I watched a few life changing documentaries. It all started with the documentary Food Inc. After seeing how the animals were treated and the processes of food production I was disgusted.The next day I stopped eating all meat except seafood. I'm not going to lie, cutting meat out of my diet cold turkey (haha pun definitely intended) was difficult at first. After a few months it was getting easier and easier to eat without even thinking about meat. That was over a year ago. I recently watched the documentaries Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, Food Matters, and Forks Over Knives. If you have not seen any of these I highly recommend watching them. Maybe you won't totally change your diet to a plant-based diet and stop eating meat like I did, but I am happy to have the knowledge about the food I was eating.
Previous to the documentaries, I had lost 20 pounds simply by watching the food I was eating as well as incorporating exercise into my routine roughly 5 days a week. So after watching the documentaries I decided then and there to take my health to the next step. The first thing I thought as I had mentally accepted my own challenge to eat plant-based was CHEESE!!! How do I give up CHEESE?!?!?!?(Paula Deen would disapprove!) Seriously, I am pretty sure there wasn't a day I didn't have something with cheese in or on my food (Paula Deen WOULD approve! Ha!). That too is getting easier to live without. It is amazing how many vegan friendly substitutes there are for animal products. So far I have found that I love soy milk, almond milk, veggie burgers, vegan butter and veggie meatballs. I can't wait to discover what else is out there. I bought a few cheese replacements, not going to get my hopes up too high...but I'll try anything once.
**Random side note** My brain is very random, and I tend to write whatever comes to my mind. Things may be a little jumbly. For that, I apologize.
At first all I could imagine was eating only raw fruits and vegetables. If you are like me, salad salad and more salad didn't sound too appetizing. I am not a rabbit. I think many people have the misconception that vegan = boring food. My first week, I was beginning to believe it. So before getting lost in another plate of salad, I decided to make it my mission to discover filling meals that would not only satisfy my hunger but also by satisfying my need to be satisfied...you follow me? I love food to make it easier. As much as I like salad, I needed variety. So in my search for delicious vegan recipes I stumbled upon (but not using stumble upon) a blog called Vegan Yum Yum. On this blog I learned that vegan food could not only be healthy but it could be amazingly tasty. I found that the blogger behind Vegan Yum Yum had recently published a cook book. The book is called Vegan Yum Yum: Decadent (But Doable) Animal-Free Recipes for Entertaining & Everyday.
So far the book is a win. Tonight I made two things I had been craving all week alfredo and chocolate chip cookies. Before changing my diet I didn't realize how many things would be cut out. As you know, cookies have eggs in them. Yes, I know this is a well-known fact but for some reason I blocked it out. So as I planned to eat a cookie today while I was at lunch with a friend, I came to the awful realization that cookies do in fact have eggs. Ahhh. After a day of shopping I decided to head straight to Barnes & Noble and purchase the book mentioned above, as well as a vegan baking cook book. I HAD to find a way to have my cookies (now maybe you have an idea of why I needed to lose weight, haha)!!
I don't have a fancy kitchen filled with fancy tools and I used my iPhone to photograph the food I made. Nothing special. Just an ordinary person trying to make good foods. I tell you this for two reasons. 1. Don't get your hopes up & 2. The following pictures are not in any way shape or form me bragging about my photography or cooking skills.
The recipe I used for the alfredo is called Hurry Up Alfredo. I will say, before starting this recipe I had very low expectations that it would satisfy my craving for some yummy cheesy alfredo. Some reasons included: the most obvious reason...NO CHEESE, also there is nutritional yeast, cashews, lemon juice and nutmeg. Really? This did not sound like alfredo to me.
I used my Ninja blender to mix the ingredients for the sauce. This is what I was expecting my end product to look like....LOOK HERE
So you must now understand my surprise when my alfredo looked like this:
Don't you love the lighting and my obvious artistic abilities? haha..
Can you see why my low expectations were lowered even more before I even tried it? It was surprisingly AMAZING!! And it definitely satisfied my craving for alfredo. There were a few changes that I made to the recipe, I omitted the lime juice (I forgot to buy them), I added sun dried tomatoes (a must every time) & I used Tempt Hempmilk (pictured below) in place of soy milk.
I actually didn't forget to buy soy milk, but I did accidentally get vanilla flavored soy milk. I seriously considered using it (I was starving!!), but then remembered that the clerk at Sunflower Market saw all my milk alternatives (Chocolate soy milk is becoming a favorite) in my cart and she highly recommended trying Tempt HempMilk. At first I was super grossed out, but decided to try it. Thank goodness I did. *side note, I tried the hemp milk and it wasn't bad....I think I will stick with just cooking with it, I don't see how it is good on cereal or all by itself. You can serve this yummy yummy sauce on a pasta of your choice, I chose to serve it over potato gnocchi, which I was very very happy with.
Now on to the important part of my meal...Dessert!!
At Barnes & Noble I found a great variety of different vegan cookbooks for all meals. Of course I was most attracted to the baking books. I decided to go with The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets.
The recipe I decided to go with is the one you see on the cover. I am going to let you in on a little secret, my cookies didn't turn out to look anything like those beauties you see on the book...shhh..shocking I know. Anyways I was very excited to make these and after my amazing, yet simple, dinner I had confidence that vegan cookies would bring joy to my tummy. And THEY DID!! They did not have eggs in them and they were still EXACTLY what I wanted. Food excites me. Its sad, I know. So the recipe called for an egg replacer...wait..huh? I had never heard of such a thing. I found an egg replacer by Bob's Redmill, who I LOVE anyways for their gluten-free products. If you haven't used anything by Bob's Redmill, I suggest you check it out.
The recipe also called for unbleached all-purpose flour (which I was certain I had at home) and baking soda (also certain I had this). Sadly I had bleached all purpose flour, not so sure what the difference is but I used it. I was desperate for cookies, okay? Also, I had no baking soda, only baking powder. I did not substitute the two, but only after reading the label on the baking powder that is was NOT to be used as a substitute for baking soda. Dang it. So I omitted it. Possibly the reason my cookies were not as beautiful as those featured in the cookbook, but I promise you they tasted spectacular. (also I live in Colorado where I have yet to perfect the art of baking at such a high altitude and I am pretty sure my apartment oven hates me) I LOVED them!
Hey!! That looks like real cookie dough!! Also, no eggs = no salmonella poisoning = Evan eating lots of batter..tee hee
I used a silicon baking sheet, not because I have an affection for silicon, but because I did not have parchment paper to put on my cookie sheer
These little buggers are yummy
Also, did you know that some brands of semisweet chocolate chips add cow's milk? This was something else I did not know. I ended up using Sunspire's cacao chips. uhhh yum!!
Overall I am very happy with my first night of actually preparing a vegan friendly meal and I can't wait to try more recipes.
Are there any plant-based recipes that you love? I'd love to hear about it.
