The PCRM has published The New Four Food Groups, and while it's all stuff I pretty much know, but I think it's helpful to have it laid out in this way, particularly with ratios of number of servings per group.
Structure helps me eat more healthfully, and if it does you too, the new four food groups concept may be a good way to structure your thinking.
The day started with a #cookingfail, but ended with a simple cooking discovery that I will try to use again.
First the cooking failure:
Breakfast: Day Two's menu was supposed to start with two recipes: Blueberry Buckwheat Pancakes and Facon Bacon. The Facon Bacon was based on using tempeh, which I've never quite gotten enamored with, so I just bought LightLife's Smart Bacon and figured I'd cook that. Yes, it has a bit higher fat content than the recipe I was supposed to make, but I figured that would be OK.
And it was. I also discovered you can make that Smart Bacon in a non-stick pan with just a spray from my olive oil mister, and it will cook up just fine, no sticking and no burning.
The pancakes, on the other hand, were an entirely different story. What a mess! I'm not even sure what I did wrong, but that same spray of oil in a nearly identical non-stick pan did not keep the batter from sticking to the pan. And moreover, the batter never really seemed to be cooking. Finally, even when I tried to sort of eat the partly-cooked, mushy disaster, it was gritty and unpleasant.
Some possible issues:
- The recipe called for cornmeal. Hence, the grit. After some tweeting around, I did notice that the cornmeal I bought was "medium grind", and apparently you can buy "fine grind" which might be more appropriate for something like pancakes
- Obviously, I could have had the heat too high, although I had it on Medium
- I mixed my dry ingredients together, and then I went to the the wet ingredients. Now, the recipe says: "In a separate large bowl, combine mashed banana, maple syrup, vinegar, and non-dairy milk", and I confess I just put the wet ingredients together than plopped banana pieces in there and tried to mash it in the bowl with everything else. Of course the liquid made it a little hard to see if I had successfully and thoroughly mashed the banana
- I used agave syrup instead of maple, and I chose to use soy milk as my non-dairy milk, although it said you could use either
- Finally, I probably started with too much batter when I started to make my pancakes
Whatever the exact reason, this was a big cooking fail, and i ended up picking out some blueberries to eat and tossing the rest away!
Luckily, I had a Pumpkin Bolani (sort of a middle-eastern crepe) in the fridge, so I ate that instead.
For lunch I didn't have the exact vegetables called for in their Spinach Salad with Orange Sesame Dressing, so I used their recipe as more of an inspiration. I did throw a tangerine and some walnuts into my spinach salad, along with carrot, celery and cucumber. I also made my own dressing, consisting of:
Sesame Oil
Lemon Juice
Tamari
White Vinegar
Sugar, salt, garlic to taste
Didn't really measure, but did small amounts to taste until the combo seemed right. It was yummy, and very aromatic.
Now, once again, perhaps because it's been the weekend, so I get started a bit later in the day, but between the amount of time it takes to cook, and when my meals were, I didn't really find time to eat the snack recommended for the day (Edamame) and just moved straight on to dinner.
Dinner was simple, just Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Simple Marinara Sauce. Again, I made small variations, mostly that I used canned Diced Tomatoes, instead of "Crushed Tomatoes", and therefore my Marinara was chunky, not smooth. I also used a Leek, not an Onion, which probably contributed a subtler flavor to the sauce.
My advice on this recipe is to go a bit lighter in the "Italian Seasonings" then called for in the recipe; it was a bit overwhelming.
My other advice is to, by all means, cook the garlic and onion or leek in red wine, as per one of their suggested methods. I'm very used to starting any such dish by pouring olive oil in the pan and sauteeing. But, in reality, you're adding fat, not that much flavor, and it gets absorbed into the veggies and then you're almost sauteeing dry. Using the red wine really made a positive impact. It added flavor; it didn't get absorbed, so the veggies could happily simmer without starting to stick or burn, and of course, no added fat.
Simple, but good and filling, end to a day that started with a cooking disaster!
- 00:52 @naan Is inspection at the security gate changed (tougher)? #
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- 09:55 そういえば箱根駅伝で久々にテレビCM見ているんだけど、大和ハウスが役所広\xE5\x8F \xB8を使って「xevo」を宣伝しているみたいなんだけど、昨日はとうとうこれが「デスクトップジーヴォ」と同じブランドと気付かず、今日になってやっと気付いた。なんかもったいなくない? > @noritakahiro #
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- 14:48 911直後なみの警戒態勢ですね。911直後のヒースロー＆DC/Dullesではこんな感じでした RT @rokuzouhonda: 搭乗～。ゲートで全員のボディチェック&荷物の中身チェックあり。ここでスループットかなり落ちるので、なるべく先頭近くで乗り込むべし #
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- 20:15 . @tehhalt is scouring cyberspace for episodes of Steven Segal: Lawman. Which is AMAZING. #
Someone got a good meal.
Yes, I know I'm already a vegan, but it's always good to start any resolution with a little outside support, guidance and structure, so I'm partaking in PCRM's 21-day Vegan Kickstart.The quizzes, videos and little tips about eschewing animal products aren't that meaningful to me, but I am trying to follow their menu plans.
I did a big shopping at Whole Foods on Thursday (me and everyone else in the area, apparently) and got down to business yesterday. They have a LOT of recipes, which meant a lot of cooking. Which is fine for this long weekend, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to pull it off when I go back to work on Monday.
I think I need to spend some serious time planning my version of their menu for the work week. (Or I'll spend all weekend end cooking, which is kind of a daunting thought.)
Yesterday's menu was way too much food. I'll give you the menu, but note which parts of it I actually ate. The link under each food item is a link to their recipe that I used.
Breakfast:
Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal with Raisins: Made with old-fashioned oats you cook in a pot, not the instant kind. This was a big helping, and it was very filling. Especially since I've been trying to be much better about drinking a lot of water, I ate breakfast at 9AM or so, and didn't even start thinking about lunch until 1PM.
Lunch:
Couscous Confetti Salad: Colorful grain salad with lots of veggies I don't normally use, like red cabbage and red bell pepper. Lots of chopping=lots of prep time.
Carrot and Red Pepper Soup: Well, I only recently said that I've been intimidated by the thought of making soup, and here I was making soup. My kitchen is kind of the band of my existence, not a lot of counter space, especially to haul out things like my blender/food processor, or even to chop up a ton of veggie. Anyway, the soup came out really really good. I'm not even a huge red pepper fan, but it added a nice subtle touch to this soup, and the soy milk made it creamy. Highly recommended!
All in all lunch took almost 90 minutes to prepare!! Didn't eat it until 2:30 or so, which may be why I was not at all hungry for, nor did I make the planned "Snack": Fantastic Fruit Smoothie.
Dinner:
Hoppin' John Salad: I did want to make this, because it's a New Year's Day tradition in some parts of the country. I have to confess I wasn't incredibly hungry, even at 7:30PM, so I made this and about a full cup of it, but I skipped making the side vegetable dish: Kwik Kale. (Of course I bought both Kale and Chard, so I better make sure to make greens some time soon...not one of the things I typically make.)
At the end of the day I probably only ate about 1200 calories worth of food all day, but it all felt really filling. Which is, I suppose the point.
There's more cooking on tap for today...and maybe more to prep for the coming week.
As I asked myself yesterday during one particularly cramped and messy maneuver I was trying to make from stovetop to blender and back: "Do I really even like to cook?" LOL
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