vegan spicy mediterranean mac & "cheese"

I love this time of the year more than any I think.  That fresh Spring is in the air feeling.  Laying out by the pool. Cool fresh veggie dishes.  I just want to quit my job and live out by the pool right now.  BUT life does not permit me to do so.

My weekends have consisted of coffee at my favorite local coffee shop, LONG walks with my Cavalier Daphne and relaxing poolside.  I am thinking I need to rent Daphne out as she really kicks my butt when it comes to great walks! The dog NEVER slows down!

Still working away on cleaning up my health and doing great!  I am in week seven and down about 17 lbs.  -> insert happy dance!!  I feel so much happier, lighter on my feet and really positive!  I did a little tweaking with my diet last week cutting out my morning smoothie and substituting it with veggies.  I found that I feel so much fuller and the weight loss is moving again.

Last night my husband told me I knocked it out of the ball park with dinner!  Always a great complement to hear!  This was seriously like eating junk food that you might get at Olive Garden I kid you not!

vegan spicy mediterranean mac & "cheese"

Vegan Spicy Mediterranean Mac & "Cheese"

Ingredients:
1 box of Quinoa Macaroni Pasta

Sauce:
1 Cup Raw Cashews (soak for 2 hours if you don't have a Vitamix)
1 Clove Garlic
1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
3 tbsp. Tomato Paste
2 tsp. Dijon Mustard
1/4 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Red Pepper Flakes (less if you don't like it hot)
1 Cup of Water (or more if too thick)
1/2 Cup Fresh Basil

vegan redhead rambling

Caution - rambling ahead.  Proceed with caution!

 

The madness just really needs to stop.  Why have I let things get so out of control?  Am I really listening to the lies I'm telling myself?  I have no reason in my life to be unhappy, yet eating and putting on weight and the excessive drinking leave me feeling unhappy day after day.  I am putting it out all there - right now - in black and white, this just has to stop.  So, today - it's back to day 1.  Time to turn this craziness AROUND and NOW.

 

There are THREE very easy things that can turn my life (and even yours, if needed) around.  They are not a hidden secret.  You do not need to travel around the world to discover them.  Just basic, three easy things.

 

1. Eat fresh and healthy Vegan - all day, every day.

2. Exercise.  Even a basic 30 minute walk everyday is better than sitting my fat ass on the sofa all night.

3. Stop all drinking of alcohol.

 

Number three is the big one.  Number three leads to number one and number two not happening.  I know this.  I'm not stupid.  So, why do I give into number three day after day?!?  Number three also leads me to not doing the things that I love.  Such as DIY projects.  I have so many things I would love to accomplish around the house, but damn number three leaves me tired and lazy.

 

The Plan of Action

• Clean and healthy vegan eating.
• Daily exercise (looking at a stroller for my 3-legged dog so I can take him out walking with me!)
• App on my phone to monitor my weight (I've not stepped a foot on my scale in months)
• Find new things to keep me busy!

Why does my plan of action seem so easy?  LOL!  Let's get this party started!! Who's with me?? Tomorrow I will track my start weight and set some fun goals, because there has to be some fun to the whole thing!! AND I want to not only own this bathing suit, but FIT IN IT this summer!!!

 

Overall goal - be healthy and happy.



vegan chocolate pie & the closet clean out!

Made it through the July 4th weekend.  What I thought was going to be a relaxing, not much to do weekend, turned out to be BUSY! On Thursday I somehow ended up hosting a pool party for my teenage daughter and her seven friends (which turned out to be about 18!). I think I may have gotten a few grey hairs that night lol! Our sweet foster Cavalier Cooper ended up getting adopted and flying to his new home on Saturday with his new mommy.  That entailed trying to get into the vet on Friday for a Health Certificate and then a trip to the airport on Saturday.  Did get to spend some time in the kitchen this weekend whipping up a vegan chocolate pie (see below!), oil free cilantro jalapeno hummus, vegan southwestern mac & cheese and a rockin' tofu scramble for breakfast Sunday!  I also accomplished cleaning out my closet and removing my "fat" clothes from the house!! 

First food, after my cleaning adventure...

Vegan Chocolate Pie

roasted eggplant pesto lavash pizza & what to do with your fat pants?

I LOVE making pizza's at home, but the only crust I truly love is from Whole Foods and some times it's just not feasible to drive all the way over there for pizza crust dough (I go in for pizza dough and come out with $$$ items I don't need!).  So, I thought I would shake things up and do a Lavash crust pizza for dinner and the best part - everyone in the family can make their own! Happy dance from my non-vegan-cheese-loving son.  I made my Roasted Eggplant Pesto the day before and placed in a mason jar until pizza night, this way there wasn't much prep work come pizza night.  The pesto is also great on pasta or just used as a dip.

Roasted Eggplant Pesto

Eggplant Pesto

 

Ingredients

1 Large Eggplant
1/4 cup Raw Unsalted Almonds
2 Sun-dried Tomatoes (not oil-packed)
2 cloves garlic
2 cups Spinach leaves, lightly packed
1 T. Nutritional Yeast

  

keeping the day light and fresh

Wasn't sure if I could beat my current 5k time at the gym yesterday, but surprisingly without throwing up I did it!  LOL!  Not sure why but by the end of my run my stomach was not very happy with me.  Sometimes the heat effects me and the gym was a tick on the warm side.  However, really happy with my time and even HAPPIER when I got on the scale this morning and hit my 30 lb. weight loss goal!! Achieved!!  Woohoo!!  What a great way to start my Friday morning!!  Tomorrow my plan is to take my running outside early in the morning and see how it feels.  One of my dogs is a great runner, so I figure maybe she can keep me going.  :)

If you went shopping over at Rabbit Food For My Bunny Teeth yesterday you'll have found they sold out of just about everything.  Including the tank I had ordered.  A little bummed out as I liked that style, but ended up ordering a different one that I liked just as much!  My goal this weekend is to stay out of the stores - NO clothing shopping Katherine!!  When you lose weight, feel great and everything fits again it's darn near impossible I'm finding - so please wish me luck!  ;)

I know I said yesterday that there would not be any cooking going on in my kitchen, but as I threw my lunch together I wanted to use up  a few fruits and veggies before they went bad and decided to create a yummy little Cucumber & Strawberry Salad for today.  I love that J and I hardly EVER eat lunch out at work.  There are vegan options out there, but I hate not being able to control what's "really" in there and then there is the $$ factor.  We save lots not eating out and have noticed that our weekly grocery bill has not changed at all before going vegan.  Again, sticking to a weekly menu and shopping list, shopping what's in season and freezing what we don't use from that week has really helped.

Okay, back to my salad -

Cucumber & Strawberry Salad

1/2 C. Cucumber, peeled and sliced
1/2 C. Strawberries, sliced
1 T. Balsamic Vinegar
1 T. Agave Nectar
1 T. Walnuts, chopped

Mix all ingredients in a bowl or mason jar.  Refrigerate until ready to eat.

Perfect on a warm hot summer day!

Weekend plans?  I am looking forward to a little TLC as I get my hair done tomorrow and we have a new foster puppy join our family tomorrow as well!

TGIF!

only one little pound left...

Around March 20th of this year I was sitting at work thinking about how I really needed to go buy a new pair of jeans as my size 14 were starting to feel a little on the tight side.  I pulled up a photo that one of my co-workers took of me just a few weeks before (they thought they were funny putting a Kyle Bush cut out in my office, as I cannot stand him!).  I thought I looked pretty cute over the winter months.  I got lazy.  Lazy is easy.  Lazy can be fun. Lazy really makes your body feel bad and God, I felt like crap all of the time.

That photo told me another story.  Wow, I had really started packing on the pounds.  I knew why, I'm not stupid -

At that same time that I was contemplating jeans in a size 16 I had a co-worker came into my office showing me her cute new jeans, that she also just purchase in a larger size.  Okay, enough was enough.  I am smart enough to know that I need to take care of myself and this was not good! I had thought of an idea a few nights before so I brought up to my co-worker the idea of doing a summer weight loss challenge for the women in our office (most all of us needed to drop a few lbs), and the challenge was formed!  With the blessing of our bosses we invited all to join us with a $20 entry fee that would go towards the grand prize at the end (July 1st).  March 25th was our first weigh-in an we ended up with a total of six of us joining in (we are a small office).  My start weight was 176.2 (I am 5'10" tall just FYI) and I gave myself a goal of 146.2 (30 lb. weight loss total).  I figure that was a doable number for the amount of time of the challenge.