Becoming Vegan

OooOo the cat is out of the bag! (And Eric even makes a special appearance in the video!)

I’m surprised that no one figured it out (or at least commented on it!) but roughly six weeks ago I did make the decision to go vegan and as a result I am feeling really good! I go into a lot more detail in the video, but my reasons were primarily based on doing what is best for my body. Consuming fewer animal products was something that I had discussed from the very beginning with my naturopath and as time went on, I seemed to be eating less and less meat. As I consumed less meat, I was concerned about how the meat I was eating was affecting my body and then made the decision to give veganism a go. Gluten free vegan living is really agreeing with my system and I couldn’t be happier!

If you’re looking for a little vegan love, or you have been wanting to check out some new plant based recipes, Meghan is doing a tutorial called 5 Days Vegan beginning September 15.

The tutorial is a great source of information for anyone thinking about a vegan lifestyle or for those looking for ways to incorporate more plant based foods into their lives. It’s full of facts, worksheets, fantastic easy recipes (like lemon lentil soup!) and meal plan ideas for aspiring vegans, vegan-curious or those just looking for yummy food!

As I mentioned in the video, I really enjoyed Brenda Davis’ book

It is an incredibly useful tool for people looking to find out more information on making the transition to veganism. The only part I didn’t love about the book was a seemingly heavy reliance on tofu, soy and fake meat products. While I do eat tofu, I try not to make it my main/only source of protein and I’m not a huge fan of fan meats. I recognize that everyone is different, but I wasn’t a huge fan of that part of the book. Fake meat aside, it’s chock full of great information on everything pertaining to veganism and if you’re heading down that path it’s a great book to pick up. (I found it at our local library)

I really appreciate your continued support as I work to figure out what works for me and my tummy. This whole journey has been about discovering what I need to do to feel good, and right now going vegan felt like the next step for me. I aspire to keep things simple by eating good food from the earth. I look forward to continuing to document my journey as a Weight Watchin’ gluten free vegan gal with Crohn’s and hopefully spreading some love and inspiration along the way!

I found a great quote when I was flipping through my naturopath’s notes in preparation for this post and I really love it.

Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food.

-Hippocrates

In the spirit of back to school, I’ll be doing a post on packable lunches on Friday and be sure to check back this weekend for my recap of the Vegetarian Food Fair. I’m really looking forward to talks by the likes of Brenda Davis, Brendan Brazier plus cooking demos with Meghan, jae steele, and Ricki Heller. I think it’s awesome that I’ll be attending for the first time so soon after my decision to go vegan!

Ron Popeil taught me well

When I was a kid, I loved watching infomercials. My parents thought I was nutty, but I really enjoyed watching Ron Popeil promote various kitchen gadgets (or spray on hair) to the masses. My absolute favourite was the food dehydrator. I realistically knew that my family was never going to buy one, but I was intrigued by the "fruit roll ups" and jerky nonetheless. So you can imagine my excitement when I got this...

My very own dehydrator!

(Eric making good use of the box)

I opted for an Excalibur dehydrator (purchased from the lovely folks at Upaya Naturals) in the "apartment sized" 4 tray model. I had a credit (from my doomed Sun Warrior purchase) and I thought it would be a cool gadget to have. I've been experimenting more and more with Raw Food and I decided the dehydrator would open up my options!

My first experiment was Raw carob-cherry cookies from The Complete Book of Raw Food (you'll remember that this is the book Joey got me for my birthday)

They were delicious!! I was happy to find a new use for carob. Dried cherries are delightful and the centers are made from fresh cherries and honey. I also love that they have ZUCCHINI in them!! They were really easy to make and incredibly delicious. Joey really enjoyed them too.

As you can imagine, dehydrating takes time. Things don't "cook" very quickly at 105 degrees, so you need to plan ahead. That's fine by me!! I know that I'm going to learn more about the nuances of my dehydrator as I use it more, but overall I'm really happy that I got it. Next project: Corn taco shells.

Since we're talking colour this week, I thought I would share yesterday's colourful eats with you.

Breakfast: Scrambled tofu with spinach, 1/2 an avocado & orange juice

I've never "scrambled" tofu before, but this was delicious!! It's basically tofu with onion, garlic, a bit of oil, curry powder and salt. You break up the tofu into chunks, sautee for a little bit and voila! I usually go for sweet breakfasts rather than savory, so this was a nice change. It didn't take much time to make and it kept me full for HOURS!! I will definitely be making this a staple in my breakfast rotation.

Lunch: Cauliflower, broccoli, & veggie burger with cherries & blueberries

Dinner: Wild Rice soup with sweet potato croutons, cauliflower, cucumber slices and walnut crackers (recipe from Meghan's class)

The soup wasn't what we expected, but it was a good meal nonetheless. Joey and I decided that the cauliflower was probably some of the best we've ever tasted!! Yay for the Farmers Market - I can't wait to go again this week!

How are you doing with colour this week? Any good dehydrator recipes/books to share?

WMR - Week of May 17 - Kale Week

There was a meal plan this week AND a trip to the grocery store - hooray!!

Monday was Victoria Day in Toronto, so I had some time to take an amazing walk with Lori. Our intention was to find brunch, but we ended up walking 7.1 km to do that and come home!! We ended up eating at Joy Bistro on Queen Street East and it was really good! 

I thought I might have to pull some sides together like I did at Barrio, but they were able to make an omelet using only egg whites which was fabulous! When I said I didn't want toast, they offered mixed greens. Seriously, why can't I get customer service like this everywhere?? Check out Lori's giant pancake in the background!

I decided to make the lemon lentil veggie soup from last week's cooking class because I knew that Joey would love it. 

He was a little skeptical ("honey, am I going to taste all that kale?") but couldn't get over the amazing flavor and even went back for a second bowl. So did I! It's such an amazing recipe and I look forward to making it again.

Kale seemed to be a common theme in my meals this week. On Tuesday I made tortilla pizzas.

I spread some kale & arugula pesto on brown rice wraps with some sauteed zucchini and yellow pepper. I bought some vegan mozzarella cheez and added a few chunks. (I grated some very appetizing looking old cheddar on Joey's) I also made some yummy kale chips on the side.

I gotta say - vegan cheese just doesn't do it for me.

Maybe I need to try a couple of (casein-free) brands, but this one just tasted too "floral". It had the texture of cheese and it almost tasted like cheese, but it just wasn't the real thing and it kinda grossed me out. Luckily it didn't actually melt so I was able to pick it off easily. The rest of the pizza was yummy and I really liked my kale chips...

Hence why they made another appearance the next day as we bbq-d! 

My last Sol burger, with steamed broccoli & lemon, 1/2 a sweet potato and the kale chips - yum! For dessert we enjoyed vegan raw sugar free truffles! I decided to get off the streetcar a little bit early on my way home because it was such a beautiful day on Wednesday. I had stopped in at LPK's Culinary Groove once or twice before, but their sandwich board caught my eye - that sounds like something I can eat!! 

I ended up chatting with the woman who makes them and found out that she used to do the cakes and sweets at Live! She then went on to study traditional baking and found herself working at LPK. She is now trying to bring in more raw desserts which is amazing! The raw truffles were phenomenal. So chocolatey and smooth. They also contained blue algae which I wouldn't have known by tasting it. I'm looking forward to testing out more of the goodness from LPK's in the future!

I enjoyed some leftovers from the bbq in my Laptop Lunch the following day.

Since I would be going to cooking class on Thursday once again, I wanted to leave Joey with something to have for dinner. I decided to dust off my slow cooker!! I was on such a roll there, and I want to get back into it. Slowcooking is so easy and so tasty! I once again turned to A Year of Crockpotting for inspiration and made the Maple Dijon chicken.

(Eric hanging out while it was cooking - please ignore the mess)

Joey was crazy about this! I didn't really get to try it because I was stuffed after cooking class and Joey had already had two helpings by the time I came home and then needed lunch for Friday. I had a few of the sweet potatoes in my lunch and they were really yummy.

On Friday night I headed to the Carrot with a friend and enjoyed some more takeaway goodness. I had the honey garlic tofu, curried lentils, cauliflower, thai green rice and squash - yum!

On Saturday night Joey and I headed to Il Fornello for dinner. 

Il Fornello has both gluten free pasta and pizza which is great for me! I ordered the linguine capri without cheese or tomato and with gluten free pasta. It was delicious!!

It had a lemon olive oil sauce that was incredibly light and flavorful. I loved the spinach and the chicken! And the gluten free spiral pasta made me giggle.  Joey enjoyed his linguine carbonara with no substitutions. It was a really great meal and it's nice that I can still frequent some of my old haunts and customize the menu to suit my needs. 

Following dinner I went to my bellydance studio with my friend Lindsay for "Cabaret 101"

It was a lovely show! I was especially impressed with one of the students who drummed for another student to dance to - amazing! We have our studio recital coming up in June but I would really like to perform at one of these smaller studio shows. Another goal for me perhaps? 

When it rains, it pours

No, I'm not talking about the chillier weather we've been having in Toronto this week - I'm talking about my life!!

First it started with being completely exhausted and my phone breaking on Saturday. 

Then I got sick. 

And then last night we had to take our cat Eric to the emergency vet clinic because we thought he might have had a urinary tract infection or blockage. 

Seriously?

While I was making dinner last night, Joey called me downstairs and told me to look at Eric. He was squatting in a strange spot in the hallway and staring off into space. We thought it was strange behavior, but we went on to eat dinner and watch Biggest Loser. At around 9:30, we noticed that he was still acting strange and doing the squatting in the hallway thing. We noticed little spots of pee on the carpet and started to get worried. We looked up some of his symptoms on the Internet and then got really worried. We called the emergency vet and they told us to bring him right in. 

I should tell you now that taking Eric to the vet is quite an ordeal. He turns into a monster. I always feel like that mother you feel sorry for in the grocery store whose toddler is screaming and having a complete tantrum and the mother is saying things like "I don't know why he's acting like this, he never does this at home".  He is downright nasty at the vet - hissing, biting, scratching and acting more like a horror movie villain than the sweetie pie cat he is at home. 

The vet tech managed to grab him by the scruff and feel his bladder which she said was small and hard, indicating a potential blockage. After they whisked him away to the back room we were told that we needed to provide at $550 deposit for treatment. If we didn't use all of it we would receive a refund. Gulp. 

The vet chatted with us about his symptoms and confirmed what the vet tech (and our Internet research) suspected. She told us she would be right back with a quote for their services. The quote was for $1500!!!! 3+ days at the vet, a catheter insertion, x-rays, blood tests etc. We love Eric, but $1500 is more than we pay in rent each month. We decided to instead take him home and bring him to our regular vet in the morning. We had to sign a waiver that said we were going against medical advice and if anything happened to him, it was our fault and not theirs. 

Eric was high as a kite when we brought him home. In order to examine the little guy they gave him some valium to calm him down. It was pretty funny to see him so dopey and stoned. 

This morning we took him to our normal vet who examined him and determined that he wasn't blocked and that everything seemed okay. He was urinating fine and there was nothing sketchy in the urine. The picture at the top of the post in from our visit today. He's wearing the collar so that he couldn't bite the vet's face off. I wish I was kidding. 

After a thorough examination he gave Eric some antibiotics and told us to keep in touch in case he started acting strangely again. Our visit this morning cost nowhere close to $1500. Eric is currently curled up next to me and he seems to be back to his normal self. 

This week's challenges and an email from one of my members today, reminded me that when life throws you lemons - don't binge on lemon pie! It's important to try and find non-food ways to deal with our stress, because often one of the first things we turn to when we're tired, stressed, worried, sad, depressed or excited is food. And it's usually not brussel sprouts or brown rice. 

It's important to take care of yourself and manage your feelings. This could include: taking a walk, doing yoga, practicing meditation, having a hot bath, enjoying some hot tea, retail therapy, having a chat with a good friend, going for a run, kickboxing, dancing, snuggling with someone you care about or curling up with a good book. With our hectic lives, schedules and unexpected events we really need to put ourselves at the top of our lists and ensure that we're doing okay too. This will be helpful for your sanity and wellbeing as well as your weight loss efforts. 

Tonight I took a nice walk to the Carrot, and plan to do some yoga and have a nice hot bath after I catch up on some blog reading. After the week I've had, I think I deserve it!!