Why I decided to Change the way I eat.

Hey there!
This is possibly the first really personal post I have written. Being so new to blogging I'm not quite sure how to do this. I am slowly beginning to read a lot more blogs out there. Recipes, strength, determination and motivational blogs are almost part of my daily routine now. All of these help me stick to my goal of becoming a full blown vegan.

Why did I change?

I've been asking myself this question since the day I decided to make the transition, or switch really. It wasn't so much as a transition as it was a complete 160. One day I had a steak, the next it was portobello mushrooms and tofu! HA

So at first what made me think of even changing? I have a couple of people in my life who do follow a vegan, vegetarian diet. I've always been extremely impressed with them, their will power and usually how healthy they seemed to be, but I always thought to myself I would NEVER be able to give up meat... Bacon, Roast, Lamb, Pate, Liver, Sausage, Pork, Chicken... all those just were too much of a staple within my diet.

During the summer of 2013 I did a blood test in France for food intolerance. I found out the reason I had massive and crippling heart burn combined with migraines general sluggishness and a constant stomach ache was because my immune system just hatted wheat, casein (the dairy protein), cow and goat milk, egg yolks and egg whites. To say this was... a life changing discovery isn't strong enough. I would say my diet consisted mostly of all of those products. Which is why I felt so utterly terrible all the time.
This transition was a lot harder than expected and it's still VERY difficult. I crave cheese daily. And I don't always win the battle.
On the upside though, when I stopped eating all those products daily, the boost of energy and general well being was instantaneous! I started running, lost a couple of pounds and just felt good. Something that hadn't really happened in a while. It's strange how you get used to being in pain all the time.

That was in July of 2013. We are now in March of 2014 and I can say I still feel good. The only issue is that when I do give in to a cheese and bread craving, the symptoms get slightly worst every time. Which is why sticking to my diet is so important! I WANT TO BE ACTIVE AND HEALTHY!

Now as of February I decide to give up Meat. Technically I would have gladly just gone vegetarian, but since I just shouldn't have milk products and eggs, I just label myself vegan, for convenience.

The reason why I took this decision... I'm actually still figuring out. The trigger was a documentary I watched on netflix one night when I was on my own. It's called Vegucated and this is a description I found online

Vegucated (2010): I was lucky enough to catch this on the big screen when the director, Marisa Wolfson, came to Columbus on her Vegucated tour! The Vegucated crew follows three New Yorkers, from a variety of backgrounds, who go vegan for six weeks to discover the health benefits and bite off more than they can chew when they learn about the dirty side of the meat and dairy industries.

Now that was a wakeup call. I had already seen Food Inc. and Super Size Me which had given the slight urge to change the ways I ate but Vegucated was the one that changed me the most. Seeing people and following them with their journey was inspiring and I thought... Why not try it out.

Well trying it out was SO EASY! It's almost August and I actually don't ever crave meat. Cheese still yes but that's going to be a lifelong struggle. I'm ready to accept that.

I've found out that I'm happy. I was happy before changing all of my food habits and exercise habits too. I think being really happy within my emotional life, having a partner I love and who supports me made me want to become the person I want to be. Not just be, but LIVE. And LOVE LIVING. That's something I've realized happened with this change. I love the way I live. I love the food I cook, I love feeling good, and I actually love the constraints (not always, but most of the time). I love bragging about what I cook and maybe, once in a while, having someone taste a dish I created that they like.

Now with the struggles. I've found the struggles I encounter aren't directly related to me. Well the cheese one is, but putting that one aside, my biggest struggle is my JOB!
I'm a waitress, and most people I work with are just completely... baffled. First they don't believe that what my doctors called Irritable Bowl Syndrome and I call "stupid white blood cells hating all comfort foods" is actually real. They think it's just a thing that doesn't affect my life. Or they say it's psycho somatic. They also believe Celiac disease (which I don't have) isn't real and people are just wimps. Well, if they are right... I don't care! I feel better! Why can't they just accept the fact I  eat differently than them.
So beware of the people who just don't understand. You can't let it get to you. I do sometimes and all I want to do is yell at them. YES, this chicken can still look good even if I'm not going to eat it! And this burger can still smell good even though I really don't want to eat it. Also, people describing burgers with layers of bacon really... I don't care. Calling eggs chicken embryos... I don't care! It doesn't affect me that way. Whatever others want to put in their bodies is their business, not mine. My business is to be happy with what I am doing. Being Vegan, cooking a lot and loving the man I live with.
Last but not least, people telling me we only have one life and we should enjoy it... Well if their way of enjoying it is having steak and bacon everyday that's cook. I try not to judge. I really do. But trying to convince me that eating chicken and pork and eggs is the only way to live my life is wrong. The way I plan on living my one life, the only one I have, the precious life I have that I am living is by tang care of myself, feeling good, and being happy. I do all of those by eating delicious, yes DELICIOUS, vegan food, finding wheat free bread alternatives and eating bucket loads (not really) of sorbet, fruit and vegetables. THOSE things make me feel like I'm living. Not having a steak.

If you've gotten down here congratulations! And thank you :) I hope this wasn't too much of an angry rant and you got to know me a little better.

Live happy. However you feel like living your life, don't let other people tell you any different. I try not to judge other people's eating habits, don't let anyone judge you own.

Live, laugh love!

this post is dedicated to Jenny, who was finally sent to greater and bigger adventures. 

Oven baked Cauliflower!

Vegans all over!
Want a really good really easy very pretty recipe? Well here it is!

THE oven roasted vegan Cauliflower!

You need: 

One Organic Cauliflower

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Fresh herbs - oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary...

sesame seeds (if you have some)

Dijon mustard

Mix equal parts of the olive oil and balsamic, add mustard and herbs to taste.

Cut the bottom off the Cauliflower for it to stand on it's own. Spoon or paint the mixture on it, make sure to get all the crevices. Freshly grind salt and pepper everywhere.

Heat over to 400 degrees and put in the cauliflower for 30 to 40 minutes. 

ENJOY!

Vegan Curry!

Curry! Who doesn't love Curry!
Here is my vegan recipe for curry!


Let's start with the ingredients!

2 cans of coconut milk

blend of red and yellow potatoes

1 can baby corn 

1 grated carrot

one white onion

3 cloves garlic

fresh ginger (as much as you like)

chives (liberal amount)

2 cups white rice

1 can of red curry (put as much as you desire, it's spicy!)
cumin and other spices you think would be good

This will make a curry for probably 5 to 6 servings, with possible extra rice. Feel free to add any other ingredient you want! such as :

bamboo shoots

celery

peanuts

zucchini

squash

...

really any kind of vegetable you love!

I prepared all of my ingredients before hand. Finally chopped my chives and onions, grated my ginger and carrots, cut my potatoes and baby corn and minced my garlic!

Cook the rice and save for later. 

I then started cooking the potatoes in a large pot. On the side I brought my cans of coconut milk to a simmer then added the curry paste. I taste tested every time and added more curry if I thought it needed more flavor. 

When the potatoes were almost done, I transferred them to the simmering curry and added all the ingredients except the carrots. I keep those for last :)

Slowly simmer the curry for as long as you'd like. If you want it soupy (I like it that way) cook everything through and serve, or you can cook it a lot longer and have the curry reduce. It will get spicier though! Add the grated carrots last minute to just warm them up. If you cook them too long they lose their flavor!

Serve on a plate or in a bowl with a rice mountain, curry sauce all around it and large amounts of vegetables!!

I also made sweet and sticky mango rice as desert but that will be another recipe! Here's a sneak peak!

Vegan gluten free chocolat chip banana bread!

I don't bake very often. It's just SO MUCH HARDER than cooking! I respect anyone who can successfully bake a vegan anything! HAHA

Here is a vegan chocolat chip banana bread I ... invented! 

It started out as a gluten free shortcake base that I modified! 

Here are the ingredients!

1 cup gluten free all purpose flour, or more of too liquid

1 cup oat flour

2 1/2 baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 organic sugar

1/2 cup coconut oil

3 tsp vanilla

2 mashed bananas

1 cup almond milk

as many chocolat chips as wanted!! 

Add everything into a bowl (except chocolat) and beat with an electric mixer. 

Pour into a greased baking dish, and cook on 350 degrees for an hour to an hour and a half.

BON APPETIT! 

I didn't cook it quite long enough but YUM!! It was so good!!!

First Vegan dish!

I went all out with excitement for my first vegan dish! TOFU!

well I will say it was an experience and even though it went quite well I'm not positive I will be cooking it again. Just because I'm not so fond of soy generally.

Alright here is what I made!

A pan seared marinated tofu with rice pasta and stir-fry.

before marinating the tofu I took it out and drained it. In order to do that I set the two blocs on paper towels onto a cutting board, placed another board over that and used a cast iron pan in order to drain some of the water out of the tofu. The longer you do this the firmer it gets. I did it for about an hour. If ever I make tofu again I will probably go with an over 4 hour session.

I then cut and marinated the tofu for about an hour in a ziplock bag with red spicy peppers, soy sauce and other tasty things I thought would go well in the dish!

I then put the marinade and tofu in a pan a started searing it.

While doing this I took my frozen stir-fry and started cooking it. adding some of the marinade sauce for flavor. 

A large amount of bean sprouts and sesame seeds were added to the tofu pan.

I then combined the rice noodles (cooked) with the stir-fry.

and VOILA! combine all of it in a plate with your favorite sweet and sour sauce to dip your tofu in and you have made a simple yet delicious tofu dish!

Recommendations!!
cut your tofu pieces in small, I mean very small cubes. Mine were too big and the marinade wasn't able to be absorbed throughout. You should also pierce the tofu throughout in order to get some sauce in there!

Protein still coming around with a vegan diet?

I know ... Vegan. Big step right? How much protein am I getting if I don't eat meat? How about calcium without dairy? and all the other things I won't be getting ?!

Well surprise surprise! I'm actually fine! 

I'm still learning of course but I think I've got a small grasp on things. I'm not going to explain everything but I will link some awesome articles that do that :) I just don't feel like an expert enough yet to be able to tell you all that needs to be said.

Let's start off with protein.

Most people ask if vegans and even vegetarians get enough protein. Well, yeah. I think I do.
Our society is based on a high protein intake, but we don't need as much protein as we think. I found a neat calculation showing this:

How much protein do we need? The RDA recommends that we take in 0.8 grams of protein for every kilogram that we weigh (or about 0.36 grams of protein per pound that we weigh) ¹. This recommendation includes a generous safety factor for most people. When we make a few adjustments to account for some plant proteins being digested somewhat differently from animal proteins and for the amino acid mix in some plant proteins, we arrive at a level of 0.9 gram of protein per kilogram body weight (0.41 grams per pound). If we do a few calculations we see that the protein recommendation for vegans amounts to close to 10% of calories coming from protein. [For example, a vegan male weighing 174 pounds could have a calorie requirement of 2,600 calories. His protein needs are calculated as 174 pounds x 0.41 g/pound = 71 grams of protein. 71 grams of protein x 4 calories/gram of protein = 284 calories from protein. 284 divided by 2,600 calories = 10.9% of calories from protein.] If we look at what vegans are eating, we find that, typically, between 10-12% of calories come from protein ³. This contrasts with the protein intake of non-vegetarians, which is close to 14-18% of calories.

This is taken from this awesome website: http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.php

On the other hand it seems like animal protein is considered to be more complete because of the fact it contains the necessary amino acids we need to break protein down... Vegans and vegetarians just have to be a little extra careful with how we eat our protein. That's all!

Also, and this is my personal opinion. It makes total sense that animal protein has the extra amino acids needed to be digested because animals already digested vegetable proteins and we are just eating predigested and transformed vegetable proteins... 

Here's a neat simple and fast explanation of it all :  http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/questions/animal-or-vegetable-the-truth-about-protein


Here are pictures of meat and legumes (great source of protein for vegetarian vegan people)

   

Vegan it is!

Hello everyone!
I know I have been gone for a while now. Things happened, time went by and I got busy.

But, I am glad to say I am back with a huge change in my life! I became a vegan. Well almost vegan (I cheat on cheese sometimes, and I'm not proud of it, but how to resist!)

I haven't had any animal meat since January 28th!

It's been an interesting journey that involved lots of cooking and many nutritional discoveries!

I will be posting as usual lots of recipes, hopefully tips, and information about living as a vegan. I'm not a pro, but I know people who have been doing it for a long time and I'll hopefully get some of their advice !!

Here's a picture of the Vegan food pyramid. I like this one because it includes the amount of water you should drink. And that is not always obvious in food pyramids!