New Cravings

I have cut way back on fast food consumption.

I have cut way back on meat consumption.

I have cut out, almost completely, high fructose corn syrup consumption.  Not easy since its in most every conventional packaged product on the market in some form or another.

I have become more conscious of where my food comes from and what is in it (like the evil GMO stuff).

I have cut way back on processed food.

I do most of my grocery shopping at the health food store, opting for healthier, organic convenience foods.

I cooked soup this week! With fresh ingredients even!  Yes, cooked! 

I have been doing this with food little by little since before Christmas (i had already cut out HFCS sodas.)  I find that I am no longer craving fast food.  Except for the crazy $0.99 spicy sausage sandwich at Checkers. But I'm not giving into THAT very often.

I have also eliminated 99% of the dairy in my life. And discovered Daiya shreds which allows me to skip my cheese and eat it too. It even melts. Its a cheesy goodness miracle.

I thought cutting back on meat would be hard. It hasn't been. I'm actually craving whole foods now. How cool is that?  And rice and beans are a good thing!

So when I opted to have seasoned fries and rice pudding for dinner last night, I forgave myself.  It wasn't a crazy number of fries, and it was all so good. That's another thing, everything tastes better.  Its like my taste buds have broken away from a cult and are free for the first time.

I'm more congested from the pudding this morning, but that's the choice I made. And I can live with that for a day.  It was very good pudding. Filled with all things evil I'm sure, but once in a while, I'll survive!

Easy Tom Kha Tofu Soup

I made this in less than 30 minutes, in the microwave.  Microwave? Yup.  In the microwave.  Why? Because I was lazy. 

The Thai Red Curry wasn't the right choice. I am determined to find the chili paste. I substituted Bragg Liquid Aminos for the soy sauce, and added much more than it called for. I also forgot to add the lemon and lime juice. Oops!

The end result was a good veggie soup that can be made quick with the right ingredients. This made about three generous servings, and I poured it over rice.

2 eight ounce containers of Pacific Organic Vegetable Broth

1 five ounce can coconut milk

1/2 container pre-diced red, yellow, and green bellpeppers (2-3 handfuls will work, or one whole diced bellpepper of choice)

1/3 container Cremini Mushrooms, sliced and then halved

Splash Sesame Oil

1 teaspoon each lemon and lime juice (or a good squirt of organic juice in a container)

2 teaspoons soy sauce or Bragg Liquid Aminos

1/2 teaspoon Thai Chili Paste (or more to make it hotter, taste as you go)

Half a cup cooked rice

Poor veggie broth in bowl and heat in microwave 3 minutes on high.

Add Chili paste, soy sauce, lemon and lime juice, and veggies. Cover and set aside.

Pour Coconut milk in bowl and heat in microwave for 1 minute.  Stir and heat another minute.  Heating them separate will ensure the coconut milk will not curdle.

Add coconut milk into soup mixture.  Stir.

Heat in microwave for one minute. Stir. Heat for another minute.

Spoon cooked rice into soup bowl. Ladel soup on top. Add a splash of sesame oil and enjoy.

Groceries and Fast Food

I decided I should make the soup I'm obsessed with, Tom Kha Tofu, rather than continue to get takeout at the local Thai place several times a week. So today I set out to run errands and find ingredients.

But first I backtrack.  At about 11am I decided to eat my leftover takeout. I had ordered Hot, not realizing how hot it was. Overnight it apparently got hotter. I still ate it, and continued on my day.

Some hours later I drove through a fast food place for lunch. Chicken bites, ranch dressing, and sweet tea. I inhaled on my way to Sally's Beauty Supply where I stocked up on a few things.

Next I went to the grocery store. About half way there I felt my tummy get rather, well, violent.  But it subsided, so I passed my house continuing to the grocery.

I found all the ingredients I needed but two. As I made my way toward sparkling water, the violence began again.  I ended up in the restroom!  I was a little horrified! 

Then I got clammy and got a headache.  But my tummy was better. I moved on to the healthfood store where I found my two missing ingredients and began looking for something called Dashi. 

I also want to make miso soup. And because I couldn't find it, and my phone didn't work in the store so I couldn't look up an alternative, I moved on to The Fresh Market.

There I was able to look up the substitution and get what I needed. The substitute is fish sauce by the way.

So tomorrow I will make a soup. Or maybe two.

And I skipped dinner, as I didn't want my tummy to freak out again.  I'm still recovering from having to use that restroom!

Meatless Experiment Week 1

I went completely meatless two days this week. It's amazing how different I feel.

I've also cut my meat. Consumption in half, at least. Meat for me usually is chicken with occassional pork, fish, and very infrequent beef.

Being aware of the issues in our food supply has me making different choices. Better quality, less questionable choices.

I'll be interested to see if my weight goes down.

Less Meat, One Heck of a Migraine...Coincidence?

A couple hours before bed on Monday night, I had a heck of a headache building.  For reasons I do not understand (what the hell was I thinking??) I went to bed without taking anything for it. 

I woke at 5am Tuesday morning with a beautiful, knock down, drag out, nausea inducing, light sensitive, migraine.

I immediatly blamed the lack of meat on Monday.  Jokingly.  The migraine hung on for two full days, in which I did eat some meat (not a lot), a grilled cheese sandwich (comfort food), and finally, last night I had a glass of wine.  Seemed to do the trick with relaxing me, as I woke this morning headache free.  Headache free but suffering from a migraine hangover.

I had a little meat today and a huge salad.  I will try a meat free day again soon, maybe even before Monday.  Poor Meatless Monday...

Meatless Monday

I decided to embrace Meatless Monday.  I found a recipe for a chilled dish that required no cooking (other than defrosting the rice), and I could make up at in the back room at work.  I stopped at the grocery store on my way to work, recipe in hand. 

Apparently January 2 is NOT the day to look for Black Eyed Peas.  I've not heard of this tradition before, but learned about it in my quest to make this dish.  Not a can or frozen bag to be found.  None.  Zilch.  Nada. 

I did some substitutions.  Between substitutions for things I don't like and not being able to find black eyed peas, it ended up as...

• 1 can black beans, drained (instead of black eyed peas)
• 1 cup brown rice
• Diced bell pepper (instead of celery, blech!)
• Bunch Diced green onions
• Diced tomato
• 1/3 tube Basil (instead of fresh parsley)
• Two tablespoons minced garlic
• I did not add the tablespoon of lemon juice.

Mix in large container, chill for an hour.

It was really good.  I've let the leftovers chill since last night, and it's really smelling amazing.  I probably overdid the garlic, but you can never have enough garlic!

New Years Day

Happy New Year!  I have begun the year with split pea soup and a bit of A&W Rootbeer. Both were leftovers I hated to let go to waste.

Yesterday I grocery shopped at a health food store that has very good prices.  I bought salad fixings, vegetarian soups, avocados, Blue Sky Rootbeer for those periodic cravings, raw sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, and a few other healthy things. I did get some Annie Chuns roasted seaweed snacks in wasabi flavor. They taste like the ocean. They are for when I want chips.

I want to limit my meat and processed food intake.  I want to eat more greens and fruit. I didn't buy fruit, I didn't see anything that's struck me.  I'll pick some up this week.

Since there was Ham in my soup, I'm going to be veggie the rest of the day. One day at a time. That's all I can ask.