about the taste that I couldn't put my finger on. As I put all of the leftovers into some plastic containers, wondering what in the world I was gonna' do with all this stuff, it finally hit me. It tasted more like Spaghetti Sauce. So I figured it would probably be really good if I just took some jarred Spaghetti Sauce and poured all of this into it, turning it into a "meaty" Spaghetti Sauce. So that's what I did, and that's what is in the lunchbox today. It turned out AWESOME! In fact, I think I'll probably even start putting this Sloppy Joe mix into my Spaghetti Sauce from now on. It really sweetens it up and gives it a lot of extra flavor, in addition to making it "meaty". It was a cool accidental discovery.

To go along with my Spaghetti I just brought a simple salad made with some Baby Spinach and some small Tomatoes. For dressing, in the topmost little blue container, I just mixed together some Olive Oil, some Balsamic Vinegar and a few drops of Sesame Oil to smoke it up just a little bit.

The lunchbox container helped me control my portion size on my Spaghetti because, believe me, I could eat a bucket full of this. For my Garlic Toast, however, I had to be careful and not go overboard with the fat & calories like I normally do when I fix bread. I think that most times in the past, when I've brought spaghetti for lunch, I've brought 3 or 4 pieces of Garlic Toast, each of which is a half of a slice of bread. I used to use just plain old bread, which was 80 calories or so a slice, so I had something like 120 calories just in the bread. This time though, I was a little more careful and used a Light Hot Dog Bun instead of multiple slices of regular bread. The bun is only 60 calories, plus I cut off the rounded ends (which I ate with my dinner last night), so that probably removed another 25% of the calories. So instead of having 120+ calories invested in my bread, I think I've got something more like 45 calories. Of course, there's Earth Balance on there too, but I also went a little bit easier with that than I used to. So overall, I think I cut out quite a few calories from the bread side of the lunchbox.

And then finally, in that little blue container at the bottom of the lunchbox, I've got something that I've been meaning to try for quite some time. Previously, whenever I have needed Vegan Parmesan Cheese, I have used some storebought stuff that I got at the health food store. It's okay. It's made from soy though and obviously highly processed, and tastes just a little bit too chemically to me. It's okay, but it's not great. I have read, multiple times, on various vegan message boards about making your own Vegan Parmesan sprinkles. I just never have done it. I think there's even a recipe for it in one or more of the cookbooks that I've got. Well, I was about to sit down to a plate of this spaghetti last night when I just thought, "Dang it. Let me make some of that right quick to throw on here." So I did.

I didn't follow any recipe. I just used my little Cuisinart, the one that's really tiny, like for grinding coffee beans or something, and I threw in a few Walnuts, sprinkled in some Nutritional Yeast and then just added a little salt. I gave the whole thing a whirl and the next thing you know, I've got stuff that looks like Parmesan Cheese. It smells cheesy to and tastes really good. I put some on my spaghetti and I really liked it. I would much rather use this than some highly processed product full of chemicals, so I guess I'll be making this from now on whenever I've got an item that I would like to sprinkle something cheesy on.

So there's lunch for Thursday. Not super-duper diet food by any means, but certainly not as bad as it could be. By paying attention to the bread thing, and cutting calories there, and letting the lunchbox control my pasta portion, I think I did okay. Coupled with a good walk today, everything should be on track for losing a few more pounds this week. It's finally starting to warm up here now and it looks like it's gonna' be a beautiful day for a walk, so I am DEFINITELY getting that in today.

So thanks for stopping by and I'll see everybody on Friday!

Zesty Italian Vegan Bratwurst

Okay, the title of today's lunch might not sound like the healthiest thing in the world, but luckily, it's really not that bad. The Brat itself, is fairly low in calories & fat since it's vegan, plus I really tried to make up for splurging a little bit with the rest of the lunchbox and squeezed in as many raw fruits & vegetables as I could. Brats were something that I really enjoyed back when I used to eat meat. We used to eat them at the lake all of the time, covered with grilled onions and peppers. YUM! But gosh those things were unhealthy. Fortunately, this one's not so bad. But it tastes just as good!

Yve's Zesty Italian Brats are delicious. I would put a link to the product page at their website, but none exists. For some reason, this product is not listed on their website yet. Maybe it's brand new? First of all, they are HUGE and they've only got 150 calories and 5g of fat, ALL of which is monounsaturated & polyunsaturated. And second of all they taste really good. I would like to use them at some point in the future to try and recreate a delicious, and terribly unhealthy, hot dog creation that I ate once at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville in Key West back when I was an omnivore. It was the best hot dog I have ever had in my life, and one of the reasons was because the frank that was on it was a lot like this veggie brat. Guess I'll add that to my ever growing list of things to try. These brats would also be super delicious sliced up in some Sauerkraut. I'll probably get around to that before I try recreating that Margaritaville hot dog.

All I did to prepare my Yve's Zesty Italian Brat was heat it up in a skillet, then grill some Onion and Bell Peppers and then pile the whole mess on a Light Hot Dog Bun. I've been careful to make sure that what bread I do eat lately is the lower calorie version since I'm trying to drop some pounds. These hot dog buns are only 60 calories, so they're not too bad.

Instead of bringing chips or fries, or anything else that you might usually bring along with a Brat or a Hot Dog, I just brought along a bunch of raw vegetables. I've got some Celery, some Cherry Tomatoes (or actually, these may be the Grape kind, I'm not sure) and a bunch of those Sugar Snap Peas that were on sale this week at the local grocer. For dessert, I've got a Banana Cookie Larabar which, if I'm not mistaken, contains a whole banana. Of course, it's completely raw, and completely yummy. Overall, I figure I've got just a little over 400 calories in this lunch. Not too bad.

I actually thought this was an unusual amount of vegetables at first, and figured that I wouldn't be able to eat them all in one sitting. I originally planned on maybe eating the Brat and Larabar for lunch and then snacking on the veggies throughout the rest of the day. Well, much to my surprise, when I sat down to eat lunch, I was so hungry, and the raw vegetables were so delicious, that I basically inhaled the entire lunchbox of food. I ate every single bite, and I am stuffed. Luckily, we did our lunchtime walk BEFORE we ate today. Otherwise, I might find it difficult to get up and get motivated after eating that much food. At least it was healthy though. ;o)

So I guess that does it for Wednesday's lunch.

Thanks for coming by and I'll see you tomorrow!

Tempeh & Portobello with Soba Noodles

Today's lunch features a dish that I just made up last night off the top of my head. I bought some Soba Noodles a few weeks ago because there was a recipe on a recipe testing site that I was wanting to try. Well, before I could make it the recipe got pulled because the author made it a second time and thought that something wasn't right. Dang it! So, I just put the Soba Noodles in the cabinet and figured that I would get around to using them someday. Well, last night when I was trying to figure out what I was gonna' bring for lunch today, I stumbled upon the last little bit of that Grilled Tempeh that I had in the freezer. A quick internet search for "TEMPEH AND SOBA" revealed several recipes using these two ingredients. I looked at a few of them and quickly discovered that I was missing this ingredient or missing that ingredient. So finally I just said WHATEVER and just started cooking to see what I would end up with.

I boiled some water and got the Soba Noodles cooking. I've never made these before, but they only take 4-5 minutes to cook. Then I just dumped them out into a strainer and ran some cold water over them. Now all I had to do was figure out what I was going to put on top of them. I looked in the fridge and saw half of an onion wrapped up in some plastic wrap so I chopped it up and started it cooking with a little bit of Canola Oil spray on medium heat. Then I threw in about 4 cloves of minced garlic and let the whole thing cook for about 10 minutes. I had one HUGE Portobello Mushroom cap left from my weekend raw food adventure, so I cubed it up and tossed it in along with the leftover tempeh. Then I just poured some Bragg's allover the whole mess and stirred it around until it was heated through.

I did a quick taste last night as I was packing the lunchbox and WOW! This stuff tastes like meat. Cooked Portobello Mushrooms never cease to amaze me. I packed the noodles and the tempeh separately so I could fit a decent amount into the lunchbox. When I eat lunch, I can just spoon a little bit of the stir-fry over onto the noodles and eat it. Eventually, there will be enough room in the noodle container to dump whatever stir-fry I have remaining into it. I've never eaten Soba Noodles before, so I am anxious to eat my lunch today and see if I like it. I KNOW that I like the Tempeh & Portobello Stir-Fry, and I haven't met a noodle yet that I didn't like, so the odds are good that I will enjoy this.

I just threw a couple of Sugar Snap Peas on top of my noodles there to make it look nice. They were on special this week at the store and I bought a bunch. I'm sure you'll see a container full of them in the lunchbox one day this week. They are so sweet and delicious. I don't steam them or anything. They are just so delicious raw. YUM!

I also brought along some more of the Blackberries that I stocked up on this weekend. I love Blackberries and I refuse to let any of them go bad and go to waste. And then, as if the berries weren't enough for dessert, I also brought along a couple of treats that I made this past weekend when I was so stirred up on the raw vegan thing. I just made this up from other recipes that I have read and made I guess what could best be described as Raw Fudgy Treats. All I did was take 1 cup of raisins and 1 cup of raw walnuts and put them into the food processor. Then you just run it until the whole mess turns into this dough-like consistency that you can mold & shape with your hands. Then I just rolled it up into little balls and rolled them around in some unsweetened coconut. I think a lot of raw desserts probably use the raisin & walnut combination because it really does taste like fudge.

So there's lunch for Tuesday. I'm looking forward to eating it. I did get my exercise in yesterday and it looks like I am going to get it in today as well, so everything is cool on the exercise front.

Thanks for reading my blog today and I'll see you on Wednesday!

RAW - Portobello & Guacamole

I toy with the idea of going completely raw from time to time. I've got several books about it, which I find fascinating, and I've bought all of the equipment needed along the way. I just never seem to make the leap. Well, with focusing on trying to lose weight and all, I was stirred up yet again this weekend on raw food. And while I eat lots of raw fruits & veggies, I don't think I have ever spent so much as a single day eating 100% raw, until yesterday. On Sunday, I basically survived on several pieces of fresh fruit, several handfuls of raw nuts, and then for dinner I tried a raw recipe from one my raw cookbooks. While I was at it, I just went ahead and made double so that I would have something to bring for lunch today. I felt okay yesterday, I never did get hungry, but I think the whole thing just convinced me that I'm not sure that I would want to make the leap to 100% raw.

Here in the lunchbox I've got a large Portobello Mushroom Cap covered with some Guacamole. It was so large that I had to cut it and half and split it between two lunchbox containers. I made the Guacamole in the food processor by just tossing in 3 Avacados, a Roma Tomato and a decent sized chunk of Onion. It apparently takes some time to learn how to select good vegetables if you go completely raw, because I had no idea what I was doing and I paid for it. The Avacados that I got were just horrible. They weren't ripe enough and really wouldn't even "cream up" to make good Guacamole. I mean, it tastes OK, but the texture is all off. I was so mad when I was trying to get the Avacados out of the peel that I was about to go back out to the grocery store and ask them why they were selling this junk. Anyway, it was my fault because I'm no expert in selecting Avacados. The recipe just calls for making the Guacamole and then spreading it on the Portobello. Then you just pour a little Bragg's on it. I packed it there in the little blue dressing container. This tastes okay, but it's not my favorite thing in the whole world, and I don't think that I would want to make it again. I think I would much rather have the big mushroom cap grilled on a bun with some lettuce & tomato. I am obviously not ready to make the leap to 100% raw yet. I think I'll just stick to working as many raw fruits & veggies into my diet as possible. Bryanna Clark Grogan did a nice write-up here which kinda' sums up the way that I feel about the whole thing.

To go along with the raw entree, I also brought a few Cherry Tomatoes and some fresh Blackberries. I DO like things like this, so I guess I'll just continue to make sure to keep packing them in my lunchbox as much as possible. Obviously, raw fruits & vegetable are good for you, and I should continue to eat as many as possible, but I couldn't imagine living without soy products, plus, I just plain enjoy cooking. So I don't guess I'll be going completely raw anytime soon.

Now, on to the weekly update about my weight loss. It's been two weeks now since I started trying to eat healthier and lose some weight. I also set a goal of exercising by walking at least 30 minutes a day, five times a week. The first week, I missed a day of exercise so I only got in four days of walking and I ended up dropping from 225 lbs. to 218 lbs. for a total loss of 7 lbs. for the first week. So what happened during Week 2?

Well, again I am ashamed to say that I missed a day of exercise because it was raining here and I wasn't motivated enough to get on the treadmill when I got home. I DID get four days in though, which is more exercise than I was getting before I started this. So I did at least get some exercise in. I ate pretty good this week, although I did have pizza a couple of times. I tried to make up for it by eating extra healthy at other meals. I guess it paid off because when I weighed this weekend I weighed 213 lbs., which means I lost another 5 lbs. last week bringing my total weight loss to 12 lbs. in two weeks. Not bad. I'm happy with it.

My final goal is to weigh 185 lbs. or less. The going will most likely get a little tougher now since I'm past those initial stages of weight loss. I suspect that I will probably only lose 1-2 lbs. a week from now on, IF I'm lucky. That means that I'm gonna need to pay extra special attention to eating the healthiest food that I can and I've got to quit missing that day of exercise. You'll probably see a bunch of fruits & veggies this week, but don't be surprised if you see vegan pizza or burgers again too. I don't want to deprive myself, but I'll try to be as good as I can.

So there's an update on the weight loss and my raw lunch for Monday. Not my favorite lunch that I've ever brought, but a healthy one that'll help me lose some more weight this week. I have a feeling though that tomorrow's lunch will be NOTHING like this one. I'll try not to let the pendulum swing too far in the opposite direction though. ;o)

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see everybody tomorrow!

Barbecued Tempeh Sandwich

It's been a while since I've brought some bread in the lunchbox, in fact, I don't think I've brought any since I started trying to eat healthier (i.e. lower the fat and simple carbs) a couple of weeks ago. Well, I finally broke down and brought a sandwich type meal today, but when I went bread shopping this week I did at least make sure that I bought some "light" buns that have fewer calories than their normal cousins. I did check to make sure that they were vegan. I was pretty sure that they were because I remember buying them before when I was on Weight Watchers, and was vegan, but I still checked because you never know when they might change the ingredients on you and slip some milk, eggs or whey in there.

To go on my bread, I brought something that I've never fixed before. Barbecued Tempeh is something that I have seen mentioned on several other vegan message boards. Apparently it is featured a lot on salad bars at stores like Whole Foods Market and/or Wild Oats. I have seen people go on and on about how much they like it. So since there's no Whole Foods or Wild Oats here where I live yet, I decided to just go ahead and make some myself and see what I thought about it.

It was really simple to make because the only real work involved was already done. If you remember, I had some Grilled Tempeh left over from lunch the other day which I just wrapped up and put in the freezer for future use. Well, all I had to do last night was take some of that out of the freezer, thaw it out, and then crumble it up into a small bowl. I thought about making some barbecue sauce from scratch, because I wasn't sure if I had any storebought stuff on hand, but I looked in the fridge and there was a little bit left. So I just wimped out and used it. I have learned that storebought barbecue sauce is something that I have to examine closely before I buy it because I can not tell you how many times I have almost bought barbecue sauce that has honey in it. Sometimes they'll announce that in huge letters on the label because it's their main selling point, but sometimes they don't mention it anywhere at all, except in the ingredients list.

But all I did was squirt a bunch of barbecue sauce on the crumbled tempeh and stir it up. I packed it in its own little lunchbox container so that it wouldn't get my bread all soggy before lunchtime. As an omnivore, I never really like those pulled pork barbecue sandwiches, in fact, I couldn't stand them. But I did like barbecue rib sandwiches, and now, as a vegan, I love the Gardenburger Riblets. So it will be interesting to see what I think of this. I like tempeh, and I like barbecue sauce, so I have high hopes. ;o)

To go along with my sandwich I brought along some Mixed Steamed Vegetables and some Edamame. I'm sure I'll be at the grocery store this weekend and I really need to try and diversify myself a little bit as far as my vegetables go. I'm sure everybody is sick and tired of seeing broccoli in my lunch, but it IS just about my favorite green vegetable. But perhaps some green beans and brussel sprouts are in order.

I didn't pack anything for dessert, since I'm trying to watch my calories, but I think I'll be fine. I need to hang my head in shame because I have to admit that I did NOT exercise when I got home last night. It's nice outside here today though, so I will definitely get my 30 minute walk in today. That will give me 4 days of exercise this week, which is what I did last week, so hopefully I will have some more weight loss to show for it come Monday. I'm pretty sure that I will. The exciting part of this is almost over though, because even though I'll probably report a loss of several pounds on Monday, I'm just about to the point where it all levels out and the weight loss drops down to 1 or 2 pounds a week. I think THAT is when it becomes challenging to stick to eating healthy and exercising, when you feel like you're not getting a lot of bang for the buck. And especially when you plateau. That's why I'm glad that I'm using this blog to put what I'm doing out there where everybody can read it. It is DEFINITELY helping me stick to it because believe me, I don't wanna' get on here and have to tell all of you that I ate 6 vegan pizzas and downed 5 pints of vegan soy "ice cream" this weekend and gained 5 pounds. In fact, missing my exercise yesterday and having to report it here means that I WILL get it in today, whereas before, without documenting everything here in my blog, I probably would have just skipped today too and the whole thing would have started to fall apart. So thanks for reading this because just knowing that people do is the best motivation in the world.

I want to do some cooking this weekend and try some new recipes, so hopefully I'll have some new and interesting (and HEALTHY!) items in the lunchbox next week.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see everybody on Monday.

Have a GREAT weekend!

Tofu & Wild Rice

I didn't have a lot of time yesterday evening to do a lot of cooking for lunch today, so instead of using recipes from books or the internet, I just made something up. Since I'm trying to eat healthier, then that automatically means that I probably don't even need to worry about 2 or 3 items in my lunch because they should automatically be some vegetables or fruit, which really don't require any preparation. So that leaves me with just needing to come up with the main entree to really put a lunch together. I started browsing through the fridge, and then the freezer. It was there that I came upon a small block (about half a package) of tofu that I had frozen. It was leftover from making something else (I don't remember what), so I just threw it into the freezer for use as a meat replacement in some later dish. You probably already know this, but freezing and thawing tofu makes it a little bit tougher and more meat-like in texture. It usually does change color when you do that and end up a little bit on the brown side, but since you normally end up cooking it in some soy sauce, or other dark liquids, it doesn't really matter.

All I did was cook up a package of Uncle Ben's Long Grain & Wild Rice and just stir in the cubed up tofu at the very beginning. So it spent the whole 25 minutes in there with the simmering rice which gave it plenty of time to cook up and absorb a lot of the flavors from the rice seasoning packet. Since I didn't have that much tofu to start with, there's not a whole lot in there, only 3 or so pieces in my lunch serving I think. And the rice is basically fat-free since I never add the oil or butter that they suggest in the instructions. So this makes for a nice low-fat dish.

To go along with the Tofu & Brown Rice I just brought some Steamed Broccoli, some delicious Strawberries for dessert, and I whipped up another quick little batch of that Carrot Salad that I made a week or so ago. All I did was shred some raw carrots, stir in a little Apple Cider Vinegar and then toss in a few raisins. Fat-free and quite delicious. The tangy taste of the Apple Cider Vinegar goes really well with the sweetness of the carrots and raisins.

So I guess that does it for Thursday's lunch. It was really easy to fix, since I really just had to cook one item from scratch. It's also quite delicious and fits right in to this whole eating healthier thing. I did walk every day this week, until today, so that puts me exercising 3 days so far this week. However, it's pouring down rain outside here so it looks like I will not be walking outside today. I do have a treadmill at home in the garage that I, needless to say, rarely use. So I guess I will have to break down and have a 30 minute session with it this afternoon. I'm feeling pretty good since the initial weight loss thing has been going so good, so hopefully I will be motivated enough to exercise when I get home.

Thanks for reading my blog today. I'll see everybody on Friday!

Vegan Dining Out @ Crazy Tomato

Well, I ended up going out for lunch today with the whole crowd from work to celebrate a member of our group's retirement. Today was his last day so he got to pick the restaurant. Lucky for me, he picked a place that I really like. Crazy Tomato has two locations in the Tri-Cities, one in Johnson City, where I live, and one in Kingsport, where I work. The one in Kingsport is fairly new, and I actually hadn't been to it yet. I had been meaning to go soon, so this was the perfect opportunity. I like to frequent the one in Johnson City a lot when it's nice and warm outside because they have this cool outdoor dining area in the back. I just love eating outside.

The new one in Kingsport was very nice. You could tell that they had spent some money and put a lot of effort into decorating the place. Being an Italian restaurant, there are, of course, lots of things on the menu that are off-limits for vegans. But just by making careful selections, and asking for a couple of ingredient omissions, I was able to enjoy a delicious lunch and come out of there absolutely stuffed to the gills.

I started out by just ordering a Garden Salad. There were several other salad options, but all of those contained cheese and/or meat. So it was definitely the Garden Salad for me. I did ask if it had bacon bits on it, it didn't. And I did ask if it had cheese on it. My server said that they sprinkle some parmesan cheese on it, so I asked for that to be left off. That left me with just all veggies, exactly what I wanted. For the dressing I selected the Oil & Vinegar. I guess this particular one was made with Red Wine Vinegar and it was really good. I guess it's been a while since I ordered a salad in a restaurant, but this one was very delicious. And I was actually pretty full when I finished it. I probably should have stopped there, but I didn't.

For my entree I ordered an individual slice (which is really more like two slices) of their Crazy Garden Pizza. It had the usual veggie pizza ingredients; onion, green pepper, mushrooms and black olives. There was just some Olive Oil brushed on the crust and I, of course, asked them to leave the cheese off. It was very delicious, as usual. And a couple of my omnivore coworkers even commented that it looked good. It did look good, and it WAS good. I had forgotten how much I liked their pizza crust.

So that was my lunch experience for Wednesday. Demonstrating once again that being vegan doesn't mean that you have to starve when you go out to a restaurant. Of course, a little starving might have done me good since I'm trying to lose weight right now, but now that I look back on it, my entire meal was basically just vegetables except for that pizza crust and the oil in the salad dressing. So while it was a lot of food, it definitely could have been a whole lot more unhealthy, especially if it hadn't been vegan.

I may have to be extra good with the lunchbox tomorrow to make up for eating so much today. I guess we'll see...

Thanks for checking in today and I'll see everybody on Thursday.

Vegan Soft Tacos

WHEW! I just got back in from a good walk during lunch and I am worn out. We set out as soon as I got finished eating so I didn't have too much time to digest anything. I just wolfed down my lunch and then drank a bunch of water and then took off walking. That's kinda' rough on a person. Perhaps I should have walked first. Lesson learned. I've got a few minutes left here to do my blog entry, so here we go...

Today for lunch, I brought all of the fixin's needed to make a couple of delicious Vegan Soft Tacos. I just packed a couple of small flour tortillas (80 calories each) there in the lunchbox lid and then to fill them I've got some Fantastic Foods Taco "Meat". This stuff is just made from TVP and spices, so it's vegan and very delicious, in my opinion. Plus, there's practically no fat in it. The directions call for adding a couple of Tbsp. of oil when you cook it, but I never do that. I've also got some Baby Spinach leaves and some Diced Tomato. And I've actually got some Taco Sauce at work, so I didn't need to worry about packing any of that.

The main star of the show today, however, are the Refried Black Beans. These are from a recipe from the Test Kitchen of Joanna (aka joannalovesyou over on the Post Punk Kitchen). She's currently in the process of writing a great new vegan cookbook and I was lucky enough to get in on the recipe testing.

I've seen lots of pics from other people who have been testing her recipes and they have all looked delicious and her food has received rave reviews. I don't think I've ever seen anyone say anything other than that they absolutely love her food. This recipe was no exception. It's the first recipe of hers that I have tried from the Test Kitchen and all I can say is WOW! This will be THE side dish that I fix to go with Mexican style meals from now on. I just made a single batch last night, but while a friend and I were sitting there eating it, we were both already wishing that I had made a double or triple size batch. I could just live on this stuff, it is so yummy.

I believe that her cookbook is supposed to come out sometime around June. I'm sure you'll see me try lots more of her test recipes here in the months to come, and I will definitely be singing the praises of the cookbook when it comes out. If just the dang side dishes are this good, well then, LOOK OUT! It should be great!

So that was my lunch for Tuesday. There was plenty here to make a couple of good size Soft Tacos. I didn't want to bring more than two tortillas since I am trying to watch the calories & carbs. There was actually a little bit of everything left over, so I just dumped it all into one container and stirred it up and finished it off.

I was kinda' wondering if I should've squeezed in a dessert, but now, after my walk, I now know that NO I didn't need any kind of dessert. I am FULL.

The blog post may be a little late tomorrow because everyone at work (including me) is going out for lunch to celebrate the retirement of a coworker. I'll take my camera though and document me using my vegan superpowers to eat out. There will be a blog post up about it as soon as I can get it online.

Well, I guess it's time to get back to work.

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

Grilled Tempeh

For today's lunch, I wanted something that was really easy to fix, but also something that would taste good and be somewhat healthy. I started digging around in the fridge yesterday evening and found a package of Light Life Tempeh that I needed to use. My favorite use of tempeh, so far, is the Tempeh Reuben recipe found in VwaV. If you've never made those then you must go do it right now because they are so delicious. One reason that they are so delicious is because the marinated tempeh that you use is delicious all by itself. So, I decided to just use the marinade recipe, the same one used for the reubens, and then just grill the tempeh.

I cut the block of tempeh into four pieces and then sliced each of those in half, giving me a total of eight pieces of tempeh to grill. I mixed up the marinade and let them soak for several hours. Then I just grilled them on the stove using one of those grill pans that has all of the little raised surfaces on it. You can't really see it in the picture, because I also covered the tempeh with a little bit of that delicious fat-free Bryanna's Vegan Brown Gravy, but the slices of Grilled Tempeh have some nice black grill marks on them. I like food when it has grill marks on it, I think it makes you think it taste better. But this tempeh actually is delicious, really simple to fix, and I had a bunch left over. I wrapped it up and froze it for future use. I've got a few ideas floating around in my head for what I will eventually do with it, but needless to say, it will eventually end up here in the lunchbox.

On the healthy side of things, I also brought along some Mixed Steamed Vegetables and some fresh Strawberries for dessert. The berries were on sale this week at the store, so I couldn't pass them up. Again, I don't know if it's just because I haven't eaten strawberries in a while or what, but these are SO good. I was actually surprised at how sweet they were. I wasn't expecting much for "middle-of-the-winter" strawberries, but these are really good. I could have capped them and cut them up and fit a couple more into the little lunchbox container, but I like opening the lunchbox and seeing them in their natural state, with the green tops still on them, so I left them that way.

Now, onto the one item in today's lunch that is definitely not health food. Yes, I am still on a diet (more on that later), but I played around in the kitchen a little bit this weekend and finally tried a recipe that I have been wanting to try for quite a while. And while it's not the healthiest thing in the world to eat, I did make a couple of modifications to make it a little bit healthier than it would have been otherwise, plus the lunchbox helps me out again with portion control. But Macaroni & Cheese was one of my favorite foods as an omnivore and up until this weekend, I hadn't been able to find a vegan version that satisfied me. I tried the one out of The Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak, but it just didn't do it for me. Then I found this thread over at the Post Punk Kitchen where people were talking about Macaroni & Cheese recipes and someone made the New Farm Cookbook recipe. They said that it was a lot better than The Uncheese Cookbook recipe, so I was tempted to try it, and I did.

HOLY COW! This stuff is good. I did cut back on the oil (I only used 2 Tbsp.) and I used Dreamfield's pasta to significantly lower the digestable carbs, but this stuff is still a vegan treat that you should definitely eat in moderation. I swear this was so good that I could have just sat down and pigged out and eaten the whole 8" x 8" pan of this stuff. I don't know if this recipe is really that good, or if my taste for nutritional yeast has finally just improved to the point where I actually love it, but this recipe is delicious. If you've been looking for a good vegan mac-n-cheese recipe, then you should definitely try this one. The actual recipe is posted there in the ppk thread.

So there's lunch for Monday. Simple, and pretty good for me, except for the mac-n-cheese. It's a small portion, so a treat like this is okay I think, every once in a while. At least it's the only "not-so-good-for-weight-loss" treat in the lunchbox. Since I brought it, I made sure that I didn't bring any more fat or carb laden goodies like homemade rolls or a sweet dessert. As long as I make adjustments like that, I think I'll still be able to lose weight at a decent pace.

And speaking of losing weight, I promised an update every Monday on my weight loss progress, so here it is. You've seen what I ate for lunch last week, and if you remember, last weekend I weighed in at my highest weight ever (again!) which was 225 pounds. I tried eating healthier last week, and I exercised by walking 30 minutes a day. My goal is to do that 5 times a week (Monday - Friday) but last week I ended up only getting in four days. I had a bunch of errands to do on Friday which interfered with my lunchtime walk. Of course, I walked around quite a bit doing those errands, but still, I will admit that I missed a day. At least I did get in 4 days of exercise though, which is 4 days more than what I had been doing.

So what happened? Well, it's been a whole week, and when I weighed myself this weekend I weighed in at 218 pounds, so I have lost 7 pounds so far. This is typical for me whenever I start a Weight Watchers type diet, which is basically what I am doing, and count food points and try to keep them below a certain limit. I normally lose 7-8 pounds a week for the first couple of weeks and then it tapers off to a healthy 1-2 pound weight loss per week. So, needless to say, I am very happy that I lost 7 pounds this week, that's almost 20% of my ultimate goal of 40 pounds!

I went to a birthday party Saturday night and someone even asked me how much weight I had lost, so that feels good to know that it's already showing. I just love it when people ask you if you've lost weight. And all of this happened just by slightly tweaking my diet and getting up and walking a little bit every day. I even overindulged this weekend a little bit by consuming several light beers at the birthday party and even ordering some vegan pizza from Papa John's, plus I made that dang mac-n-cheese, but I knew that I had lost a significant amount of weight already this week, so I figured I deserved it. I mean, yeah, I probably would have lost even more if I hadn't done those three things, but really, 7 pounds in a week is plenty. I'm happy with it.

So that does it for Monday's lunch, and I am DEFINITELY getting my 30 minute walk in today.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see everybody on Tuesday!

Creamy Vegan Potato Soup

I guess that today's lunch could be considered a little bit less healthy than the last few that I've made, but not by much. Even though it's Potato Soup, it's still vegan and actually gets some of it's creaminess from the fact that it contains quite a bit of protein. Actually, potatoes alone aren't THAT bad for you, as long as they're not fried and they're not super jumbo size. I remember eating lots of baked potatoes on Weight Watchers and they only counted as 4 points. Not too bad really, just don't drown them with margarine, use something fat-free.

But today's main course is some Creamy Vegan Potato Soup made from a recipe found over on VegWeb. There's only 2 Tbsp. of oil in the entire pot of soup, so the fat content is not really that high. Using tofu, with the aid of the food processor, to make it creamy means that it is actually a lot healthier than you would think. Adding the Bac-Os really sets it off and makes it taste like there is real bacon in there. I always loved Potato Soup as an omnivore, and this is actually my first time eating it since I became vegan a little over a year ago. I had forgotten how good it is.

And even though Potato Soup might not be the healthiest thing in the world to eat, the lunchbox helps out a little bit by forcing me to adhere to a decent serving size. The Laptop Lunches lunchbox is comes in really handy for portion control. If not measured out to fit into the lunchbox, I could probably eat the whole entire pot of soup. But I guess that would be a no-no now huh?

To go along with my soup I brought some Mixed Steamed Vegetables, some more delicious Black Beans and a few Red Seedless Grapes for dessert. I really wanted to pack a Cornbread Muffin or something like that to go along with my soup, but since the soup was already so high in carbs from the potatoes, I opted instead for fruits and veggies. I think it's catching myself at points like that and making the right food decision that's gonna' help me get down to my desired weight.

So there you have it, lunch for Friday. The Potato Soup recipe is very good and I highly recommend it. I really need to get over there and spend some time browsing around in the recipes at VegWeb. I have just never spent much time over there, but there are tons of recipes to explore. I'd like to hear about any other exceptional recipes that any of you guys & gals have found over there.

Thanks for checking in today and I'll see everybody on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Chipotle Chickpea Dip Wraps

I am really excited about today's lunch because not only is it a healthy and nutritious lunch, perfect for someone trying to lose some extra pounds, but it is also really delicious. In fact, after trying this last night, I believe that I can safely say that this will definitely be one of my favorite foods from this point on. I know that I will be making this a lot in the future because I am already wishing that I had made a double, triple or quadruple size batch. Of course, the recipe came from SusanV's Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. It seems like I have been giving her blog quite a workout here lately, but I guess it makes perfect sense. I mean, if you're looking for vegan recipes that are actually healthy for you, her blog and website are the perfect place to look. I don't think I've made anything from there yet that I didn't like. And this recipe is a DEFINITE keeper.

Chipotle Chickpea Dip is pretty much just like hummus, except there is no Tahini in it, therefore, there is no fat in it. YIPEE! It actually still tastes like hummus to me, I don't miss the Tahini at all, but I can see calling it a dip or spread instead just to be official about it. I have never made anything with Chipotles in it before, and it took me a few minutes to locate them in the grocery store. Little did I know what I have been missing. This stuff is so delicious, and it's difficult to believe that it's actually fat-free. My favorite type of hummus, so far, is Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, and I think that a couple of roasted red peppers might be good thrown into this too. Perhaps, I will try that next. But this stuff is yummy just like it is. It has the perfect amount of spiciness to it to give you that nice slow burn while you're eating it.

In order to prepare wraps for lunch, I used the little trick that I figured out way back when of transporting two small flour tortillas in the lid of the lunchbox. These are the smaller flour tortillas and there are two of them up there. If you put your pointer over them on the picture you'll see the pop-up text box identify them. They fit up there perfectly, and after everything is in the lunchbox, all you have to do is put the red lid on the red container and stick some Glad Press-n-Seal on the other containers and then you can close the lunchbox lid, with the tortillas resting on top of everything else, and you are good to go.

I originally wanted to get some low carb or whole wheat tortillas, but they didn't come in the smaller size, so they wouldn't fit into the lunchbox as easily. I don't guess it matters though because the lowest calorie count I could find on any low carb or whole wheat tortilla was 100 calories each, and these regular flour tortillas that I brought are only 80 calories each, due to their smaller size. So it's all good.

It actually doesn't take this much of the dip to make a couple of wraps. In fact, this is about double what you really need. I wanted to bring extra though so some people at work could try it on some crackers. I wanted to see if an omnivore would find it as delicious as I did. Guess what... They did! I think that just about anyone would find this dip to be delicious. It's that good.

In the green container are the perfect companions for making a wrap out of the Chipotle Chickpea Dip. I've got some Baby Spinach Leaves, some sliced Roma Tomato and a few pieces of sliced Red Onion. I tried this on a tortilla with the dip last night and I can confirm that it is indeed very delicious.

The smaller containers hold some Spanish Rice, which is actually just some of the leftover Tofu Jambalaya from yesterday's lunch, minus the tofu of course, and some more of the Red Seedless Grapes that were on sale this week at my local grocery store. They make a really good dessert and are certainly much more figure friendly than a vegan brownie or cookie.

So that does it for Thursday's lunch. This stuff is really good and I highly recommend making it, especially if you already like hummus anyway. It's delicious and healthy, just what I need to help me shape up a little bit before Summer gets here. I got my 30 minute walk in today as well, so everything is cruising right along.

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

Tofu Jambalaya

Well, it's time for another delicious vegan lunch where I have tried to be a good boy and limit the amount of fat & simple carbs so as to facilitate the loss of 40 or more unwanted pounds. Today's lunch was actually inspired by a recipe over at SusanV's Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. I had all intentions of making this from scratch last night using the recipe, but I ended up taking the easy way out and using some storebought items to help me cook something similar with a little less work. I would still like to try SusanV's recipe though because I am sure it tastes quite a bit different (i.e. even better?) than what I ended up making.

I just went to the store and picked up a box of Zatarain's Jambalaya mix. The rice and all of the spices & seasonings are there already in the box and all I had to do was boil some water and dump it in. I think the box calls for adding some oil or a couple of tablespoons of margarine, I really don't know if it did or not because I didn't read the instructions that well, just the ingredients, but it didn't matter because I never added that extra fat anyway when I cooked something like this from a box. And I'm definitely not going to start now that I'm trying to lose some weight.

I didn't plan ahead and freeze my tofu, but I did press it a little bit before I steamed it, just to get some of the excess liquid out of it. Since I hadn't frozen it, and it was still a little fragile, I was afraid to just stir it up into all of the rice while it cooked. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, in addition to the water that I cooked the rice in I also poured in a can of diced tomatoes with chilis. YUM! So, back to the tofu, to keep it cubed up as much as possible and not break it all up, I steamed it separately in one of those steamer/strainer things that you put down in a big pot of boiling water. I sprinkled the tofu with a bunch of cajun seasonings that come already mixed up in a big shaker. I threw it all together at the end and there you have it. It tastes really good, although the Zatarain's Jambalaya Mix tastes more like just plain old Spanish Rice to me, which is still tasty. Maybe that's my fault since I added the can of tomatoes & chilis. Oh well, it doesn't matter, it's delicious.

I brought along some Black Beans in the other large container. I picked up a different brand and got one that actually came from Mexico because I figured it might taste better than just the plain old store brand. I was right. These are much better than the canned Black Beans that I usually buy. I did give the ingredient list a quick look though just to make sure that they hadn't put any pork fat or anything like that in there. Luckily they hadn't. I think I will buy this brand from now on. I don't have the name of it with me right now or I would tell you, but it was in the Mexican food section of the store, there near the canned Chipotles and stuff like that.

To finish filling the lunchbox I just brought some raw carrots and for dessert, some delicious red seedless grapes that just happen to be on sale this week at the local grocer. Maybe it's just because I haven't had grapes in a while, but this batch I bought yesterday seem to be unusually sweet & delicious to me. I really enjoyed them.

So I guess that does it for a healthy vegan lunch for Wednesday. Today was a little busy at work, but I did manage to squeeze my 30 minute walk in during lunch hour. So, so far I am 3/3 for sticking with my goal to get some exercise in every day. I won't report my weight until next Monday, but just since this past Monday (3 days ago) I can tell that I am losing weight, so everything is going good so far, but based on my past dieting experience I always do lose pretty good the first couple of weeks before it settles down to the 1-2 pounds a week phase. So I really enjoy this initial weight loss and hopefully I will have some really good news to report on Monday.

Thanks for reading my blog today and I'll see everybody on Thursday.

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!

Roma Tomato & Basil Baked Tofu

Okay, THIS is what I'm talkin' about. I really switched gears with today's lunch as I try to eat healthier in my quest to shed 40 pounds as quickly & safely as possible. Most of my recent lunches have been way too heavy on the simple carbs and fat so I really went out of my way to minimize those things today. Yesterday, as I was driving home, I had no idea what I was going to bring for lunch today. So I stopped at the local health food store to see what I could find that might be interesting, and healthy at the same time. I was snooping around in the cooler when I rediscovered something that I had seen in the past, and always wanted to try, but never did.

If you remember an earlier post where I tried to make some Barbecued Tofu, then you might remember that I was not too happy with the texture that I got when I fried it in a skillet. I mentioned that maybe I would have liked it better if I had baked it and then Isa confirmed in the comments that I would have gotten a much better texture if I had done that. (Isa posted in my comments, WOOT!) I remembered seeing some type of flavored tofu at the health food store in the past that was already packaged soaking in different types of marinade. I thought that I would pick up one of those since they were already marinated and then just slice it up and bake it. Well, I found the package that I was looking for, I picked it up and read it, and I was completely amazed. White Wave's Roma Tomato & Basil Baked Tofu was not simply packaged in marinade, it was actually already baked and ready to eat. I couldn't believe it. This was great because now I could taste baked tofu that has been prepared properly and know what kind of texture I should be shooting for when I prepare it.

I took the stuff home and opened the package. I assumed it was one big block and that I would have to slice it up. Wrong again. It was already sliced into 4 perfect slices. This stuff required absolutely no work on my part. I love it. I heated a couple of the pieces up last night and tried them and they were very good. I definitely like the texture of baked tofu better. Now I know what it is supposed to look and taste like. So I am really fired up about making some on my own now. Although, there are a few other flavors of the White Wave stuff that I would like to try sometime too. This is good stuff and I highly recommend it.

In the other large container, I've got some Steamed Mixed Vegetables. And then in the smaller containers I've got some Edamame and a Carrot Salad that I just whipped up with some of the chopped carrots that I had leftover from where I made all of those Carrot Cake Cupcakes this weekend. Most Carrot Salads that I have seen before have had slaw-like dressing in them, which for me would mean stirring some Vegenaise and some sugar together. But, since I wanted to eat healthier, I remembered some comments to a post somewhere way back where I had made slaw and someone suggested that I could make it healthier by just using Apple Cider Vinegar instead of the Vegenaise and all that sugar. So that's what I did here. I just stirred in a little Apple Cider Vinegar, not too much, and tossed in some raisins and sprinkled the top with the tiniest amount of chopped walnuts. I guess I could have left the walnuts off, but there's probably not enough on there to even add up to half of a half of a walnut piece. And the cool thing is, this actually tastes good. The sweetness of the carrots & raisins really goes well with the WHANG! of the Apple Cider Vinegar. I'm gonna' make some more of this when I get home tonight because I still have a lot of chopped carrots left over.

So there's lunch for Tuesday. Definitely healthier than what I have been bringing. I am also happy to report that I squeezed my 30 minute walk in today during lunch hour also. I don't know if you saw it in the comments, but in addition to eating better, I am committing myself to walking at least 30 minutes 5 times a week (Monday through Friday) to help me lose weight at a decent pace. So far, so good.

Thanks for stopping by today. See everybody tomorrow!

Vegan Chicken in a Biscuit

Once again, today's lunch ended up being a good use of leftovers from Sunday's big breakfast. I made some delicious vegan biscuits & gravy yesterday with all the fixin's and it was so delicious. Biscuits & gravy was one of my favorite foods when I was an omnivore and I am so thankful that there is a vegan version of it. I even added some homemade tempeh sausage crumbles to my gravy, so it was really, really good. I ended up with several biscuits left over though, and I hate to throw them away, so one of them ended up in my lunchbox today.

As an omnivore, I'm ashamed to say that I also ate a lot of chicken biscuits in my day, usually purchased from fast food places for breakfast. You can only imagine how unhealthy those were with biscuits full of milk & butter, and then a piece of deep fried chicken stuck in there. I looked it up once when I was into the Weight Watchers thing and it was unbelievable. Needless to say, I didn't eat any chicken biscuits while on Weight Watchers. The chicken biscuit that I brought today is considerably healthier since it's vegan, and I baked the Boca Chik'n Patty, but it's still no shining jewel of healthy eating. It does taste really good though.

I also had some fried potatoes & onions left over from breakfast which were just fried up in a skillet with a little bit of canola oil. I sliced the potatoes using a mandolin slicer and then cut those long "fries" into shorter pieces that were about the length of the onion pieces. I made some really good hash browns once upon a time by using the mandolin slicer to make fries and then painstakingly cutting all of those fries into teeny-tiny little cubes. It was a little bit of work, but it made really good hash browns, and I intend on using that method at some point in the future to make tiny little cubed potatoes that I can mix with some of that vegan chorizo that I enjoyed a while back and try making some type of vegan equivalent to corned beef hash. I just love trying to veganize things that are so completely NOT VEGAN.

I had a single slice of one of SusanV's Fatfree and Fabulous Fudgy Brownies left in the fridge, so I brought that for dessert.

And then, in an attempt to redeem myself a little bit for all of the unhealthiness in the lunchbox today, I filled the last container with some raw baby carrots.

Today's lunchbox is a perfect example of the major mistake that I made when I first went vegan. I assumed that just because something was vegan that meant that it was also healthy. Just a couple of months of thinking like that saw me gain weight until I weighed more than I ever had before and made my cholesterol skyrocket. I was so shocked because I thought my cholesterol would drop since I wasn't consuming any anymore. But all of that fat and all those simple carbs that I had been eating were fueling my body's own cholesterol producing machinery and had it working overtime.

I've gone through spells where I've tried to eat healthier, and then I seem to drift back to more "junk food" type vegan eats. Well, after looking at what I brought for lunch today, and after weighing myself this weekend, I have realized that something is going to have to give. I am back up to my maximum weight and Spring is practically around the corner. How am I going to be able to show myself around the pool?!?!?!

So, from now on, I am going to make an effort to make my lunches healthier and incorporate as many veggies as I can while cutting back on the simple carbs. I am also going to use this blog to make myself accountable for my weight and the upcoming weight loss. So, here it is. Here's how much I weigh for the whole world to see. When I weighed this weekend, I weighed 225 lbs. This is the highest weight I have ever been, and I've been here a couple of times in the past. All of the previous times, I used Weight Watchers Online to help me be accountable and lose some weight. The most I ever lost in one try was 30 lbs. This time, however, I am going to use my blog to make myself accountable for what I eat and how much I weigh each week.

Normally, when I've lost weight before, I lose pretty fast for the first week or two and then it levels off to a pound or two a week. In the past though, it has not been uncommon for me to lose 5-8 lbs. in the first week. So I guess we'll see what happens. I would really like to get back down to 185 lbs. (or less). Perhaps by documenting what I am eating and how much I weigh each week on here, I will be able to stick with this and get myself down to where I won't be terrified of being seen in swimming trunks this Summer.

I think I will even stick a little thing over there in the left hand column which will show my weight each week, maybe halfway down the page so it's not TOO obvious. I'll update it every Monday and that way it'll all be out there for me (and everybody) to see. If I feel accountable, and know that I have to post my weight on there every Monday for everybody to see, then I think that will help me stick with trying to eat better.

I'll try to keep my food as varied as possible, but I assume that vegetables will be showing up a whole lot more, plus this would be a good chance for me to experiment with some of the raw food recipes that I have been wanting to try. And even though today's lunch really doesn't fit into the "eating healthier" thing, it is what has finally made me realize that I have strayed way too far from eating stuff that is good for me. I won't throw it away, because compared to what some people eat, it actually IS healthier (I baked the Chik'n patty, and the brownies are virtually fat-free), but it's still not the type of food that I SHOULD be eating.

I realized all of this last night when I was uploading the picture of my lunch. So this morning, instead of eating another vegan chicken biscuit for breakfast (which is what I was planning on doing), I ate a Larabar instead. Raw fruits & veggies will be my new french fries & cookies. And hopefully putting my weight on here in public will make it easier for me to stick with it.

The only bad thing is, now I've got to come up with whole new ideas for the lunchbox this week. You wouldn't believe some of the crap that I had planned to bring this week. These four words should give you an idea of what kind of junk food I was planning: Vegan White Castle Burgers. WOW!

I still like vegan junk food, but I eat way too much of it. And if I want to lose some weight, then I'm going to have to severely limit it for a while. So sit back and enjoy watching me try to lose, let's see, what would it be... 40 pounds. It's embarrassing enough to put my actual weight on here, so don't expect any BEFORE picture. Hahahaha. I might post an AFTER picture just to prove that I did lose it.

Hey, this is kinda' scary now because I already feel a billion times more accountable. This may end up working better than Weight Watchers. I guess we'll see.

Thanks for coming by today.

I'll be back tomorrow with a considerably healthier vegan lunch.

See you then.

VLC EXTRA - Vegan Cupcakes

Well, this has ended up being kind of an interesting story. I spent a good chunk of time today making a couple of batches of vegan cupcakes for a friend's birthday party that was scheduled for tonight. But, by the time I got finished making them, and got ready to go to the party, it had started snowing up a storm here in Johnson City. We packed the cupcakes into the car and tried to get going to the party but we couldn't even get out of the driveway without sliding backwards. The roads are completely covered. So, now I am here, stuck at home with two dozen cupcakes. HA! I guess things could be worse. Here's a picture of a single cupcake. It ended up being a little bit blurry, but you get the idea.

I ended up making two dozen of the Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing from the incredible Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero. They're not difficult to make, but making two dozen cupcakes is just something that takes a little bit of time.


To transport them to the party, I ended up asking for a couple of those plastic clamshell containers that they sell cupcakes in at my local grocery store. I offered to buy a couple, but they just ended up giving them to me. That was nice. Here's a picture of a dozen of them in one of the containers. I think they look pretty neat. I have yet to invest in a big fancy cupcake carrier because I really don't make cupcakes that much. If I ever do decide to invest in a carrier though, here is my dream cupcake carrier.

So, there's my boring birthday party cupcake story. I guess now I will need to decide whether I want to just take all of these cupcakes to work with me on Monday, try freezing them and then thawing them out for the party next weekend (I don't even know if that is possible, I will have to read up on that in VctotW, I bet it covers that topic). Or, I could have a really interesting Saturday night and sit here and eat two dozen cupcakes. Probably not. Lucky for me, I'm not that big on sweets. I like making them for other people, and I don't mind eating them, but a dozen cupcakes are a lot safer around me than a dozen homemade rolls.

If it's cold & snowy where you're at then stay warm.

See everybody on Monday.

Amy's Indian Mattar Tofu

Well, I ate my lunch a little bit earlier than normal today because I had no idea what I would think about it and wanted to be able to give my honest opinion about it in my post. I ended up getting home a little late last night so I didn't have time (or energy) to start slinging stuff around in the kitchen and cooking. So I went to the freezer to see what I had hanging around in there for emergency back-up. I always like to keep a few storebought vegan goodies in there for times just like last night when I don't have the time to make something totally from scratch.

Well, I found Amy's Indian Mattar Tofu sitting there just begging me to bring it for lunch today. So I did. Now, I have noticed from poking my nose into every vegan related site I can find online that a lot of vegans are really into Indian food. I am actually ashamed to say that I have only tried Indian food once before in my life. And I don't know why that is because that first time I tried it I really liked it, and after eating the meal that I brought today, I am happy to report that I also liked it really well. Maybe it's because I have this impression that it might be difficult to actually eat vegan in an actual Indian Restaurant. From what I have read, almost everything has yogurt and/or ghee in it. Maybe that's true, or maybe it's not. I don't know. At any rate, Indian food appears to be a popular thing for vegans to make at home, so I really need to roll my sleeves up and start trying some of the recipes that are floating around out there.

Kittee has some Indian recipes on her website that sound really good. And it doesn't look like this stuff is hard to make. In fact, I think I have a lot of the things that I already need at home because I did discover this cool Indian grocery near where I work and it is the ONLY place I buy spices at now. It is so much cheaper than the grocery store. So during some of my shopping trips there I have managed to pick up huge bags of Curry Powder and Garam Masala, as well as a few other things that I have no idea how to use. I had just seen them mentioned in popular recipes on vegan websites and then saw them in the store so I thought I should pick them up while I was there so I would have them on hand whenever the urge hit me to try cooking some Indian cuisine.

Anyway, today's lunchbox required absolutely no work on my part because Amy's Kitchen did all of the work for me. All I did was remove the items from the container that they came frozen in and distribute them into the lunchbox containers. I actually don't even know how you are supposed to eat this, or what's supposed to mix with what, so I ended up mixing some of the Basmati Rice with both the Mattar Tofu and the Dal. It was really, really good.

The Mattar Tofu actually reminded me of the Scrambled Tofu recipe from VwaV because it contained chunks of tofu and obviously lots of Turmeric. In fact, I think if I just mixed up a bunch of peas with my scrambled tofu, it would be amazingly similar to this dish. And I love scrambled tofu, so needless to say, I also liked this.

The Dal was also quite delicious. This was my first time ever eating it. I really like all of those fragrant spices in there, which I guess are the hallmark of Indian cooking. My boss says that she fixes this all the time and that she just chops an onion and cooks it until nicely browned, then sprinkles like 1 Tbsp. of Garam Masala over it and cooks it for a few second until really fragrant and then mixes it with some cooked lentils, sometimes adding some canned tomatoes or who knows what else. It sounds really simple, and she says that it's delicious. Since I have all of the spices already, I have a feeling I will be experimenting with Indian cooking quite soon.

To fill that last empty space in the lunchbox, I just brought along some more Steamed Mixed Vegetables. There's broccoli, green beans and carrots in there and I just, once again, put them in the lunchbox frozen, they thawed out by lunch time, and then I just microwaved them for a quick minute or so to heat them up.

So that does it for Friday. I just finished eating this a few minutes ago and I really enjoyed it. It makes me want to learn a lot more about cooking Indian food and finding out how difficult (or easy?) it would be to eat vegan in a regular Indian restaurant. If anyone has any tips or suggestions on vegan Indian restaurant dining, I would like to hear them. Especially which dishes might be easily veganized, and which dishes taste really good, etc.

Thanks for reading my blog today and I'll see everybody on Monday.

I won't promise anything, but I may do a quick post tomorrow (on Saturday) because I am planning on making a bunch of vegan cupcakes to take to a birthday party. If they turn out really good, which I'm sure they will, I will take a pic or two and do a post on them. And obviously, I will be using a recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa & Terry.

Have a great weekend!