What have I been up to?

I set a challenge for myself this year to try one new vegan recipe per week.  I have been trying a few new recipes but not really keeping up with the one a week, and I certainly haven't kept up with blogging the recipes I have tried.

The recipe-per-week challenge stagnated a bit when dear husband decided he wanted to lose some weight.  I decided to go along for the ride and over the last 7 weeks I have finally lost that 5kg I have been wanting to lose for a long time! It really wasn't that hard which makes me wonder why I didn't do it years ago. Though I guess the thing that made it easier this time was doing it with dear husband as our pooled motivation seemed to have a more than additive effect and was enough to keep us both going strong. 

So for the last 7 weeks we kept to a very healthy and fairly low calorie diet.  Typically it went some thing like this:

Breakfast: 3 Wheat Bix with low fat soy milk, or two wheat bix and half a banana
Lunch: Hummus and mounds of raw veggie
Afternoon snack: A handful of nuts eg almonds, brazil nuts, cashews
Dinner: Stir fry with tofu/tempeh, or a mountainous salad with 2 veggie sausages, or a big bowl of legume+veggie soup
Supper: Mini fruit platters (yes I know that all the conventional weight loss wisdom says not to eat carbs like this late at night but that is when my sweet tooth attacks and demands to be fed)
Extras during the day if hungry: low fat soy milk, or more nuts, or fruit
Exercise most days: alternating cycling, light weights, jogging, and what we call "body resistance" which includes things like sit-ups and squats

Not much experimenting with new recipes other than hummus and a few variations on the soup, so I haven't had much of interest to blog about by the way of new recipes.

I just happened to be reading Skinny Bitch around the middle of this 7 weeks.  It was recommended to me by fostermummy in a comment on a previous blog post.  I found it an interesting read (review to come on Mandy Reading Room).  As much as I am very happy to promote a vegan diet as a fantastic tool in a healthy lifestyle, I am not sure that promoting it as a weight loss tool is really a good idea.  It is very important on any low calorie diet to make sure that all your nutritional bases are covered.  I am concerned that if people switched to a vegan diet primarily for the purpose of losing weight they may not meet all their nutritional requirements.  This may result in them feeling lethargic, losing muscle mass as well as fat, and at the extremes may even result in anaemia or other health problems. 

Unfortunately people who suffer side effects of a "bad" vegan diet sometimes become one of those people who proclaim that "vegan diet are no good for you".   I wish that all the omnivores who suffer side effects of their "bad" meat eating diet would go around proclaiming that eating meat is bad for you - but perhaps the noise of this would be enough to cause tectonic plates to move so maybe I better not wish for that.

Also, it is blatantly obvious that switching to a vegan diet certainly does not guarantee that you will lose weight.  I am sure I am not the first person who actually gained a little weight in the excitement of trying lots of lovely new vegan recipes like Bounty Slice, Ginger Kisses and Midnight Cookies.

That's not to say that cutting out meat and eggs and dairy can't help you lose weight.  It can.  I just feel uneasy about a vegan diet being promoted as the means to the ends of losing weight.  But I guess that if the result is more people switching to a diet that is better for our planet and results in less animal abuse - surely that is a good thing.

I think I need to think about this a bit more!

Vegan protein? No problem!

The most common myth about veganism seems to be that vegan diets don't contain enough protein.  Fortunately this is not the case.  It is actually very easy to eat enough protein while completely avoiding animal products.

Here is a nice simple article for beginners.  You mind find it useful to share with concerned friends and family who question your decision to move towards a vegan diet, or those naysayers who think you have gone mad: 25 Vegan Sources For Protein

For a much more detailed resource regarding protein in a vegan diet check out one of my favourite vegan nutrition websites: veganhealth.org - Protein

Loving Fresh Lemons

My neighbour has a lemon tree.  Which means I have plenty of fresh lemons!

A lovely big lemon tree behind our garden shed. 
I keep a close eye out for Redback Spiders while I am collecting lemons!

There were 3 perfect lemons on the ground and 2 ripe ones on the tree just within reach.

Today's collection - perfect for making hummus and iced lemon tea.

Raspberry Truffle Brownies

Dear husband and I have been on a bit of a health kick and so I have been trying out healthy new vegan recipes.  Last week we had a friend come over for dinner.  Perfect opportunity to try out the new brownie recipe on the PPK web site?  Hell yeah!

These brownies are squidgey, moist and very delicious.  Want to try them out for yourself?  Here is the recipe on the PPK site: Raspberry Truffle Brownies.  Well done Isa!  You have made me very happy.

I took most of the batch in to work the next day to avoid dear husband and I totally ruining all our good work losing weight recently.  They didn't last long in the staff room.  I'll take that as a sign that they were appreciated.

The recipe suggests a cooking time of 16-18 minutes.  As I lurve fudgy brownies I took them out of the oven at 16 minutes.  They did look like they could have used a couple of minutes longer.  However, as per Isa's advice, a few hours chilling in the fridge and they were fabulous.  But if you don't want to risk the raspberries making your brownies seem a little "wet" you might want to cook them for the full 18 minutes.

Unfortunately there was a layer of gooey goodness left on the baking paper which I absolutely could not waste.  Am I the only one who scrapes the left overs off the lining?

Now all I need is another excuse to make them!

Moroccan Quinoa Salad

It seems like such a long time ago that I made this dish.  I had a big assignment due and so that has taken precidence over blogging for the last few weeks.  Although the assignment was handed in 4 days ago and I am only just now sitting down to post this recipe.  Mmmm, maybe "to busy with study" was just a lame excuse!

For my 3rd new vegan recipe for 2012 I tried decided it was time to try out Quinoa.  I still think of this as Quin-oh-ah in my head before translating to Keen-wah to say out loud.  I browsed recipe sites and books and found lots of delicious sounding recipes before I settled on Moroccan Quinoa Salad. 

So colorful

I wanted to find a summery salad to have for a lovely lunch when my mum came to visit.  You can find the recipe over here at the 20 Minute Supper Club.  It is not a vegan recipe site so be warned.  But there are lots of vegan recipes.  Click on "Special Diets" and you will find that Vegan is a category.  Which just goes to prove how special us vegans are.

I was not able to source the black beans in time so I used kidney beans instead.  I will hunt down black beans and try it again soon as I am sure it will be delicious with black beans.

I served it with a garden salad.  And we had hummus with veggie crudites on the side.  Mum brought over a delicious home made herb scone which went perfectly with the meal.  A lot of food for just 3 people - dear husband, mum and I!  So there was plenty left over for the next few days.

A delicious, satisfying, healthy, summer lunch.

Quinoa is a great addition to a vegan diet.  This was my first attempt and admittedly it came out just a touch gluggy - though that didn't spoil our enjoyment of it. In its natural state Quinoa has a coating of saponins that have to be rinsed off - they are unpalatable and can be an irritant.  However if you buy a box of quinoa it is likely to already have been rinsed. 

I have already made this salad again with a few changes and transformed it into a "Mediterranean Quinoa Salad".  I did a much better job with the quinoa the second time around - a bit less rinsing (I am sure the box of organic quinoa I used was already rinsed), bit less water, a little longer cooking at a lower temperature.  It came out fantastically fluffy!  I left out the cummin, reduced the oil and added balsamic.  I left out the mint and coriander and instead added fresh basil.  I used borlotti beans and added a few extra olives.  Yum!  I think the possibilities are endless - you could use the Moroccan Quinoa Salad as a starting point and make all sorts of substitutions and additions.

In Veganomicon it says that eating Quinoa regularly will have you elevated to a level 7 vegan in no time!  Well, I am not quite sure what a level 7 vegan is but I instantly thought of this classic Simpsons moment:

Not a great quality clip - the only Simpsons clips that seem to be allowed to stay on Youtube are ones that people have videoed of their TV playing the Simpson.  What's with that??  How does that promote the Simpsons brand?

Chipotle Chilli with Sweet Potatoes and Brussel Sprouts

The great thing about this "new vegan recipe every week" challenge is that it is leading to me try new ingredients and flavor combinations.  This week I had the pleasure of meeting chipotle for the first time. 

This weeks recipe was suggested by my partner in this weekly-new-vegan-recipe venture: Chipotle Chilli with Sweet Potatoes and Brussel Sprouts.  The recipe is on the Post Punk Kitchen web site.  So I can share it with you without having to type out the recipe which, for a lazy blogger like me, made it an even more attractive choice.

No need to feel like the only ignorant one in the room if you don't know what chipotles are.  I had no idea either and so I went ahead and googled/wiki-ed them before reading the recipe.  And then when I returned to the recipe page on the PPK there was all the info I needed.  Apparently they are "this decade’s sundried tomato" and apparently I have been living under a rock.  :)

A chipotle is a smoked jalapeno.  A jalapeno is a medium sized chilli pepper.  A chilli pepper is a..... No wait, you know what that is right?  Dear husband and I really enjoyed the smokey flavor and aroma.

I only made two teensy changes to the recipe.  I used two tins of beans (instead of one) and, as usual, I reduced the salt to suit my un-Americanised taste buds.   Here is a snap of how it turned out.

This is the first time I have been brave enough to follow a recipe that calls for brussel sprouts.  As a kid brussel sprouts were the most poisonous food on earth (closely followed by liquorice and liver - shudder) and were used in childhood oaths between my sibblings and I, eg, "Honest, really, if I am lying I will eat a whole truck load of brussel sprouts and liver!"  I never thought I would grow up to be one of those adults who actually eats brussel sprouts by choice. 

I found chipotles at my local shopping village at Passione Gormet Deli.  They had dried chipotle and chipotle in tins in adobo sauce.  They also had lots of other cool stuff including the creamiest, most yummiest, most delicious ever hummus.  (Note to self - it is high time you started making your own hummus).  The owner (at least I think he as the owner) was very helpful.  I asked if he stocked any vegan cheese or chocolate.  Apparently he did stock it at first but there wasn't enough demand.  I will have to see what I can do about that!

Pinto beans were a little trickier.  For the second time this year I found myself standing in the shop using my iphone to google "x beans are also known as".  I used borlotti beans which seemed to be the closest thing to pinto beans available at my local IGA.  I need to find a shop near my house that sells a wider range of beans.  I went on a wild goose chase today looking for black beans - but more about that in my next blog post.

Anyone have a fantastic hummus recipe they want to share?  I have been looking at lots this week and can't decide which one to try so I would love a recommendation.