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Thursday 16 July 2009

Healthy crap and ... erm cake!

Sorry UK, I think I jinxed us. Ever since my last post, the weather has sucked!! So yeah the weather sucks!!! Sucks sucks sucks! (maybe this'll bring back the sun?????)

Bright side? I don't have to water the tomatoes.

So I know I've mentioned before I'm gonna be a bridesmaid in October and me & my friend and fellow bridesmaid, Maz, have been going to the gym for a couple of months now and doing pretty well at not quitting it too. But I need shake something up in my diet. I've been feeling pretty tired lately and instead of getting easier, some workouts seem harder! The doc put me on omeprazole for my acid reflux a while back and it turns out that heartburn remedies deplete B12 stores! Something us vegans need to be mindful of, so I’ve started taking a Vit. B supplement.

Also, Jessy's ACT posts really inspired me to try a cleanse and shake my diet up. I’m not following ACT, but for 28 days I am cutting out everything on the NO list – so no coffee, alcohol, gluten, processed foods (except tofu!) …. etc. I’ve been having smoothies for breakfast for a while so I’ll keep that up (I’ve ordered some protein powder, as I’m not sure I’m getting enough protein either!)

I started the diet on Monday but before I go onto that, I have a couple of pics of the last bit of baking I did before I started!! Check out the gloriousness of the Vegan Brunch East Coast Coffee Cake, yes I finally got this book and it's awesome. I did the jam swirl variation, with blueberry jam and also sprinkled some coconut over the jam and put some into the topping too. However, I should have added the extra canola oil the recipe said you might have to, as the topping was really a little too sandy and crumbly. It still tasted awesome though! Before the topping…..


Crumbly goodness, after cutting.


I had to try the green juice, so that's what I kicked off my cleanse with (I bought a juicer). It had a golden delicious apple, some watermelon, a piece of cucumber and a big old handful of spinach. I thought this was gonna be disgusting! Honestly I thought I’d be making this face when I tried it - but it was bloody lovely. The rest of the week I've been having a carrot in my juice instead of watermelon, which is much better, not as sweet.


Then my smoothie was strawberries, soymilk, almond butter, squeeze of agave and cinnamon. yum. It's been pretty much the same all week but today I ran out of strawberries so I switched to mango and ginger instead.


Dinner the first night, I took inspiration from a recipe I saw on sparkpeople for a quinoa chilli. It had quinoa (duh), sweet potato, onion, garlic, sweetcorn, mushrooms and the usual herbs & spices I throw into chillis. I cooked most of it for 25 minutes, then threw in some yellow pepper, courgette and spinach for the last minute so it was still crunchy.


I found these lovely purple radishes in the supermarket - I've only seen pink ones before!


They've been going into my lunchtime salads...... this was today's - leftover avocado, romaine lettuce, tomato, radish, alfalfa sprouts, spinach and wasabi edamames for crunch. YUM.


You know I said leftover avocado? It was leftover from dinner last night. A massive salad with rice noodles, tofu, avo, tomatoes, sweetcorn, lettuce and lime vinaigrette.

This was dinner on tuesday night. Gluten free pasta with a sauce based on the vegan yum yum recipe, only I didn't have any basil or cashews so I used almonds and parsley - still good! I chucked some broccoli and tofu in too.


Tonight I had planned to make bean burgers so I put some pinto beans in the crockpot last night. But I didn't fancy them in the end. So I decided to make Sarah Kramer's bodacious bean & barley soup but make it cleanse-friendly. I replaced the barley with brown rice and used the pintos instead of the chickpeas. It was yummy.


I have tried to find gluten free bread, but I can't find one that doesn't have egg or honey in! Dammit. So I had a go at making GF soda bread. It didn't quite work - texture was ok but the taste was off; I'll work on it!


After dinner we were supposed to do urban rebounding but I couldn't face it - my legs were still hurting from body pump last night because we've been doing more gym sessions this week. So we did water workout instead. It turned out to be pretty entertaining, because as well as getting yelled at by Frau Farbissiner (the instructor) they also played eye of the tiger. This probably would only amuse you if you're a Supernatural fan.
I've been having a larabar when I get back from the gym this week to make up my calories for the day, but I ran out. So I had a bit of my stanky soda bread with some almond butter on instead.

I felt a bit headachy and hungry the first day but I feel ok now and less hungry between meals that I was on Monday & Tuesday. I've dragged out all my cookbooks and am looking forward to trying out some new recipes!! :-)
Laterz
xXx

18 comments:

  1. All looks good to me! That East Coast Coffee cake especially ^_^

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  2. Good luck on the new diet!

    I've been really run down and stressed from work lately, and I have pondered if I am low in anything. I never have been before, but I have never been this strung out from work before either. Am going to try and make an appointment to go to the doctor for bloods when I get a chance to with my roster!

    Your food looks delicious, as always. Please come and cook for me on the days I get home late and am tired!

    I love your little processor! I have one but it was really cheap and it shows. I am planning on upgrading to a better one soon.

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  3. Good luck with the diet! All the food looks so healthy and great!

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  4. The jam swirl in that cake looks super pretty! I've made it twice now, once plain, once with raspberries and both times I've needed the extra oil for the crumbles.

    That smoothie looks delicious too!

    And chilli quinoa? Yum!

    Good luck with the healthy eating plan!

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  5. Those are some fantastic meals! You are doing really great. I love quinoa chili. And I hope the bread will work out for you soon.

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  6. I haven't cracked the GF bread yet but I have some pretty yummy sugar free, soy free, gluten free, oil free... pretty much everything free cinnamon buns which I made for my bf who has a lot of food sensitivities, http://veganfoodandfitness.blogspot.com/2009/06/allergy-free-cinnamon-buns-and-other.html

    Well done for giving up coffee.. I could not do without my morning coffee haha I would be so grumpy all day

    ohh that vegan brunch cake looked so yummy too, haven't got myself a copy of that yet but I thin I know the first recipe I'll try when I do!

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  7. Sounds like some really healthy changes you've made - bravo! I really want to do a cleanse like the ACT, but it's difficult for me to easily make ACT-friendly meals that are also Guppy & Monsieur Fish friendly...I do pretty well when I'm alone, though. Keep at it!

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  8. I don't know if it can happen in UK, but every time we have friends visiting us in Dublin, the sun comes (after days and days of rain), maybe you can try it there too!

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  9. I'm being a bridesmaid this year and I've been really trying to get myself to the gym but even though it's across the road I'm too lazy so well done for sticking with it.

    I'll have to try to make some good healthy things for the PPK potluck next weekend.

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  10. whoa! all that food looks delish AND superhealthy! I've been in a funk and have been dragging out wintry dishes even though the house is baking when i get home!! this totally inspires me to try some more cooling fair!

    Sheesh... no wonder you're tired superwoman!

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  11. all those foods look so great! good luck with sorta-ACT diet. after i drink green smoothies for about a week, i totally notice a boost in my energy levels - hopefully you will too!

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  12. hellz yeah, Sal! all of your heathy eatz have me drooling! awesomesauce!

    rock'n out the gluten-free yummies = my favorite! brown rice pasta is so good, and i loooove your brown rice 'n pinto bean soup! huzzah! the pre-cleanse coffee cake looks scrumdiliumptious (i think the topping looks most excellent!) and i'm so glad you liked the juice - your smoothie is the prettiest, too! hooray!

    i think i'm gonna have to make myself some quinoa chili, and find some of those wasabi edamames to add to some salads, too! avocado = the best addition to a salad, and what do you do for your lime dressing? i'd love to try it!

    keep on rock'n the glorious eatz, Sal! superhappyface!

    (and thanks for the shout-out! i hope the sun's come out for you by now! fingers crossed! oh, and eye of the tiger made me giggle - now i have it stuck in my head! ahahahahahahahaaaa!)

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  13. Good luck with your new eating style! The salads look really good. Do you have a favorite dressing?

    And the video made me laugh - haven't seen that yet!

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  14. Your food looks great, as always, and is giving me lots of ideas about what I want to eat!
    Good luck with the fitness thing. Hope you get your energy back soon...

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  15. That raw cake batter is so lovely with the blueberry swirl, it almost seems like a shame to bake it! Of course, it looks far more delicious baked. ;)

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  16. I love your swirled coffee cake! I made it this past weekend but had NO jam in my fridge :( sad face!!! totally making it with strawberry or blueberry jam next time - there will be a next time!

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  17. I love the food you've been having. I've started to cook again despite the heat (though today is nice and cool). I figure I've been eating out too much lately.

    I had the same issue w/ the coffee cake, so I tried putting in less flour and more br sugar and it worked out. very good stuff.

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