FISH!!! Not So Vegan After All.

 So I just had to add fish to my diet. So it is official, this isn't a Vegan diet. I still don't eat any meat (other than fish) or animal products, ie, cheese, milk, etc. But I just can't live without fish.

Up top is a filet of sol with sauteed heirloom tomatoes over couscous. SO SO good!




On the right is salmon on top of veggie fried rice with wilted spinach. Seriously YUMMY!

TOFURKEY!

So Tofurkey isn't too bad, the texture is just right, the flavor is great, I wish it was sliced a bit thinner, but overall a great sandwich.

Will you marry me avocado!?

I want to marry avocado!


MMMM So good! Nice big ol salad with goddess dressing and corn chips with hummus on the side. MMMMM So good!

"Sausage" Breakfast Sandwich

Morning Star Veggie Sausage tastes AMAZING! Seriously, I'll probably never buy real sausage again. It has the same exact flavor as real sausage without the greasy uneasy feeling you get in your stomach after eating it. MMMM SOOO GOOD! Sprinkle a little Soy Cheese on top and you got a great breakfast!

Ah Couscous! (is that how you spell it?)

Tons of veggies lightly sauteed and mixed in with my couscous, with a side of bread with vegan butter.

mmmmmmm!

Dinner Time!

 Grilled Eggplant with Spaghetti!

Adult portion with a giant salad!









                                                                                    
                                                                                                Kid portion with extra tomatoes!

Quick and Easy Breakfast ideas

 English muffin and fruit, my new favorite breakfast. It's quick and easy, and you can do so much with it.


Sometimes I eat it with just a little fake butter on top, other times I'll make a sandwich out of it, with sunflower seed butter and bananas or tomato and onion, anything goes.

Starting to Feel It!

     Now that I am well into my second week of a vegan diet and I am already feeling different. It's not a huge change, but my energy levels are up and I haven't had any ulcer pain or random chest pains. I am really starting to like the food and I'm not missing meat and cheese as much. Although I think I may in the future have to drop the title "vegan" and adopt a more suitable title of "plant based vegetarian" diet, because I plan on incorporating fish back into my diet.

     So, to track the affects of this diet on my body, I wrote down all my medical issues in a journal and I plan on updating it each week to see where I am at with my symptoms and overall health. In about a month I'll have a check up with my doctor, in which all my numbers will be checked, ie: cholesterol, blood pressure, heart rate, weight, etc. I am excited to see how much my cholesterol levels have gone down and I'd be really happy if I manage to get my blood pressure down, because otherwise, I will probably be prescribed meds.

     The other modification that I've made to my diet was upping my B and C vitamins, I now take two pills a day one with breakfast and one with dinner, instead of just one in the am. I started out taking the Super B&C vitamins a few months ago for depression, and it WORKED! So I just kept on taking them, but I think now that I am on this new diet, I may need more B and I know that a double dose won't hurt. So I'll track the affects of that as well.

Happy eating!

Vegan Enchiladas!!!

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!!!!!


I grilled my veggies up, onion, red and green bells, corn off the cob, then I mixed it with fresh cilantro, basil, and grape tomatoes and topped the mixture with fresh lime juice. Of course these wouldn't be considered enchiladas without cheese, so I sprinkled some veggie shredds soy cheese on top.

Boca is Best!

Lunch time!!

Boca brand burgers are the best. Here I enjoyed it with an avocado, grape tomato, cilantro and almond salad on the side.

Tortilla Wrapped Veggie Burger

 Lunch!

I took a veggie burger, placed it in the center of a tomato/lime tortilla, topped it with a layer of veggie rice mix then folded the sides up around it. Then I just heated it up in a pan and flipped it and cooked the folded ends in. Wahla!

Throw some smashed avocado on top and you have one DEEEE-lish dish.

"Steak" night

Yummy dinner time!!

Grilled Portobello with corn on the cob and baked beans.

Not so pretty but SO yummy.

MMMM Portobellos!


Stuffed this one with my veggie rice mix and topped it off with soy cheese and placed in on a bed of arugula. Nice little orange bell pepper side with almonds and craisins.

OPPS~

So I have to admit that I'm not 100% sure that the bread/buns/tortillas that I used were totally vegan. I'll have to go back and check, but the more I think about it, I'm pretty sure they aren't. So maybe I'll just call it my modified vegan diet. So no meat or dairy, but breads that might be made with egg or dairy are ok in moderation? I don't know yet. One thing at a time I guess.

Breakfast "Queso"dilla

SO YUMMY!

Here is my breakfast Soydilla with veggie rice.
Inside is simply black beans and soy cheese but the sun dried tomato/lime/jalapeno tortilla really made this one delicious!! MMMMM

Jason's Deli

Eating out!

Something that is difficult to do when you are attempting  a vegan diet, is eating out. Jason's deli has plenty of vegetarian options but no real vegan options. So I just got the veggie wrap without cheese.
It was definitely missing some flavor. It was mostly just bean sprouts and spinach inside.

Veggie Burger for Dinner

Dinner time!

So this wasn't that great. The actual veggie burger was very crumbly and dry. Definitely too thick as well. Trader Joes has tons of great products but this was not one of them. I'll go back to Boca for sure.

Veggie Pasta

 It's lunch time again!

I sauteed onions, yellow bells, garlic, zucchini, and tomatoes.

Then I tossed it all together with some pasta and spinach, then doused it with pepper. This one was a hit!

Grilled Cheese Alternative

Time for dinner! I used the rest of the grilled eggplant to make this YUMMY grilled soy cheese sandwich. Inside there is eggplant, red peppers and onions. Can I just say MMMMMMM!

Day Two, Lunch!

      Grilled eggplant, red bells, and onion.

For lunch I decided to grill up a bunch of eggplant, enough to use for lunch and dinner.

I used the eggplant, avocado, tomatoes, red bells,  and arugula to make an eggplant salad. I just tossed everything together with a lemon/cilantro dressing. This was AMAZING!

Day Two of the Vegan Faze

      A good alternative to the omelet.

So my second day trying out a vegan diet started out on the right foot. Here I used a tortilla filled with a veggie rice and bean mix with soy cheese and topped it with onion, tomatoes and avocado. Could have used some salsa though.

Day One of the Vegan Faze

     So day one of my temporary vegan diet started with a failed attempt at a stuffed bell pepper with a salad. The first mistake I made was I put too much cayenne in the veggie rice mix so eating the bell pepper was sort of painful, then I didn't cook the bell long enough, and to top it all off I put too much dressing on my salad! Not off to such a good start with this new vegan adventure.