Oh Nelie - don't shatter my childhood illusions


Food today - B: fruit/greens smoothie L: Salad D: Black bean soup, carrot and celery sticks S: fruit of some sort or another

well all I can say is they should shouldn't have a drive through at star buck oh well.

Ok I'm back and I'm back on it! Although today I need to go to the grocery store.

Breakfast - Blended Salad, literally... I had made salads and cut up veggies for DH while I was away. He didn't eat all of it and had one salad left and there is no other fresh veggies in the fridge. So I used a little bit of spinach I had leftover from my trip and his salad, mixed with frozen strawberries and bananas. I added a little ginger to the mix as well.

The rest of the day is TBD but I am hitting the store in a little bit to replenish my supply of veggies.

I went to Costco yesterday and bought tons of food. Some of it will be used for Thanksgiving, I think.

Anyway, last night I made 2 dishes for dinner. One was the Chickpea Casserole from Vegan with a Vengeance although I used kidney beans and i didn't use oil or bread crumbs. It was good.

I also made sweet potato samosa filling which was really easy. Basically I sauteed some shallots, mustard seeds and curry powder, I then added a cup of diced mushrooms and a can of canellini beans. I then heated up 3 sweet potatoes in the microwave. I put the sautee into the food processor and then added the sweet potatoes. I did need to add a little water to the mixture in the food processor. I left it a little chunky, I then added the mixture back to the sautee pan with thawed frozen peas (organic, taste so much better than regular). I heated everything through and served both the samosa filling and the casserole with a salad for dinner.

It's so nice to read examples of meals that are like I cook!

DH and I went out to eat at a vegan chinese restaurant so lunch and dinner were chinese. Lots of veggies, some tofu and some "wheat" meat.

I had a really tough time this week. Vegetarian is easy. Vegan is doable. But ETL was tough. I like more flexibility in my portions of foods. In other words, I don't like being told how much of this or that I can eat I'd rather just count calories and not strive towards a pound of this or a cup of that.

Has anyone else had this problem?

I like more beans and legumes than are "allowed". I feel like I do better with the protein-rich vegan foods. I also love tofu and a little good oil here and there. I have NO problem eating all the veggies, as I do that regularly anyway!

I actually don't have a problem although I don't measure my food. I highly doubt I'm getting 1 lb of cooked veggies every day but I am surely getting in 1 lb of raw and at least 1 cup of beans. Although today was an unusual day and I think I was a little low on raw veggies and beans.

I would really like to try this. Actually, not long ago I made it 2 weeks without meat and I don't eat dairy. No one hardly noticed I wasn't eating meat. My family would not be for going without meat or dairy. I'm reading ETL right now and I have a friend who has great success with it. Nellie, Did you dive right in with this? Did you feel deprived?

Hi ladies,
6 week to new years. How is everyone doing? I am back from my long week end and i realalized how bad I feel after going off program. It feels like I have a food hang over. Thank goodness this only happens once a year.

Maureen

My sentiments exactly. Lately I've been having lots of red lentil soup and veggies with my homemade bean dip.....prolly should be having more salads it might speed up my weight loss

Carol,

I did dive right into it. I wasn't even sure I could do it past a week but I decided to go for it and found it fairly easy. The only issue I had was the week that I went on a business trip. I didn't eat as much veggies as I should've but I did stay away from meat, dairy, eggs and products that contained them.

One thing I've found helpful is to make salads ahead of time. Initially, I was making salads for just that dinner and the next day lunch. I was amazed how well the salads kept if I made them for 2 dinners and 2 days worth of lunch.

One of my favorite salad additions is roasted red peppers. Sauteed mushrooms are good as well. I also like putting beans on my salad.

nelie, do you roast them yourself? Or use the ones already roasted in the jar at the grocery store? And do you keep the prepared lettuce in a zip lock bag that has little holes?

I roast the peppers myself. I have a toaster oven that is useful for small jobs like that.

I buy the 6 pack of romaine lettuce from Costco and I cut them up as needed. I find that the 6 pack pretty much lasts me a week although when it starts getting thin, I mix in bagged spinach that I buy, again from Costco.