Sneaking in the Veg!

I may have noted this when I first started journalling this whole experience but trying a vegan lifestyle lead me to just load up on carbs - brown rice, brown rice pasta, sweet potatoes etc. Riiiiiiight, the point is to be plant-based. So I've tried to get better about sneaking more veg into my meals and even though I'd say I probably meet the daily requirements, I feel like I can be better. So for my latest meals I've been throwing more in!

Last night I was debating do I make dinner at home or eat when I hit up The Ballroom for their quinoa salad? Decided to cook at home, of course, because I spend so much money on fresh, organic produce - why let it go to waste?!

I'd heard a lot of rave reviews for Meghan Telpner's Veggie Rice Wraps so I decided, meh, I've got all the ingredients around and aside for the rice paper it's straight up vegetables (I didn't include the noodles in mine) so out came the food processor to create deliciousness. 

I should have done a picture w/ them cut in half to see the rainbow inside but ah well, nice thought. i was hungry and am really more impressed that I took a picture period. Ooooh and that reminds me that the fourth one is still in the fridge for me to snack on before tonight's workout!

My easy go-to lunch is a brown rice pasta with a veggie sautee - 1/4 of those boxed spinach containers, king oyster mushrooms, onions, garlic and sundried tomatoes prepared with olive oil and balsamic, sprinkled w/ parsley and nutritional yeast. Who wouldn't look forward to eating that for lunch?! Lunch can be a challenge b/c I don't believe in microwaves so I always have to make my food from scratch in the morning and eat it at room temperature. This is pretty easy to prepare, maybe takes 10 minutes of dedicated time from me (pasta cooks while I do my hair!)

Breakfast of course was a green smoothie then lots of water and a cup of herbal tea. Gonna go pick up some groceries over my lunch break and get inspired about what I might eat for dinner!

Letting Other People Cook for Me

Today is officially day 19 of my 21 day cleanse and what can I say? I'm killin' it! I'm not necessarily looking forward to going back to meat but I'm definitely looking forward to food being less of an effort. Not that I won't continue to eat well but the restrictions in being gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free and vegan all at the same time are, well, legit, to say the least. Given that I've probably mentioned that at least once a week on this blog!

Friday's lunch was easy enough to make though and one of my favourites, lettuce wraps! Normally made with ground chicken in my world, this version with mushrooms was delightful. I love looking forward to what I eat!

This weekend's eats allowed me to let others do the cooking for me. Luckily I have a handful of friends who can put up w/ my food neuroses and will accompany to restaurants that I would have never even gone to a few years ago!

Started off dining with my wonderful friend Rochelle who is getting into clean eating as well. On Friday night we went to Fresh, a delicious vegetarian restaurant in Toronto. God bless them for having two locations near my house and opening one by my office! All week I've had a crazy craving for sweet potato fries and I was able to get them here b/c they make their BBQ sauce in house - I avoid the Kraft's of the world w/ their phood like ketchup chock full of ingredients you'll never find in a grocery store but rather in a chem lab. Seriously, they were so good that my delicious main, their beach bowl, just sat there and went into a takeout container as I continued to wolf the fries down. If they weren't going to charge me the extra $1 for more sauce I would have polished off the whole container, but you can see how far I got w/ them in the pic (they're hiding behind the beach bowl!) 

Apres Fresh I went over to the house of another good friend of mine, Wolfie, and brought Meghan Telpner's berry crumble over for him. I tend to be suspicious when I share my 'healthy' eats with my 'normal' friends so was weary that he wouldn't like it since it's not your typical crumble with copious amounts of sugar, milk, eggs, CRISCO (blech!), etc. Did I mention he's a super foodie and amazing cook? Pressure's on. Well, given that the second he finished his piece he went back to the kitchen for round two, I was delightfully pleased! 

Saturday morning after TRX I hit up Evergreen Brickworks specifically for Doug McNish's gluten-free coconut crusted french toast with tempeh bacon - SO GOOD. I love that I can trust that anything  he prepares will be healthful for me. Naturally I was ravenous and forgot to take a picture (you'd think I'd get better at this!) but luckily I was able to scoop an image from his Facebook page:

Oh, and a note on tempeh: I read somewhere that tempeh can convert the biggest steak lover. Whoever said that is a rotten liar. I had two tempeh experiences over the weekend and both made me sad that I had some in my freezer. It ain't tasty.

Saturday night I had a crazy craving for pizza. Let's note that Lisa is not a big pizza person. I hated it as a kid and only gave it a try because I had a crush on Michelangelo (clearly the Ninja Turtle, not the artist). Actually that craving hit me on Friday and I ignored it but by Saturday, eff it, I had to. People at my old company raved about the Magic Oven and I knew I could get a gluten-free, vegan pizza from there, as fun-free as it sounded. Verdict? Pas mal.

It's obviously a white-flour gluten free crust but I wasn't about to die over it. Some things I just make peace with. It hit the spot, not something I'll probably ever crave again but if you're avoiding gluten and dairy, I'd certainly recommend it.

Sunday's kitchen adventure (single) was lame. Just some brown rice rotini with sauteed king oyster mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, onions and spinach. Make no mistake, totally yum. But a regular from my repertoire. Dinner was a simple baked sweet potato with maple syrup, cinnamon and olive oil and when I got home around 11:00 (I know, too late to eat) I made my quickie apple crumble.

Dear Lisa: just because maple syrup isn't refined sugar doesn't mean it won't have an effect on your sugar levels. STOP IT!

Fun Finds at the Farmer's Market

How crazy is this produce from the Farmer's Market?!

Puff Mushroom

Some type of gourd/squash

Time for an Honest Admission

So I've been pretty gung-ho happy, smiley on this whole 21-Day Adventure Cleanse (as Kris Carr calls it in Crazy Sexy Diet!) but I'm gonna be honest with this: I do not feel deprived of anything on this cleanse, my energy levels are awesome and I'm leaning out a bit BUT the challenge with this whole thing? All of the prep work - it's EXHAUSTING being a vegan! Instead of simply cracking an egg, I have to first whip out the blender, grind up a tablespoon of chia seeds then soak them for 10 minutes. Lots of planning in advance so I can soak beans, nuts, grains etc the night before. Pretty sure my neighbours hate me because they're always hearing my blender, food processor or juicer in action.

That being said, last night I made Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese, so delicious! Again though, it was a two hour process instead of my usual 15 raved-about three-cheese dish. Anyway, time well spent as it's an investment in my health, right? Despite the time commitment, this will definitely be added to my regular repertoire!

Weekend Recap

Well I was nervous I would break over the weekend and guess what? I'm totally strong and soldiered through! Wedding and TIFF parties be damned, I was going to stick to being a gluten-free, sugar-free, non-alcoholic vegan!

On Saturday morning I hit up my usual TRX then Pilates classes and came down with an extreme case of a) laziness and b) a serious craving for Doug McNish's gluten-free french toast but alas when I got there I found out it wasn't on the menu. What I did have instead was an AMAZING veggie burger. Now, I've always turned my nose up at veggie because, well, I'm an omnivore. What use is a veggie burger to me?! On this experiment though it's my only choice so alas. It. Was. So. Good. Served with some sweet potato fries and organic ketchup. Delish! Definitely something I want to try making at home, maybe with a portobello mushroom. I'm not intense enough just yet to make some kind of crazy combo for the 'pattie'.

Later on in the day I had the beautiful Lisa McLaren's wedding - aka my twin, simply b/c she's black and her name is Lisa. I figured the wedding would be a bit of a struggle because a) hello alcohol and b) being served food. She had a buffet style dinner so I figured I could take control of my plate and I didn't do too badly:

Chickpea salad, regular salad, rice, potatoes and green beans. I will make peace with the fact that the potatoes and beans  more than likely had a solid dose of butter on there but know what? I did the best I could in the situation, had to eat something so I'm okay with it. Not eating chicken or roast from the carving station was my fait accompli du jour.

Apres my kettlebell class at the gym on Sunday, I knew I wanted to experiment with a fritter recipe so off to the bulk barn I went in search of a bunch of flours. I'm pleased to say that my cupboard is now stocked with brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, coconut flour, chickpea flour, quinoa flour, almond flour and arrowroot flour!

The fritters turned out pretty deliciously, a combination of sweet potato, zucchini and onion with an avocado/cashew cream to dip them in.

Dinner last night was a brown rice pasta (ooh need to stock up on some more of that!) and today I'm guzzling down my green smoothie, essentially of whatever leftovers I had before I go grocery shopping today!

Now I just need to find someone who'll do a cooking class at Marni Wasserman's Fully Nourished studio with me b/c they're doing a two-for-one special!

Day 8: So Damn Hungry!

I can't handle how ravenous I am today! So much so that I bought FOUR things for lunch from two different restaurants!

Seaweed salad and brown rice veggie sushi from Hosu, roasted potatoes and mushrooms plus a carrot/banana cupcake (gluten-free, dairy-free, processed-sugar free, vegan, of course) from Kale.

Dining at Rawlicious

Tonight I had dinner plans w/ my buddy Paolo before heading to Adam's house for our Thursday night ritual of The League. Eating out is a bit of a disaster w/ friends right now. As if I'm not high-maintenance in life in general, now I'm just a straight up pain in the ass to eat with. But Paolo enjoys a healthy lifestyle and I knew he'd tolerate coming to Rawlicious with me for dinner. I'd been there once with a vegan friend and thought it was god awful. Don't give me twirly zucchini with tomatoes on top and call it 'veggie pasta with marinara sauce' - it's still a glorified salad and tastes NOTHING like a delicious Italian pasta dish!

Regardless, for the purposes of the cleanse Rawlicious and Cruda Cafe are the only places I can go and eat without having to think twice (with the exception of their use of agave, cuz that has fructose in it). Well maybe because my palette has changed mind was BLOWN with how yummy my food was! I ordered a tomato and onion flatbread and am going to buy a dehydrator if only to learn how to make that! And the bread was some random nut combination. I am going to master this for sure.

Paolo got himself the taco wrap and while I didn't try it, it looked pretty good. I wish their offshoot market near my house had as much good stuff as the original restaurant!