That's right, new cookbooks

Here are my new cookbooks, not sure if I mentioned already, but I LOVE cookbooks.  I have been wanting to cook more authentic chinese food for my husband, I read about these cookbooks and the fact it's vegan/vegetarian is great.  I have my list of ingredients that I will need to get at the chinese supermarket this weekend and I will be testing next week.

Well, acutally I have begun testing, I am trying to find recipes that I can make ahead and then freeze.  So today I decided to try the Baked Seitan Balls.  I have made seitan before and to be honest I am not sure what to expect as I had never tried seitan bought in the store.  These seitan balls can now be made into numerous dishes in the cookbook and freeze well.

Okay, here is what they looked like coming out of the oven...



nice big and fluffy

Here is what they looked like 20 seconds later, not so big and fluffy

I am not sure what I did wrong, if anything, the cookbook doesn't say anything about them deflating to pancakes.  Well I am going to give them a try, shall keep you posted on how they turn out.

Also I have been following a blog, http://www.vegandad.blogspot.com/ and he has some kick ass recipes.  I am not sure when he finds the time to do all this cooking, but thank goodness.  I am going to try the vegan hot "wings" this weekend and the vegan lunch meat. 

My other new cookbook, Buddha's Table has some great soup recipes and a few Satay sauces I am going to make ahead and freeze, LOOOOVVVEEEE satay sauce.  Not sure if I mentioned this as well, I love sauces.  My poor husband, I hope my making soups will appease him.

Well I have a very squirmy 2 year old on my lap, so must dash.  Any suggestions, comments or recipes, pass them along.

STILL struggling

Hello again, I know it has been quite awhile since my last post, life has been super busy and super hectic and super crazy.  We bought a house, sold our house, purged, purged and more purging, packed, moved, unpacked and now starting renovations.  WHEW!

So I have been very, very, very bad at my eating habits, no, I haven't gone back to eating meat, but my nutritional intake has been horrible.  I have not been eating well and am really starting to feel it.  Yesterday was a bad day for feeling "out of sorts".  I felt like I do when I take cold medication, just not right.  So now it's time to get back in the swing of things.  With all the moving, packing, unpacking we ate alot of packaged foods, convinient foods and not enough fruits and vegetables.  Although, I always make sure the kids have enough fruits and vegetables, why doesn' that go for me too?  Hmmmm!  Also our grocery bill because of all the convinient foods was out of control. 

I am still struggling to make dinners for the meat eaters and for myself.  It ends up being alot of pots and pans, more dishes and the dishwasher going every night.  I had heard of a cookbook "Flexitarian Cooking", the cookbook was how to make two meals, one meat and the other vegetarian using the same ingredients.  I might see if the library has a copy and give it a try.  Maybe this will give me some ideas to help with the two dish meals.

I also need to stop skipping breakfast, although, I drill into the kids the importance of breakfast, most mornings I am too busy getting lunches ready, making sure they are eating to bother making my own breakfast.  I also need to start taking my vitamins again, I am prone to having love iron, so I need to make sure I take extra. 

I would love any suggestions from anyone with a two meal families, how they juggle dinnertime. 

Okay, Okay, I'm back

Okay, here I am back again.  It has been a busy month of cleaning, organizing and more cleaning.  Showing a home is alot of work, never mind constantly having to be out of the house, all at odd times, dinnertime, naptime or lunchtime.  But we are SOLD, so now back to daily life.

My meal planning was shot during this time as most days we had to eat out and for us that was fast food, eating out almost every night was expensive, we had to cut that cost down.  I ate alot of fries or the occassional veggie burger, which was always dry and bland.  So now that things are a bit more settleed I am trying to get rid of most of the pantry items, I don't want to pack and move it.  Also our new house doesn't have a pantry.  Yikes!

This week on the menu is alot of pastas and noodles, tonight is cold sesame noodle salad.  I also have alot of lentils, bulgar (which I am not sure what to do with), split peas and canned soup.  If anyone has an idea for bulgar, let me know. 

Last weekend I did manage to make big batches of sauces, Thai peanut sauce, miso gravy and Thai noodle sauce all from Ruth Tal's "Refresh".  I poured them into ice cube trays and put the frozen cubes into a freezer bag and defrost when I need them.  I am a HUGE sauce fan, love the sauce.  She has such great recipes for quick lunch ideas or an easy dinner.  I try to have most of the ingredients on hand so I can make anything from the book.  

I am still struggling to find a balance between my meals and the familes.  There are always alot of pots and pans and extra work to make two meals.  I am trying to make meals where I can substitute my faux meat with the rest of the families meat dishes.  My poor husband has been very patient while I try to figure this all out and has been having far too many vegetarian dishes to his liking. 

So I am sure the next month of packing is going to cut into the vegetarian meal planning and meal planning in general.  I hoping once we have moved I can get back into it and start posting menu's and recipes.

Any suggestions on combining meat and meatless meals, please pass them along, I would greatly appreciate it.

Stay healthy and happy.

Calgary Health Show

Well here we are again, the start of another week.  This past weekend my sister and I attended the Calgary Health Show, it was very interesting and overwhelming.  The venue was smaller, but they packed alot of vendors into the space. 

I love these shows, I like to see what is out there, what is new and try all the products.  I have been looking for some new vitamins and anything that I can use to supplement my vegetarian lifestyle on days that I don't eat properly.  My sister made a good point, she was never sure if her vitamins were being absorbed properly.  The first booth we came across was Usana.   The rep right away starts in on how fantastic their vitamins are, the absortion is fantastic, yadda, yadda, yadda.  We are listening, rolling our eyes.  Then she pulls out this book, Comparative Guide to Vitamins and Minerals.  An independent study of vitamin and minerals and she showed us the absorption of their vitamins compared to the ones we take.  Well I use Kirkland (Costco) vitamins and was shocked to see that the absorption rate was 5.1%, Usana's 96.4%.  Wow, so I was paying for vitamins that were really not doing anything for my body.  Such a waste of money.  I am going to be doing more research on this company and probably making the switch.  96.4% absorption rate, amazing!

I also had my aura read and she told me alot about myself that was soooooo true.  Have a big change coming in about two months (hoping that's the sale of our house and our move) and some things I needed to do to align my chakra's.  I need to work on balancing my root chakra, I'm thinking that has to do with the stress I'm feeling about the house.  I had a Clearing your Chakra's book at home, so I have been doing some suggestions from that, listening to a CD of meditation at night, although I have fell asleep during it both nights.  I hope that's okay...

One of the event sponsors was Community Natural Foods, they had a big area full of food, drinks and supplements.  I was buzzing by the end, trying all the energy drinks, energy bars, water, etc.  There was so much to choose from, how do you choose? 

You do what's right for you....only you know how you feel after taking these vitamins, energy drinks or flavoured water.  If these make you feel better, go for it, it not, stop.  My husband says I am a sucker for events like this, yes I am and I LOVE IT!

Let me know what you think, any idea's, suggestions, anything, I love to hear from you.

some catching up to do

Hello out there, again with the craziness, I hope it ends soon.  I have been doing some diet changes, still a vegetarian, but supplementing my diet on those crazy days I'm not going to get all my nutrients.  First I gave up coffee, I was stressed enough as it was with packing, all the purging and the selling of our house, I didn't need anything to keep me awake at night.  Well, that lasted about 5 days, then right back on it, I have no will power, sigh!  But I have been taking melatonin at night to help me have a more restful sleep and that seems to be doing wonders.

I have also started taking Greens+ in the morning, although not the best tasting drink, I do feel better and have more energy.  These days have been hectic and anything to keep my energy up and keep me healthy is great. 

I found a great facebook page yesterday, Vegetarians Rock, I loved that the people commenting on the site were mostly vegetarians in a non-vegetarian family.  It gave me comfort to know I wasn't the only struggling to prepare meals with two different ingredients.  Like I have said before, I don't impose my new way of life on my family, I do a bit on the children, mostly the daughter, she is just starting out and want her to be on a good path.  My husband has given up pork, after viewing a video, so I can only hope that he comes to the same conclusion about beef and chicken as well, but in his own time.  Here is the website, I find their Facebook page as alot more stuff, plus I like to comment.  http://www.vegetariansrock.org/

My other experience this past weekend was a awards reception that I went to, to support my sister.  It was at a nice venue and I was hopeful for my vegetarian meal, sigh!  A big disappointment, there were four vegetarians in the group of about 100 people.  The waitstaff kept coming up to check my ticket to see that I was a vegetarian and checking if I was vegan, it seemed quite the relief that I was a just a vegetarian.  So what did I get for a main course, a big plate of roasted vegetables, piled on top of each other, I think they were trying to make it look appetizing.  Oh and a small triangle of scalloped potatoes.  Needless to say, I ate alot of bread.  GROAN!  I am going to write to the venue today, not to be nasty, but to inform them of all the other vegetarian choices besides vegetables.  As a beginner vegetarian, I could have made myself a much better meal with more imagination then that.

Also today I have my new favourite recipe, Gouda & Lentil Soup:

1 TB butter
1 C chopped onion
1 C celery or baby spinach leaves (I hate celery, so I use spinach, I have also used Kale)
4 C diced sweet potato
1 tsp cumin (I love cumin, so I sometimes add a bit more)
4 C vegetable broth
19 oz can of lentils (I usually use dried lentils, just eye ball it, I never have canned, you will need to cook it a bit longer)
1 C gouda cheese
1/2 C grape tomatoes

1. Over medium high heat, melt butter, add onions and celery (if using) saute for 3 minutes, stir in sweet potatoes, and cumin, saute for 2 minutes.  Add broth and dried lentils (if using) and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until lentils and sweet potatoes are tender.
2. If you are using canned lentils, once the sweet potatoes are tender, add the canned lentils, cook over medium heat until heated through.  At this point you can puree part of the soup, but I love the chunkiness of it just the way it is.
3. Remove from heat, add spinach and half the gouda, season to taste with salt and pepper, ladle into bowls and top with remaining gouda, ENJOY!