munching my way to obesity

Recipes tried to date: 58/250

In my haste of the weekend i completely forgot to blog this week's cooking experiments! As i discussed in my previous post, i was going to start trying recipes from Alicia's cookbook. So i better discuss that a bit. Much to my disappointment, the sodium in these recipes is RIDICULOUS!!! i instantly felt sick after trying a mix of Shoyu and Ume on tofu scramble- and lets face it-collard greens just do not sit well with me! bleckkk the texture is just something i can not swallow cooked.
And also- am i REALLY going to try Sea Vegetables??? not likely! they are hella expensive and that doesnt taste good to me.
I'm what i like to call a gourmet vegan- and that means-i love savory/spicy stuff- this usually comes in the form of inspiration from Italian, middle eastern, Moroccan, Indian, and Thai flavors.
I've never really been a fan of sushi or soy sauce or Vietnamese/Chinese type flavors, so for that reason- these type of dishes are not going to be my favorites.
Sorry to say i already bought the Shoyu and Ume which were $7 each! and they wont be used often. Also that poor wakame that is sitting in the back of my cubard.

That being said; she does have plenty of recipes that dont use these weird condiments and could also be modified to remove them. Here's what i tried from hers.
-tofu scramble; too salty way way to salty!
-mochi waffles*; with rice syrup- ive never had rice syrup and its an interesting change- i dont mind it- and the mochi is kind of fun to eat! plus-isnt mochi just fun to say?!
-fried rice; less salty, but still kind of greasy and doesnt sit well
-hot chocolate*; good!! love the blend and tastes just like carnations, which i remember as a kid- so this is a good thing
-smoothie a'la alicia; cinnamon sticks in smoothies= NO, stomach pain- mine was an attempt at "apple pie smoothie" and ended up being slightly reminiscent of an unfortunate Vega experience from early vegetarian days- puke!
-cauliflower steaks; bland bland bland- needs a sauce
-thumbprint cookies; vegetable oil=yuck. these cookies are WAY to oily, my version used cocoa powder and PB but that still did not mask the oily taste
And the result its= i only liked the hot chocolate and the mochi!

I feel terrible for being a little food critic- but everyone has their preferences and its just not mine! and i honestly dont believe people should be eating dishes that have 44% sodium in 1tsp!!!!!! c'mon! thats crazy! Unless people are going to eat 100% well all the time- this just doesnt measure up. Im sure if one followed her diet completely it would balance out- but im not that dedicated. Alas- i will continue to try her recipes- the ones that dont have this stuff in them! so stay tuned on the Kind Life.

Next Up: the winners!

1. Celery Root Soup with Apples: the Conscious Cook: This is actually one of my favorite cookbooks, its so "Gourmet" i love its! but a lot of the recipes are meant for summer or spring, which it clearly is not right now- so i'll have to wait. First of all, imagine my delight in discovering i could actually find celery root in my city! i've never had it before so that was cool! This soup is creamy and delicious- and totally unexpected, of course i assumed since i dont really like celery that it would taste bland and yucky- but when you add the special "cream" and top with the apples- it tastes almost like potato soup. Very delish! A+!
2. Stuffed Artichoke: this recipe is a family secret from my dear friend nortydog on Peer Trainer. I just recently tried artichoke (fresh) for the first time and enjoyed it!! the stuffed artichoke was terribly elegant and deeply delicious! i was plum full! A!
3. Mochi Waffles with Lemon Brown Rice Syrup: the Kind Diet: as i said before- these are good! mochi is a rice thing-- i dont know exactly and if you want to know you'll have to look it up. No there isnt really a benefit of using mochi over regular waffle mix in my opinion, but it was still an interesting way to eat the stuff, it puffs up all cute and crunchy- and dont we all just love Crunchy stuff??! :) B+!
   
4. Chickpea Tacos: my own ok not being conceded by tooting my own horn here, but i made this up inspired by a few recipes ive leafed through and they are fricken awesome!! I kind of swiped the idea from Happy Herbivore but her recipe has the chickpeas roasted- and lets face it- i dont have time for that!!! im usually ravenous when i get home and waiting while something is in the oven for more then 30min means i'll rip off the fridge door. SO any who- i made a taco "meat" of crushed chickpeas and chopped mushrooms- sauteed with a bit of onion and red pepper- the usual taco spices (which by ended up tasting just like a fajita mix); and then served up with tofutti sour cream, an avocado-chipotle cream i made, black olives, and..drumroll---A NON NASTY VEGAN CHEESE!! which i will name here as Galaxy Foods; cheddar flavor- honestly ppl it tastes like the real deal- to my delight! And i wrapped them up in sm Corn Tortillas with shredded lettuce. It was SOO Good and SOO easy, im very proud of myself and will make this again- even non-veggies may like it!
   

Thats all for NOW on that subject: but i need to address the other part of this post "munching my way to obesity". ha ha. I say this because in my effort to cook as much as possible, im finding there is only little-me to eat them and i do NOT like leftovers. So- ive become somewhat like a bottomless pit stuffing myself to the breaking point. And some of these dishes use a lot more oil and butter then im used to. Sadly- my stomach is not keeping up and im gaining alot of weight.

So- this week and the next 5 weeks are going to be Eat to Live- that generally means beans, greens, fruit and veggies-nuts in moderation. Im not going to be totally silly and give up all i've worked for and started here, but i do need to trim the fat out of my diet a bit. So Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are here by known as free days where i can try my special recipes without restriction. After the initial 3 weeks of recasting i will make my recipes if i can modify them to be more ETL. THEN- i can add more things back as long as i know how to eat less of them. I've printed off a whole load of recipes from Disease Proof which on their own look pretty good.
The goal: 130lb by my birthday FEB 26- 1 month. Lets do it!! And i am a firm believer that people CAN eat well fat free without sacrificing taste, so im going to try my very hardest to prove that!

Happy Cooking Everyone!
xoxo Green Love Goddess