9/18/2011 3 Comments Cooking aheadSo, I have been doing a lot of cooking. First, some veggies about to be oven-roasted for a lovely oven-roased vegetable stock...carrots, onions, celery, garlic and parsnips. Parsnips? I didn't even know that I liked them! Some of the stock went into making a tasty Roasted Red Pepper and Pumpkin soup. It was good, but I will be tweaking this recipe and when I am happy, will share with ya'll here! I have been fortunate to find red bells on sale for a week or two now, so have been roasting them to use in various ways. There are so many benefits to roasting your own peppers. It makes the house smell wonderful, it's super easy to do and it adds so much flavor. Start with freshly washed peppers, put them on a pan under the broiler (on hi) and turn until all sides are black-ish. I know, you will think you have ruined them, but trust me, you haven't! Let them cool and then the peel will come right off. But don't throw the peels away. Keep them for the next pot of veggie stock that you make, because there is still a lot of flavor in them! (you can freeze them until you're ready.) I was going to post a pic of them here, but suddenly the Picture app is not working.
I made a bunch of Samosas, (from Angel's last post) and froze them. Also I made a tasty vegan Minestrone, which we ate and I froze the leftovers. In about another week I will be undergoing a shoulder surgery, and in order to keep up my current eating habits and hopefully NOT gain back any of the 20 pounds I have lost thus far, I will have to really behave myself! I plan on making some more falafels today, which will also be bound for the freezer. It will be much easier to cook with one arm in the microwave! Caio!
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So sorry it's been awhile since I last posted. Angel probably thinks I have fallen off the face of the planet! I have a lot of catching up to do. First, last week I made Quinoa, Corn and Buckwheat Noodle Salad from The Passionate Vegetarian (which Angel likes to refer to as PV). It was my first experience with quinoa. It was okay, but I will be trying the other colors. This quinoa was the black variety. I found the beautiful red corn to add, and it was a very colorful and pretty salad. While I liked this okay, it was not my fave recipe to date. It also takes a little extra prep compared to other grains. You have to wash it, and wash it, and wash it again. The seeds have a coating of saponins on them, which is basically a natural soap. I should think that would not be too tasty. On another note, I went camping over the Labor Day weekend. By myself. I really needed a little peace and quiet. I had always wanted to go down to Hot Springs and "take of the healing waters". I went to the Buckstaff Bath House. For a mere $64, you can find a bit of sanity and calm. I was soaked, scrubbed, sitzed, whirlpooled, steamed, hot-packed and massaged into a limp noodle, which felt very needed and very wonderful. I came home feeling more like the real me than I have felt in a long, long time. And I must do it again....very soon. I had thought to do a post on emotional eating, as I did not honestly observe the vegan principles during my little camping stint. I even ate cheese. From a can. I haven't eaten cheese from a can since I was a kid. But perhaps we will explore this issue in another post.
So, what's the great news, you ask? Let me preface it with a brief refresher of why I let my baby sister talk me into trying this whole vegan experiment in the first place. My doctor didn't like how high my LDL was. I told her, "I am not going to take a pill". I used to eat an egg for breakfast every morning with a piece of cheese on a slice of bread. Yep, every day. Then there was usually meat and cheese at lunch, then some form of meat at dinner. Angel's challenge was this: cut back on the animal protein and see if it helps. It had helped Dani, after all, and it seems to help Angel as well. Now I might eat animal protein anywhere from 2 to 5 times per week. Big difference. Last week I went and had my blood drawn to see how the numbers were looking and sat down today with my doctor. I think it would be fair to say we were both astonished! On May 10th, my overall cholesterol was 238, today it was 209. Nearly 30 points! My LDL? It was 149 on 5/10; now it's 129. I am only 14 points from being in normal range! How awesome is that? She said, "I don't know what you're doing, but keep doing it! What are you doing, anyway? It's highly unusual to see that big a difference with diet alone. It usually takes medication to effect a change like that." I told her I was "veganish" and had really not felt deprived, as I have discovered a lot of new recipes I really liked. She said I needed to write a book (which is something Angel and I have batted about). I also told her that the longer I am in health care, the more I believe that the best medicine that we have is the food we eat. I have to say, that for me at least, that the proof is now in the pudding...I mean whole grain cereal! Thanks, Angel, for helping me make this change in my life. You just may have saved your big sister's life! 8/20/2011 10 Comments Update from Renee'I did weigh last Thurday, after my vacation, and had gained 1/4#, which I didn't feel TOO bad about, considering I had consumed a few goodies (in moderation, of course!) while in Minneapolis at the CGOA dinner and fashion show. This past Thurday, I weighed again to find I had lost that 1/4#....plus another 1/2#! Success! I didn't wish to deprive myself during vacation, but wanted to be sensible about how many "treats" I enjoyed. Not too bad, I think. This brings me down to 180.5#. I am hoping to break 180 very, very soon. Haven't seen that in a little while!
On the cooking front, I made another batch of eggplant curry, from the recipe in The Candle Cafe' Cookbook, which I borrowed from Angel. It is destined for the freezer with a little pearl couscous for lunches during the week. Then this is what we had on Wednesday night. It was also from The CCC. It is Black Bean Soup. It called for vegetable stock, and since Angel had me save the stock we cooked our seitan in, I went to the freezer and thawed out 2 quarts to use in the soup. It was tasty! Next time, though, I will cook it entirely in the pressure cooker, as I am just too impatient to cook beans all day to get them as soft as I like them. Week before last I mentioned I had checked out some cookbooks. After looking through them, I decided to see if there was a Kindle edition of The Passionate Vegetarian (there isn't, just in case you're wondering); but, I did find a good used copy for $4.69, plus with a $5 Amazon coupon, it is basically mine for the cost of shipping, which is less than $4! Another score! I can't wait to get my own copy, as I had to return the one to the library; this way I won't smudge up the library copy while I am cooking. Until next time, this is Renee', signing off! Good eats! |
The Two Fat SistersRenee and Angel welcome you to their blog. Hopefully we can change our name some time. In the meantime, watch as we try to get there. Archives
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