A bit of bad news.

Those of you who are following this (…anybody…*taptaptap* Is this thing on?), will have noticed that I haven’t posted in a very, very long time. I’ve been without Internet, though I have it once more. I have also fallen entirely off the diet bandwagon. Big time.

I’m back above 180lbs. I hoped I’d never see these numbers again, aside from when with child. But, here I am again. I’m hoping a good deal of it can be attributed to my monthlies, but certainly all of it can’t be!

It’s about a month of work, completely erased. When you think of it that way, it’s pretty sad. Three weeks of eating horribly undoes a month of working my butt off. But, I guess stepping on the scale today was a wake up call.

So now I’m back and armed with a plan! I’ve got well over two weeks of exceptionally healthy and vegan meal plans worked on my nutrition tracker on SparkPeople.com. The calorie range is a bit higher than the 1,300 I was getting earlier. With these plans, I’m hitting between 1,400 and 1,500. But, they’re world healthier. I’m getting more than enough of ALL then nutrients I need (including protein and the dreaded vegan triumvirate of Vitamin B-12, iron and calcium, as well as plenty of fiber, omega-3s, Vitamins A & C and folic acid! Hooray!). Where early attempts at Veganism Meets SparkPeople were TITANIC failures in the nutrition department, I think I’ve figured out the puzzle to getting the nutrients I need, the cost being 1-200 more calories a day. That, I think, I can live with.

What else? Being far, far, far more active. I’m going to do Cool Running’s Couch-to-5K Program or hit the ellipticals three times a week to burn around 400 calories each of those days. I’m also going to bicycle about 45 minutes a day. New means of transportation, and all. It builds character. That will set me to around a whomping 4,000 calories burned a week, which certainly allows me to eat around 1,400-1,550 and not be too worried.

I’m going to have to see how my body responds to such vigorous exercise–starvation? I’ll boost my calorie count a hundred calories on days I bike and hit the gym.

That’s the revised plan. I’m planning on starting up quite soon. I’ve got a grocery list (alarmingly little money!) all worked out and am shooting to begin this nonsense Sunday.

Here we go again!

In my absense from this blog, I have been doing a great deal of happy vegan research and recipe pondering, so hopefully some very tasty things will be coming up in the future!

A bientot, mes amis!

A teeny to-do list: make a decent work out playlist, update the tags page of this blog, make up a few lists of recipes I want to try out.

Vegan with a Vengeance: Falafel & Tahini Sauce

These two recipes are from the Vegan with a Vengeance, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Falafel appears on page 98. Tahini Sauce appears on page 121.

Nutritional Facts : Falafel (serving size = 2 patties. Recipe makes 16.):
Calories: 119
Fat: 2.8g
Sodium: 375mg
Carbs: 20g
Fiber: 3.3g
Protein: 4.1g

Rating:

I opted to bake these instead of frying them, and as a result, mine turned about a bit softer than I would have liked. I think I’ll add in another 1/4 of bread crumbs, next time and increase the cooking time. I baked these in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes each side after brushing with olive oil and sprinkling with bread crumbs. The caloric results are, however, worth foregoing the frying, in my opinion.

Nutritional Facts : Tahini Sauce (serving size = 2 tablespoons. Recipe makes 2 cups.):
Calories: 45
Fat: 4.3g
Sodium: 76mg
Carbs: 2g
Fiber: .5g
Protein: .7g

Rating:

The sauce was maybe even better than the falafels themselves! I was worried that it would be too vinegary for my tastes, but once I blended it up and threw in the parsley it was absolutely divine! It didn’t appear to be two cups’ worth until the final addition of water which made it just runny enough and around two cups. I’m going to find excuses to eat this with everything. Like on my salads. And pasta. And off my lover.

The meal (complete with half of a pita, cucumber slices, red onions, baby greens and a huge handful of cherries) ended up being around 350 calories and was very filling and delicoius. The cherries were the perfect balance to the red onions.

I promise I’ll have better pictures in the future! I made it a point to get batteries for my camera this evening and I got the wrong size! That’s why the picture accompanying this review is soo horrible.

She’s the Tofu in my Stir-Fry

This posting is about how much I absolutely love my mother. She is being as supportive and angelic as can be! She took me to two bookstores to search out veg*n cookbooks, and even bought one for me (Yes, I finally own Vegan with a Vengeance!) and helped me find the other (Vegan Planet, about which I’ve heard mixed reviews, but which seems to have a lot of information on planning a nutritionally sound diet).

She helped me scour Trader Joe’s for happy, healthy foods, as well, but in our frenzy, I took home two non-vegan items. One contains butter (how did we miss that?!) and the other whey, which had slipped my mind when reading labels. Properly checking ingredients is something I’m going to have to really practice doing. In the past, I’ve read mainly for calorie/carbs/fat/protein/fiber/vitamins and minerals, as well as refined sugars and hydrogenated slimy goo. However, now that I’ve realized my mistake, I can avoid doing it again in the future. ☺

As for the books?

I can already tell that I absolutely love Vegan with a Vengeance and I want to make just about every recipe in the book! I’ve gone through it and scrawled down a [page long] list of things I want to make and I’m fairly certain the Revolutionary Spanish Omelet with Saffron and Roasted Red Pepper-Almond Sauce (page 184) is going to be whipped up in the very near future because it contains just about everything I love (saffron, onions, potatoes, red peppers, almonds and garlic). When I read the instructions, I was expecting something with freakish amounts of fat and calories. This, however, does not appear to be the case…I need a cast iron skillet. STAT!

Vegan Planet looks like it will live up to the reviews: good to have and a decent resource with passable recipes, some of which are rather bland and need to be spiced up. I haven’t, however, delved into the recipe section, so I could be in for a happy surprise. I also am of the belief that every recipe needs at least double the spices called for, so, um, I could be a bit skewed in my tastings.

Seeing as I’m cooking for one right now, I freeze just about everything I make in individual serving sizes (I’m anal about it. I’ll post pictures some time!) and most recipes last me about a week. And, I have no veg*n pals in the area, yet, so, it really is just me! And now I have several lists of delicious things I want to make. I am going to be at this forever! Hooray.

But, first! FALAFEL!. I have been craving falafel for nearly a week and a half now, and, damn it, I’m going to make it!

State of the Blog 2007

I think you’re supposed to do these sorts of posts at the beginning of the calendar year, however I obviously didn’t start this blog at the beginning of a calendar year, therefore, I’m posting it now.

That said, welcome, oh Internet friends, to my very humble foodblog. In the past, I have been the worst blogger on the surface of the planet. I have a LiveJournal in which I ramble on about my very woeful life (boys and complaining about school, mainly) and an abandoned knitting blog (abandoned only because I am a compulsive starter and a rare finisher!). Neither of these blogs showed any exemplary writing or are terribly worth reading if you’re not intimately familiar with my life (and even then!). I would like this blog to be a bit more worthwhile and it is my hope that I can connect with a few more diet bloggers in the process as well as some sassy vegan cooks!

Here are my personal goals:

+ Transition into a vegan way of life. For those unaware of what veganism constitutes, it means not consuming any animal products (meat, dairy, eggs, other byproducts including whey and certain vitamins). My primary concern is personal health (high cholesterol and diabetes run in my family), however, as of late, the animal rights and environmental arguments have meant a great deal more to me.

+ Lose anywhere from forty to fifty-five pounds. My current weight is 173.0 lbs. My highest was 212 and I started a conscious attempt at losing weight in January. I weighed 204 then. I don’t necessarily have an ideal goal weight in mind. A healthy weight for my age and height (20, 5’4”) is 108-145 pounds, based on BMI. I am taking this one day at a time, though. I’m already much happier with my body and healthier, and plan on listening to my body when it gets down to those thirty-seven pounds I could lose or keep. With such a range considered “healthy” I hope to let my body settle into a happy weight within that range.

+ Bike more! I’d like to rely more on my own body (and bicycle) for transportation versus using public transit (busses and elevated trains) when possible. I have this listed as a goal because, while I enjoy biking, I’m not terribly competent at biking great distances yet, I’m deathly afraid of biking around traffic and my excursions, thus far, have been largely recreational. My goal is to bike to school, work and all sorts of other places.

+ Leave a smaller footprint. I’d like to waste a whole lot less. Canvas shopping bags, biking, buying locally grown produce (it’s so easy to do! And fresh, locally grown, in season produce? That is a very delicious no-brainer!).

+ Last but certainly not least: eat delicious food! I’m of the belief that healthy and vegan do not have to equal bland and unfulfilling! I’ve really enjoyed the vegan food I’ve cooked in the past (I love legumes, which is convenient, ne pas?) and have found myself drooling at vegan foodblogs in the past. I’m very excited to cook all sorts of fabulous new dishes and experiment with different exotic foods!

And of course, here are my goals for this blog:

+ Pictures, pictures, pictures! I would love for this blog to be colorful and full of lovely images of vegan creations, of pretty places I visit on my bike, of all that gorgeous local produce and, of course, a handful of “progress” pictures.

+ Recipe and book reviews! I am a compulsive recipe and cookbook collector and am always trying new recipes. I’d like to post some links and pictures here ranting and raving about various recipes! Most, I bet, will be raves. I will also provide nutritional info for the recipes I am trying. I use the calculator at SparkRecipes.com to figure out the nutritional information for most of the things I make! I spend a great deal of time plucking recipes off of VegWeb.com and The PPK, as well as various blogs, so you will probably see me try my hand at some of those here. i’ve put a few links in my sidebar of my favorite recipe haunts, and more are certainly to come!

+ Some recipes of my own, once I get a bit more adventurous.

+ A record of my weight loss progress, as well as a discussion of some of the difficulties I face along the way. I will likely post two to three times a week, and will post a “Dietary Digest” at the end of each week, breaking down calories, weight, etc, for the sake of accountability. I find I do much better when I write things down and share them!

I do not wish for this blog to become very political. Granted, there is a very liberal stigma associated with the vegan/green lifestyle, but this blog is not about politics (at this point); it is about health and wellbeing and a sustainable lifestyle. I may post the occasional link to related articles online; at this time, however, I will be avoiding deeply political issues. This blog is about food and fun!

I think that just about wraps up this State of the Blog (you write one a year, right? ). If you’d like a bit more information about me or my quest, please check out my About section!

Thank you very kindly for reading,
Sara
lapetitepoire