Days 22-24: WOW! Week 4 begins

I never, ever, would have believed that I could go without meat and cheese for 3 weeks and not miss it. But I did. And I don’t.

Not. One. Bit.

Now week 4 has begun and I can’t imagine ever ending this way of eating…way of living actually.

I feel lighter in mind and body.

I am smiling more. Much more.

My yoga is more satisfying, gratifying, joyful and deeper. I can’t wait to get to a class. 4 times a week was a goal but a bit of an effort, although one I made. Now, I don’t think I can go a day without. I’m going to try a 5-day in a row yoga week this week. Maybe 6. I seriously can’t wait for 6:30 am tomorrow morning. Bring it on, Darcy!

I am stressed out less about food than ever before, probably because I know that as long as I don’t eat animal products I am fine eating anything I want.

Really, I am stressed out less. Period.

My weight is down another couple of pounds. My blood sugar is just fine with the carbs I am eating and it has not once dipped too low since I changed the way I eat.

Life is good. And that’s more than just a saying on a T-shirt for me.

So what about the food?

An acquaintance told me early on in my veganventure that I would be shocked at the range of foods I would start eating as a vegan. I chuckled a bit, thinking about the range of foods I thought I ate as an omnivore. The joke has been on me.

We have eaten every kind of vegetable, legume and grain imaginable, from kale and pumpkin, spicy peppers and mushrooms to French lentils, black-eyed peas and black beans.

We have incorporated raw cashews, pecans and dates into our foods, replaced eggs with flaxseed in baked goods, fallen completely for steel cut oats and almond milk and began enjoying, again, homemade whole grain bread with jam.

We have discovered coconut milk ice cream bars covered in dark chocolate and almonds, the complex and intriguing flavors of Indian food and the tummy and soul-warming soups created from local squashes, vegetable broth, curry spices and our fall 2012 honey . 

I have rediscovered the joy of trying new recipes. I am back to an old habit – reading cookbooks like novels. Every meal is an adventure and so far, no flops! Last night, the Stuffed Acorn Squash from The Vegan Table with Brown Irish Soda bread from Vegan Baking was amazing. A glass of California Petite Syrah from Preston Vineyards in Dry Creek, Sonoma rounded out the meal.

Pasta has entered our life again, as well.

We are eating the real thing now, albeit whole grain, and enjoying every minute of it with vegetable sauces, vegan sausage and home made pesto, hold the cheese. Actually, the pesto that I made was so amazingly delicious that I’d like to share the recipe with you. Give it a try, especially if you, like I do, still have some basil in your garden. Harvest the basil in the next 24 hours before it’s blown away by Hurricane Sandy. If you don’t, buy some from Olivia’s Garden and perhaps cut this recipe in half. Either way, you will be blown again by the flavors.

VEGAN PESTO

·      4 cups of cleaned, patted dry and loosely packed basil leaves

·      2/3 cup raw cashew pieces

·      1 large or 2 medium fresh cloves of garlic

·      ¼ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted

·      ½ teaspoon salt

·      ½ teaspoon nutritional yeast (optional, but I tried it both ways and the yeast makes a positive difference)

·      Olive oil

Place the pine nuts, cashews and garlic cloves in a food processor and process using the pulse mode until finely ground (but not to a paste). Add basil leaves and salt (and yeast, if using it) and process until the basil is entirely incorporated into the nut/garlic mixture. Add olive oil is a slow stream until the consistency of the pesto is to your liking. I like mine just a bit on the firm side of runny.

I froze some of the pesto and it froze well. I stored a small jar in the frig and preserved it by pouring a thin layer of olive oil on top to seal in the flavor and preserve the brilliant green color.

We had it on a whole grain pizza crust one evening with roasted red peppers and kalamata olives as an accompaniment to soup. It was extraordinary.

Enjoy!

Days 18-21 (sort of): Exploring Restaurants

The past several days have resembled a rollercoaster ride.

The days moved at 1000 miles an hour; the ups and downs were dizzying, nauseating and exhilarating; the activity felt like it was never going to stop, and I had little sense of control. Oh, and when it was over, it was over and the world re-settled.

The reasons for this craziness were varied and many and, really, are so mundane that there is no sense talking about them...with one exception that I’ll get to. Essentially, Peter and I were so busy that there was a lack of planning for meals that shouldn’t have happened. The good part is that we learned some important lessons.

We relied a bit too much on restaurants and quickly found about those that offered us delicious selections and those that didn’t. We are surrounded by Thai places and learned that not all Thai is the same.We also found out that a close-by burger and beer joint is a happy place for vegans.

Our place of choice for Thai is usually Veranda Thai. The place is close to our home and family run, the food is fresh, flavorful and generous in portions and delivery is quick and reliable. The menu offers tofu in everything, as well as vegan spring rolls (fresh and fried), terrific curry sauces and a drunken noodle to die for. The tofu, which we usually get fried, is in fairly thin strips and fried to a crispy crust so quickly that there is no greasiness at all. When we eat there, the service is attentive, quick and friendly and the place is clean enough to eat off…well, the tables. Who would really want to eat off anyone’s floor?  veranda thai

Veranda Thai is not, however, on my way home. Seng Chai Thai is, right on Forest Avenue. I was late in getting home on Thursday night, as was Peter and neither of us had done anything about dinner, as we both rushed out of the house that morning. I resorted to asking Siri, my iPhone girlfriend, for a list of Thai restaurants on Forest Avenue and I began dialing. Without seeing a menu, I ordered from Seng Chai some standard Thai items for us – drunken noodle with tofu, spicy basil leaves with tofu and brown rice.

Vegan, yes. Delicious? Not really. Sauces lacked flavor. The drunken noodle lacked spice, almost completely. The brown rice tasted like it had been sitting around and was a very small portion. The tofu was in very large chunks, was not fried to a point where it had a crispy skin and tasted greasy. Actually it tasted of old oil. Seng Chai comes off the list.

Saturday even was supposed to be dinner out with neighbors at Yosaku and then Portland Stage for The Sisters Rosensweig. But, alas, the universe had other plans for us.

About 3:30, I heard the sound of Peter’s table saw from the basement and guessed, quite correctly, that he was working on beehives. The saw stopped about 15 minutes later, some other kind of tool started making noises and then came the call. Peter calls my name often, but rarely with a heightened sound of panic and urgency.

“You need to take me to the emergency room”, he called, as he walked up the basement stairs. I expected blood, lots of it, having listened to the table saw whir for a ¼ of an hour. There was none. He walked into the kitchen holding a ¾-finished frame made from 3 pieces of wood…that he had nailed to his thumb with a nail gun.

Well, suffice it to say that a Maine Med nurse who couldn’t help but be both fascinated and amused quickly brought Peter into triage. After a quick examination, he was walked back to a room. The wise cracks began during the walk. “When you bring your own furniture, you get a room quickly” quipped one Doc. “You’re really attached to that, aren’t you?” “We love it when folks bring us gifts”. And on and on.

It had been a slow and difficult day in the Maine Med ER, so Peter quickly became the amusement for every tech, nurse and doctor in the place. There was a steady stream of ER personnel into his room to see his injury. Pictures of the x-rays were passed around so everyone could see how close to the bone the nail had come – so close that it actually bent the bone without piercing it.

Nurse Carrie couldn’t help but deliver wisecrack after wisecrack, each funnier then the last. Doctor Liz proceeded to give Peter a digital block, numbing his entire thumb. Once she and Peter and I managed to detach the wooden frame from Peter’s hand, she quickly pulled out the inch and a half nail.

3 hours later we were home, having cancelled our evening’s plans. But what about dinner? Peter was jonesing for Japanese food, which we had been looking forward to. A quick call to Yosaku let us know that there was over an hour’s wait for take out. Fuji, though, could have it ready in 15 minutes.

A quick check with the hostess on vegan concerns left us smiling. No egg in the tempura batter. Vegetable tempura, miso soup, yaki udon (stir fried noodles)with veg and tofu and 3 vegetable maki (rolls) – inari (sweet tofu), shitake and vegetable - rounded out the meal. All was delicious, flavorful and really ready in 15 minutes. Finally, 4½ hours after we entered the ER, we sat down to our meal.

Our restaurant madness continued over the next day or so, as I took my little sister (through Big Bothers Big Sisters) to The Pepper Club where the Pho with tofu was soul-satisfying and the fluffy vegan tapioca pudding brought me back to my childhood. Lots of vegan choices there and all delicious.

A visit from Peter’s 86-year-old Uncle Dan on a busy work night prompted us to explore The Great Lost Bear, which is a 3-minute walk from our house. SCORE! We knew there was a veggie burger on the menu, but there was so much more that the kitchen would gladly veganize. We both ended up with a rice and bean burrito with veggie (vegan) chili and fresh salsa that was enormous and spicily delicious. And they came with fries. And the beer was cold.

Thank God French fries and beer are vegan.

Day 17: Pizza Returns to My Life

It’s been 18 months since I ate a pizza.

It seems that many of my stories start this way.

Truly, though, when you are managing a low carb diet for the sake of blood sugar control, there are many foods that simply disappear. Pizza was one of those for me, due to the overwhelming amount of bread (usually white) that makes up that delicacy. Now admittedly, I had a few slices of pepperoni pizza (my all time favorite) the day after Thanksgiving last year. I had Turkey Day dinner without mashed potatoes, only a taste of stuffing and just the filling of the various pies, so I felt somehow deserving and victimized, all at the same time. But the enjoyment of the pizza was tempered by knowing I would feel like crap later that night and the entire following day. Which I did.

So really, why bother?

Enter my veganventure, where pizza needs to be without animal products. No pepperoni. No cheese. Did I say no pepperoni? I thought about it and decided, “Why bother?”. Then Peter suggested one night that a pizza on a whole grain crust would be a terrific quick meal. I decided if my carnivore-turned-vegan-for-the-month husband was thinking about pizza then I should, too. So I bought some Portland Pie Company whole-wheat crust and some vegan sauce (Paul Newman’s Sockarooni) at Hannaford in preparation for a night when I would be home later than Peter and he was going to do the cooking.

Lets cut right to the crust. It was glorious.

The Newman Sockarooni sauce is a bit spicy and truly flavorful. Peter covered the ‘za and sauce with fresh basil, chopped kalamata olives, peppers, onions, mushrooms and some Daiya Mozzarella cheese-like substance that I had bought to add some semblance of cheese to certain dishes. Everything tasted fresh and real and savory. Oh my.

Peter heated our pizza stone 1^st, so the bottom of the crust was crispy and the inside chewy. The cheese was surprisingly good, staying soft and melty while the pizza was still hot, and with a flavor that was moving in the cheese direction. The mouth feel, though, was definitely cheesy. All in all, a great, quick meal.

We accompanied the pizza with a bottle of Nero D’avola, a delicious Sicilian red wine. The wine was really robust with a full fruit flavor, subtle spice with some nice tannins and balanced by a smoothness that made the tannins all that much more delightful.

We ate almost the entire pizza. (It was smallish)  We drank the entire bottle of wine. (It was not smallish).

It was one of those days.

Day 16: Nutritionist Check-in

3 pounds down in 2 weeks. Not bad for doing nothing other than not eating animal products.

I see nutritionist Kim ever 2 weeks, to check on my weight, but mostly for solutions to challenges, ideas for food experiments and especially for knowledgeable conversation about diet, blood sugar and health, such as her recommendation to take a B-12 supplement. Yesterday’s visit confirmed my suspicions that my weight had effortlessly decreased as a result of my veganventure.

Kim also gave me a suggestion for a cookbook that I ran out to purchase and I’m so glad I did. The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau is filled with gorgeous pictures and recipes that sound as good as the pictures look. Especially of interest to me is a chapter on Holiday Foods that already has me thinking about new dishes to introduce to the Thanksgiving table, along with (in case my son Bennett is reading this) the turkey, gravy and cheese-filled spinach pie.

Since Tuesday October 16^th was a presidential debate night, Peter decided we needed a treat and took off for the frozen food section of the grocery store as I bought bread and coconut creamer. He came back with coconut treats from SO Delicious: mini dark chocolate-covered coconut almond bars and coconut ice cream sandwiches, both vegan. Feeling the need to conduct a quality test, I had a mini coconut almond bar. Oh my. Rich dark chocolate, crunchy almonds sprinkled on the chocolate coating and creamy coconut milk ice cream. Magnificent. And that spoon full of sugar definitely helped the debate go down a bit more effortlessly.

Speaking of sugar, that’s been an important tip from Kim and something I’ve started paying attention to. When alternatives to dairy are used, sugar ends up in just about everything. Even my blessed coconut creamer has sugar added. Just a bit, but its there. Sugar remains a concern of mine, even though I am feeling terrific and my blood sugar levels are in line. So the So Delicious treats will be just that…a once in a while treat.

Another find has been Little Lad’s Bakery here in Portland. It is entirely vegan and produces, for instance, gourmet popcorns with herbed, BBQ and caramel coatings. Kim suggested I try the herb, as one of the flavorings used is nutritional yeast. It is savory and satisfying, which says something coming from me, as I am not a popcorn lover. I also used a bit of it yesterday to coax my chickens in from the front lawn, where they DO NOT belong. Someone left the gate to the back yard open. I do believe that someone was me. But it could have been Rudy the dog. He is a very clever canine.

The caramel coated only comes in small bags…THANK GOD…but is a rich version of Cracker Jacks, minus the prize. The sugar is there, but it is not sickeningly sweet and boasts more molasses flavor than strait cane sugar. It makes for an ideal “I need something to crunch on and that is both sweet and salty to help me deal with the crisis of the moment” antidote.  

However, since weight loss is a goal of this experiment as well as overall health and medication reduction, such treats will remain just that. These discoveries did, however, lead me to a realization.

Even vegans need comfort foods sometimes.

Day 15: Gadgets make the world go round

 

We haven’t eaten rice in our house for about a year and a half. That’s a long time.

Counting carbs caused me to make tough choices. First of all, I gave up all things white, which I am still doing. White bread, flour, potatoes, rice, pasta…they all are very high is carbs and give me nowhere near the complex carbs/fiber I needed to help keep my blood sugar stable.

Next came the other carbs. Rice simply was too high in carbs for the portion I could have. 30 carbs was a meal for me. A cup of brown rice has about 45 carbs in it, and ½ a cup of rice just wasn’t worth it. But now, no more carb counting. Rice has become a staple. Tonight we had it with left over ratatouille to which I added some cooked garbanzo beans. It’s a perfect accompaniment with a stir-fry, with Peter’s now famous spicy rice and beans…and on and on. Therefore, a gadget was called for to make cooking rice easier and quicker.  We get home at 5:30  (well, I do now, but that changes by the academic semester) and want to eat by 6:30 or 7. Enter, the rice cooker.

I had seen rice cookers in action – set it and forget it. Perfect rice every time. Hot, steaming and fluffy.

Wow, sounds like I’m talking about Kennebunk’s latest scandal.

OK, back to the rice cooker. I did some research on my go-to-site for everything, Amazon. AS a Prime member, if I can get it there for a good price, that’s where I go. Hair products, shoes, books (of course), you name it, Amazon has it. And sure enough, there was a little red rice cooker for under $20.00. My kitchen has red toile wallpaper so red appliances are a must-have.

This little baby cooked a cup of long grain brown rice in 30 minutes. Perfectly. So very impressive. And convenient. It also has a steamer insert, which I tried with some veggie dumplings. Also quick, convenient, and mucho-yum. Little things like always being able to have fresh rice take away a bit of the panic of what to have for dinner when you can't whip up an omelet.

 

That, and the fact that red wine contains no animal products.

Days 13 and 14: The end of Week 2

I have been animal free for 2 weeks and I feel so energetic and alive. And light in both mind and body.

Pancakes for breakfast on Sunday were quite a treat, as I had not had pancakes in going on 18 months. Using the vegan recipe from The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook by Dr. Neal Barnard, (find it easily on Amazon), I added fresh raspberries which are still ripening on the bushes in our backyard. Three decently sized pancakes with real maple syrup and one link of Field Roast vegan breakfast sausage with a piping hot cup of coffee (avec coconut creamer, of course) made for an amazing breakfast. 

The recipe has nothing weird in it, just a bit more baking powder than you might expect to make up for the lack of eggs. I used ½ unbleached white and ½ whole wheat that I grind about once a month and keep in the freezer.  My Kitchen Aid mixer has a grain mill attachment, which allows me to always have fresh whole-wheat flour on hand. For those of you who hate whole-wheat flout due to the bitter taste, you are eating old, rancid flour. Freshly ground flour is the key to great tasting whole-wheat products.

The flavor was classic pancake and the syrup, warmed slightly, was heavenly. Admittedly, though, I was worried that my sugar would spike really high and then crash. Although I didn’t feel my body reacting, I nevertheless tested my blood sugar an hour after eating. 109. For those of you familiar with blood sugar ranges, that is amazing. 2 hours after eating that gourmet breakfast, it was 89. Even more amazing. I’m looking forward to my Tuesday appointment with my nutritionist, Kim, to go over the blood sugar records I’ve been keeping. They seem balanced and stable to me.  I’m also expecting my weight to be down. My weekly trip to the scale Saturday morning, after breakfast, showed a 4-pound loss over the last 2 weeks. We will see what Kim’s scale says Tuesday morning.

Looking back over the past 2 weeks, I can honestly say that part of the ease Peter and I have felt is due to preparation, planning and trying new recipes. I have found Barnards cookbook, as well as Meg Wolff’s to be reliable in producing tasty, filling and easy-to-prepare dishes. We have tried something new almost every day, relying on homemade soups, Blue Mango Burgers and hummus to fill in the blanks.

Last night we tried a pasta dish with broccoli rabe, walnuts, garlic and spicy peppers over whole-wheat fettuccine, and salad with a creamy avocado pesto dressing. I made up the dressing based on suggestions in an article I read in Whole Living magazine. Here’s the recipe:

One very ripe avocado

1 large clove of garlic, peeled and cut into a couple of pieces

6-8 fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces

1 Tb olive oil

1 tsp. lemon juice

Place everything in a blender (I have a small blender attachment to my immersion blender) and blend until smooth. For a thinner but still creamy dressing, add some almond milk. This also made a terrific dip, which I tried out as I was making dinner and watching the Patriots crumble in the last 2 minutes of the game.

I’m thinking Belichick needs to put the team on a vegan diet.

Days 11 and 12: Vegan at Dartmouth College ain’t the same.

You’d think those brainiacs at Dartmouth could get vegan right. But all the high IQs in the town of Hanover, NH couldn’t keep the cheese out of the vegan sandwiches.

I spent Thursday and Friday (days 11 and 12 of my veganventure) at a conference at Dartmouth College, home to Tuck School of Business, a medical school, uber-smart youngsters and famous academics. As the only vegan in the crowd of 250 people, apparently, I was assured a vegan meal at my 2 lunches and one dinner and plenty of vegan options at breakfast on Friday. However, I had planned for possible screw-ups and had grapes and hummus with me, in my bag, as well as Coconut creamer for my coffee (yes, its true…).

Thursday’s lunch was a green salad with vinaigrette, chips and wraps, featuring a roasted vegetable wrap…with Boursin cheese. I was going to get my money’s worth and scraped the Boursin off and enjoyed an otherwise tasty sandwich. And 2 mini bags of chips. One bag was my desert, as the cookies and brownies were NOT vegan.

Dinner that night was a quinoa tart with a medley of veg on top, served with a salad and crusty whole grain bread. Yum.

Lunch the next day? The same roasted vegetable wraps…with the same Boursin cheese.

The conference breakfast Friday morning had only melon and bagels to offer this fledgling vegan. The spreads for the bagels? Butter and cream cheese. Since I weaned myself off sugar a while ago, the platters and platters of danish, muffins and cinnamon rolls didn’t call to me in too loud a voice. Fortunately, the Residence Inn where I was staying offered English muffins and peanut butter, as well as hot oatmeal with walnuts and raisins, so I was sated by the time I arrived at the conference breakfast and patted myself on the back for eating at the hotel.

These two days taught me some important lessons. Take care of my self and don’t expect anyone else to (which I learned as a teenager and have been reminded of throughout my life). Don’t take things like Boursin cheese on my vegan sandwich personally. And always remember that potato chips are vegan.

My 2 days of epicurean uncertainty were offset by a delightful pot luck dinner Friday night with the officers of the Cumberland Country Beekeepers Association which included my husband and several people I knew, as well as a few whom I have never met. Peter brought a pot of spicy rice and beans from Dr. Neal Barnard’s cookbook which was fabulous. Peter had let others know that we were following a vegan diet, so one couple arrived with a flavorful quinoa salad and dessert was a vegan apple crisp prepared by a woman we have known for years who surprisingly to us, had been following a vegan lifestyle with her husband for several years. The salad featured local greens, fruit and pecans and the bread was also vegan, warm and crusty. A guest quietly played his guitar and sang some James Taylor as we ate, laughed and tossed bee-puns around the room. A wonderful juxtaposition to my Dartmouth experience.

Tonight, we attend the 100^th Anniversary Gala for Saint Joseph College, at the Marriot. We requested the vegetarian option with a further request for a vegan meal. Stay tuned.

I just hope the chef didn’t go to Dartmouth.

Days 9 and 10:keep it simple

A crunchy peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich on homemade whole wheat bread is vegan.

That realization this morning made me smile and feel all warm and cozy inside.  I have a very great tendency to overthink things. To over think everything. My recipe research had begun to overwhelm me with possibilities as I entered a hectic workweek full of tight schedules and travel. I had dedicated a couple of days to cooking and preparing for the week. The refrigerator was still filled with veg from the farmers market and it was yelling at me to cook something amazing. ASIAN SLAW!  BROCCOLI RABE LASAGNA!  ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLES!  VEGAN BAKED BEANS!  It became deafening. 

Then I thought about the PB&J. And started to breathe again. 

I also dug into Meg Wolff's cookbook, A Life in Balance. Meg stresses not getting stressed.  Keeping food tasty. Not worrying about replicating non-vegan food. Breaking free from the main course, side dish, starch dinner plate. Her words gave me permission to step back, enjoy how great I feel, eat my sweet potato soup, enjoy treats from Little Lad's Bakery and a Spicy Boca Chik Patty and try Peter's delicious homemade hummus. 

And make a humongous peanut better and strawberry jam sandwich on vegan whole wheat bread. 

Homemade bread, of course.

Day 8, Week 2: A homemaker day

“It sounds like you have to have house-wife tendencies to be a vegan”.

When asked last night by a friend how I spent my Columbus Day vacation day, I recounted the various dishes I had made and the shopping I had accomplished to get ready for the week. Her response was the quote above.

Now, admittedly, I thoroughly enjoy a day or two in the kitchen. Yesterday was one of those. I have an extra-long weekend with the College closed Monday and Tuesday this week for a mid semester break. I seldom have enough time on the weekend to dedicate a solid 6-hour block to cooking, so I took advantage of the day.

I picked the remaining peppers and tomatoes from the garden together with a large bunch of basil (frost is coming…its just a matter of days until I wake up to find a garden full of black, rotting basil) and decided to make a ratatouille with the eggplant from Saturday’s farmers market.  To ramp up the fiber and protein, I added ¾ cup of tiny red lentils and increased the juice from the tomatoes a bit. Lots of basil and garlic, a couple of onions and a piece of jalapeno pepper 2 ½ hours of slow coking at 325 degrees produced an intensely fragrant and flavorful dinner served over brown rice.

 

When the prep for the ratatouille was complete, I started a soup from the last of my carrots and sweet potatoes. Beginning with leeks and shallots (also from the farmers market), I sautéed them in olive oil until they were wilted and turning sweet, added some finely minced fresh ginger and then the chunks of carrots (about 6 medium sized ones) and three peeled and chunked large sweet potatoes. Vegetable broth, some garam marsala seasoning and salt rounded out the ingredients and I let it simmer for a while. Needless to say, the house smelled mah-valous!

I finished the soup off off with a bit of Sriracha for some spice, blended it with my immersions blender and stirred in some light coconut milk, a hint from the chef at St Joe’s for making creamy vegan soups. Divine. Some will be frozen, some went with Peter to work for his lunch and what's left will be my lunch tomorrow.

Next. 

Oh yes, there is more. Applesauce.

Not-so-pretty Cortland apples were being sold inexpensively at the farmers market by the 5-pound bag, which made me see jars of applesauce in my winter larder. I washed them, cored them, and cut them into chunks, leaving the skin on. The deep red skins produce a rosy sauce that is flavorful, but also just darned pretty.  With a bit of water, set on low heat, the apples began to break down and perfume the kitchen even more.

I later put the apples with skins through a food mill, which produced a smooth, silky and down right gorgeous treat. I added some vanilla and cinnamon to the sauce (no sweetener), re-heated it to a simmer and canned about 5 pints in a boiling water bath. Added to steel cut oats or in a whole grain applesauce cake, todays fruit project will be deeply appreciated in late January.

Ok, so, do you need “house-wife tendencies” to be a vegan? Nope. However, it certainly doesn’t hurt to love to play in your kitchen.

I’ll leave darning my husband’s socks and ironing the sheets to someone else.

Day 7: Zinfandel and Gingerbread

Don’t forget who you are.

That was important advice from a friend, Leigh, who with her family began a plant based life style about 6 months ago. I was asking her – well, actually I was conducting a friendly inquisition – about her diet, health implications and anything else I could think of when she told me about her family’s decision to change their entire lifestyle. They had seen the documentary Forks Over Knives together and immediately decided that they could no longer eat animal-based products.

They jumped into veganism with great gusto. Regardless of their enthusiasm, Leigh said it was hard…really, really hard until she realized an important fact. They weren’t being themselves any longer, but were trying to be who they were not. They were going without dessert, wine and beer and most baked goods. Loving these foods and missing them made their lifestyle change more difficult than it had to be. Hence her advice to me.

I raised my glass of Seghesio Zinfandel to Leigh yesterday for her sage advice. Zinfandel is vegan. And it is red wine. I thoroughly enjoy good red wine and I’m committed to my veganism for at least 3 more weeks. The perfect intertwining of my defining characteristics.

I’ve recently read accounts of vegans who have eschewed all comforts of their past, non-vegan lifestyle in an effort to lead a pure life. Comforts like wine. Dessert. Eating out. Martyrdom is not something I am interested in. At all.

Sundays are days that, pre-low carb diet, I often would bake a treat for the week. Something simple like banana bread, that would provide us with a quick breakfast but was healthy with whole grains and nuts but light on fat and sweetener. I have decided to resurrect that sort-of tradition. Yesterday, the choice was gingerbread.

I thought of doing this late in the day, after the Patriots had finally decided to shine. It was about 7:45pm and the day was waning. I opted, therefore, for a healthy, reliable gingerbread mix from Hodgson Mill and altered it by using “flax eggs” and vegetable oil instead of butter. The remainder of the mix was vegan and featured whole-wheat flour and all organic ingredients. I added walnuts and raisins and popped it into the oven. If you havent tried mixes from Hodgson Mill, I encourage you to do so. They are healthy and delicious.

45 minutes later, we had a warm, fragrant, mouth-watering gingerbread with even better texture than if made with eggs. The dessert was a welcome addition to our evening menu of left overs and added delightfully to the Columbus Day freedom of being able to watch football and then Masterpiece Theater (to be followed by Homeland) and not worrying about setting an alarm for the morning.

As Week 1 draws to a close, I must say that I love this experiment. I have energy all day. I wake up refreshed and go to bed tired but not groggy. I feel lighter, even though my weight is only down about 1.5 pounds.

Admittedly, though, this takes more planning than I am used to, even though I love to cook. A frittata, chicken breasts on the grill or a quiche is no longer an alternative for a quick meal. I head off for a conference the end of this week, which will be an interesting and perhaps challenging experience. I’ve requested vegan meals and have been assured by the conference planners at Dartmouth College that they have a full compliment of vegan choices. One question remains.

Should I travel with my coconut milk creamer?

Day 6: A Vegan Dinner with Friends

It helps to have friends who love to cook. And eat.

Dinner last night was with dear friends, Alan and Debbie, our oldest son’s godparents, who are always open to trying new foods and recipes. Coincidentally, and rather bizarrely, Debbie began a vegan diet a week before I did. She is using recipes from Meg Wolff’s “A Life In Balance”, as well as information and support from Meg’s website. http://www.megwolff.com 

Last night proved that a vegan lifestyle is anything but boring. It also helps that the 4 of us have been friends for almost 30 years, know each other very well, have laughed and cried together, raised our children together, love each other and always end up laughing hysterically by our visit’s end.

We started the meal off with a delicious black bean salad that Debbie has made for years and that we have always devoured. Black beans, corn, tomatoes, green pepper, celery and parsley with a balsamic dressing, it was a delicious accompaniment to hummus and corn chips. Marinated olives and mushrooms and a good bottle of red wine rounded out our appetizer course. Our main entry was the eggplant “parm” that I made from the Oh She Glows website that was delicious and made more so by a fresh sauce that I made from my early morning farmer’s market visit. 

I used Daiya mozzarella cheese replacement on top. My husband suggested to me after dinner that we might as well just do away with trying to find a cheese substitute. It tasted ok, but its not cheese. Let's just not use stuff like that to replace cheese, he said.

He is right. 

These words don’t often appear in my lexicon, so don’t get used to reading them.

I served the eggplant with a low carb fresh pasta from Al Dente Pasta, called Carbo-nada, that I had on hand. It has a tiny bit of egg in it, but I had it on hand and decided to use it. If you are looking for a low carb pasta option, give this a try. http://aldentepasta.com Keep in mind, though, that there is egg in it, although listed last in the ingredient list.

Debbie produced a fabulous couscous salad to accompany the eggplant. It was filled with roasted yellow cherry tomatoes, cukes, sweet red pepper and a light and flavorful dressing. She had made it a bit earlier, so the couscous had absorbed the dressing and the roasted tomatoes popped when we bit into them, exploding with a flavor that was fresh but rich, thanks to a brief 15-minute roast in some olive oil. It was a perfect side dish with the rich breaded eggplant cutlets.

The game of Sequence and some decaf capped our evening together. And imagine…no one needed, asked for or craved anything sweet. Yow-za! One other notable difference is that no one started to fall asleep, was too tired to keep going or complained to being too full. We were sated, well fed and happy.

There might be something to this vegan thing.

Day 5: Coffee dilemma? Solved!

I can’t wait for tomorrow morning. My drinking black coffee days have come to an end.

My nutritionist, Kim, suggested that I look for a coconut milk creamer, but Whole Foods had nothing even close that I could find. Today, on my way home from having my car serviced, I stopped at Lois’s Naturals, a wonderful, small, locally owned store on Route 1 in Scarborough.   I stopped primarily to get a snack, as I was famished. I wanted to try the Little Ladd’s herbed popcorn that includes nutritional yeast in the herb mix. The popcorn, which thankfully comes in a small bag in addition to a vat-sized bag enough for 25 of your closest friends, was yummy. We will talk about my initial reaction (gag) to nutritional yeast another time.

While I was there, I decided to look for some products that Kim had mentioned to me. There in the refrigerator items was SO Delicious Coconut Creamer.

My heart leapt into my throat. Creamer that wasn’t soy! Then, my enthusiasm tanked. Would it be awful? Would I be crushed, defeated and forever drink my coffee black? Regardless of the emotional spectrum I traveled during that 45 seconds of contemplation, I purchased it.

You have to guess that the 1^st thing I did when I walked in the kitchen door was make some coffee. The creamer looked good in the coffee – just the right color. But, then again, so did the soy creamer. I smelled it – all I smelled was delicious, smooth coffee aroma. The taste was next.

Praise the coffee gods! I swear my eyes became dewy. Then, I shook for an hour after drinking too much caffeine at 4:30 in the afternoon. The price one must pay. It was glorious.

To mark the Friday night, Peter and I went out to dinner at Veranda Thai, a sweet little restaurant on Veranda Street in Portland, less than 2 miles from our house. We chose Asian food because we knew that tofu and veg options were always available. Today we had fried tofu in our stir-fries. Peter tried Spicy Cashew Nut and vegetables and I had Namprik Pao, a very flavorful and spicy sauce with green beans, sweet red peppers, carrots, scallions and bamboo. Brown rice and Singha beer rounded out the meal. All was flavorful and fresh, not over-sauced, just spicy enough and entirely satisfying. We will go again and try other tofu possibilities, like the Thai curries or Drunken noodle, that we had always eaten with meat.

Tomorrow is farmer’s market day where I plan to be inspired by the surfeit of veg available. Fall crops are flooding the market and Brussel sprouts squashes, sweet potatoes, leeks, carrots, and garlic will be available at my CSA.

It’s also the day I’ll bake those Congo squares with my Little. Eek. I’m thinking of muzzling myself to keep from licking the bowl.

Tomorrow night we are joining 2 close friends for dinner who, entirely coincidentally, began their own vegan journey 2 weeks ago. Eggplant is the theme; I’ll be bringing eggplant parm using the Oh She Glows recipe, as well as a frisee salad from my garden. http://ohsheglows.com/2011/11/08/eggplant-parmesan

It’s all such fun.

Day 4: Thankful for small things

I began having ruminations today of never, ever having another baked-good. Never, ever again.

My son Seth asked me, last night, to send him some Congo squares. I had already planned to make pumpkin breads this weekend and send them on to my older son, Bennett, and his fiancé, Lindsey, in Washington DC. Tossing together some Congo squares would be easy, especially since I would be cooking with my little sister (through Big Brothers Big Sisters) on Saturday. She would enjoy baking the squares and we could split the batch between her and Seth’s care package.

But what about me?

I love to bake. I love to eat. I love to eat things that I bake. My husband loves to eat things I bake. Living a low carb life for the past 18 months has caused me to cut back, honestly, almost to zero, the number of baked goods I would produce in any given month. No more banana bread from the old bananas. There weren't even any bananas. Biscuits, which I humbly must confess that I have mastered, were in the past. Cookies? Nada. The same with pies, cakes, scones, all the things that I baked and then ate. No wonder I lost 20 pounds.

And then, Kim, my nutritionist , said those magic words…”no more counting carbs”. Did that mean….could it mean….that I could bake again? And eat what I bake?

Well, the rule against anything white was still in place, as I still had insulin levels to manage. That’s fine. I don’t miss them. But being vegan means no butter, no eggs, and no milk. Furthermore, I need to keep fat levels down and whole grains up to combat the nasty insulin invaders. All the things that make baked goods melt in your mouth, light and fluffy, dense and creamy. Like crispy, moist cornbread.

Lord, I think I need a cold cloth.

It occurred to me at some point this morning, in between creating a Business Law quiz and grading papers, that the vegan lifestyle did not just start 4 days ago. Many people, and many people who love food, have been doing this for a long while. There had to be some recipes in the universe that would satisfy my need. Maybe even a corn bread recipe. And there were.

Good ole Google led me to www.picklesnhoney.com and a terrific simple vegan cornbread. In addition to a terrific recipe, it also introduced me to the concept of a “flax egg”. Little did I know that 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed and 6 tablespoons of water, when mixed and allow to sit in the frig for 15 minutes, would turn gelatinous and serve as a replacement for 2 eggs. But it does and it did.

The cornbread was delectable, especially with a bit of homemade blueberry spiced jam from this past summer’s wild blueberry crop. Crispy along the edges, moist inside with whole grains that gave it a great crumb and a nice texture. A tip – I replaced the maple syrup with a molasses/agave blend. Can’t have corn bread in New England without molasses. http://www.picklesnhoney.com/2011/10/05/simple-vegan-cornbread

A vision of vegan pancakes will dance in my head tonight.

Day 3: There's something to that Girl Scout motto

Be prepared.

I was never was a Girl Scout. It was Camp Fire Girls for me. Considering I was 5'10" at age 11, I made quite a little Bluebird. But, the those girls in green know what they are talking about when they pledge to be prepared. Today, I was NOT prepared for lunch and VERY prepared for dinner. What a difference it makes.

As I mentioned, we have a terrific cafeteria at St. Joe's. I've made two salads in a row and they were vegan nirvana. Yesterday salad bar had edamame, those roasted sweet potatoes again, sweet multi-colored beets, roasted corn, all good stuff. Today, however, I was so jammed with students wanting help, advice, an ear, a soft shoulder (my job would be so easy if there were no students) that I barely had time to breathe until about 12:15. Then, the downpour started and didn't let up. With a class at 1 pm, I resorted to the trail mix and fruit I had thrown in my bag. Actually, I wasn't hungry at all most of the afternoon and threw in a cup of tea at 3 between classes for caffeine's sake. However, I ate a LOT of almonds, dried cherries and cashews, and the random dark chocolate nib. A plum in the car at 5:30 held me over. And dinner was easy because....

I turned on the crock pot.

It takes a real woman to turn on a crock pot. It was all hot and bothered when I arrived at home.

The acorn squash halves were cooked perfectly (on low with a little water). I sauteed some shallot, garlic, jalapeno pepper and mushrooms in olive oil, added some brown rice I had cooked earlier in the morning (while I was showering) along with a handful of chopped walnuts. While sauteing, I cooked some finely chopped kale in salted water with some red lentils (heeding my son's advice about legumes) and added that when done. A splash of vegetable broth and

some bread crumbs, some thyme, salt and pepper and it was ready to stuff into the squash halves. A drizzle of olive oil and into a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  Toss a salad, open a bottle of pinot noir. Sha-zam! Dinner is served.

To answer a question I received today, I feel great. I am not craving anything. I am drinking my coffee black because soy creamer is gross and almond milk makes coffee look and taste like dish water. My dear college friend Gwen wrote to me after Day 1...

 "I think Seth may have a point here; it's time to put on your big girl panties and drink your coffee black. There is no substitute for the delicious creaminess of half and half. So why settle? Explore coffee grown in different geographically areas. Instead, like your salad, let the flavor and essence of the coffee come through." 

Gwen and I were dorm-mates and basketball teammates at Bowdoin College in the late 70's. I trusted her then and I trust her now. Black it is.

So, because I am feeling great 3 whole days into this vegandventure, I'm beginning to think that maybe there will be a month 2...which means the challenge of THANKSGIVING. As I ponder the conversations with my older son and my mother about whether I will cook a turkey (as the dinner is always at my house), this response comes to mind, courtesy of my niece-in-law, Chrissy.

Perhaps I'll cross that animal product-free bridge when I come to it.