I Feel Good

No, I really do. I've only been back to eating vegan for a few days and I have been sleeping better, feel less sluggish and, praise be, my jeans felt less snug this morning when I put them on.

I really doubt that I've been burning huge amounts of my fat stores the past 2-3 days. Most likely it is just my body finally getting rid of all that water I've been retaining - I've felt like a camel for the past month, one of the many reasons I dislike summer. I honestly have no idea if eating vegan has had anything directly to do with getting my fluid retention under control, but I am grateful for whatever is doing it.

Breakfast

I had my new favorite raw apple breakfast this morning. I've been looking forward to eating this when I get up in the morning now, though there will still be those morning when I need a plate of scrambled tofu to stand in for a mess of eggs.

Ingredients:

• 1 apple, cored and sliced into 8ths - today I used a Ginger Gold
• 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 T almond butter
• 1 t whole flax seeds, ground
• 1 t agave nectar
• nuts, berries and seeds - I used a trail mix I made of sunflower seeds, roasted pumpkin seeds, roasted edamame, dried blueberries and goji berries.
  

Directions:

1. Pulse the apple, oats and almond butter in a food processor until chopped.
2. Put in a bowl and sprinkle with ground flaxseed, agave nectar and nuts, berries and seeds.
   

So, my younger daughter and I went to the grocery store this morning and spent a fortune in the produce aisle - insert generic rant about the high cost of healthy foods versus the low cost of crap, processed foods - but I have a fridge packed with greens and my counters are overflowing with baskets of fruits and vegetables, the stuff of culinary inspiration.



Possible meals for the next week include:

• some Indian-inspired cauliflower curry, like this or Aloo Gobi
  


• marinated roasted eggplant and zucchini on homemade multigrain sub rolls,
  


• a salad of raw green beans with fresh lemon juice, flax seed oil, garlic and dill,
  


• spaghetti squash with tomato and fresh basil- somewhat like this one
  


• sweet and spicy carrot salad,
  


• mango, jicama and avocado salad in some sort of lime and agave dressing -I'm winging it, as you can see, (8/14 update: I made it - here)
  


• avocado and cucumber soup with fresh dill
  


• any number of fresh fruit smoothies
  

Now, about cheese. I still have not pin-pointed what it is about cheese that is so appealing: is it the taste itself or the creamy, full-fat mouthfeel of the stuff?

I have really enjoyed the cashew cheeses that I have made, though I have to make sure to process everything until it is truly creamy. It takes a lot longer than you might think for the nuts to break down all the way to a rich, creamy texture. Mind you, when it is grainy, it is still mighty tasty, but more like a nut butter than a nut cheese.

Yesterday, I stumbled upon this blog post on raw nut cheeses and saw that some of them were based on a recipe for raw cheese with spring onions. I started soaking the sunflower seeds and pine nuts and just have to process everything in the Cuisinart. I am also thinking about doing a few fancy things with a probiotic capsule, some cheesecloth and a strainer that I saw yet another person doing with their sunflower seeds cheese, so this ought to be very exciting. lol

I am looking forward to tasting the result. I'll post pictures and my adapted recipe as soon as I've got them.

Let's see, what else? Midway through writing this I realized that I had forgotten to pick up some ginger root. Ok, so I remembered to put down the jicama on my list -and surprise, surprise, my store actually had it - but I neglected the ginger root which is necessary for at least 3 of my planned recipes. Where is my head?

So anyway, that means another trip to the store. My 7 year-old is thrilled to pieces (not really) about another trip to the store today, though I have to say, she is being adventurous and trying out these dishes.

All good things come to those who wait, right?

Have a great Friday the 13th!