Week 2 and a wrap-up of week 1.

So Gary and I consider week 1 to be a success. 

Recap: of the 5 recipes we tried, 3 will be repeats in our recipe-repertoire. The caprese salad, and the polenta artichoke dish will not be making a return to our kitchen, for the time being.

The salad was too wet, vinegar-y, and fresh basil has a wildly potent flavor. It's also more of a light lunch than a weeknight meal. The artichokes had a very bad taste and texture, they were canned per the recipe, so perhaps if we try that one again it'll be with fresh.

The good part of the these two failures? We learned that Gary loves eggplant! Also, that canned artichoke hearts are to be fresh only - which is kind of the point of this whole lifestyle change...to be ingesting fresh foods.

I would love to take pictures of all these dishes for you, but as i'm currently working exclusively nights, my wonderful husband has been preparing most of the meals and I'd hate to burden him with the trouble of photographing all the steps in the meal every night. I'm just happy he's cooking :)

Be patient and bear with me until May, i've been promoted to start my life as a housewife/student, and i'll have the time to be much more active in my vegetable blogging. I might even start vegan baking again.

So this weeks meals are as follows: 

Warm edamame salad, over Basmati rice.

Eggplant salad with Israeli couscous.

Broccoli pasta (repeat from last week!) *This makes awesome leftovers*

Thirty-clove garlic soup.

Golden tomato and kale pasta.

OH! I also have intention to start a vegetable garden, as soon as we move of course. I want to start an herb garden in the house, but as I tend to kill everything I touch i've postponed this temporarily. I've also been turned on to the idea of raising a couple hens for eggs (cage free of course), but Gary says it's a big N-O so we shall see, assuming we end up moving toward Houston it may not be feasible anyway.


One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. - Virginia Woolf

This week at a glance.

So since we're still getting our stuff together i'll make this a somewhat long and detailed post about ingredients and meals that we will be preparing this week to give you somewhat of an idea of what we're actually doing.

I've made the decision that i'm not going to start using "substitutes" just yet. I've only had a handful of tofu experiences and most of them left something to be desired. I'm not very versed in the world of substitution so to prevent initial crash-and-burn.

To get my meal plans together I bought the new Martha Stewart book "Meatless" which is actually really awesome. It has humongous pictures and is really basic in the world of cooking. Most recipes don't require a million ingredients and many are simple enough to be a weeknight meal.

This week is as follows:

Polenta with poached eggs and marinated artichokes -
Artichoke hearts, EVOO, red-wine vinegar, flat-leaf parsley, red pepper flakes, S&P, skim milk, polenta, parmesean cheese, eggs.

White cheddar corn chowder -
EVOO, onion, celery, coriander, cumin, cayenne, dry white wine, potatoes, vegetable stock, skim milk, fresh/frozen corn, S&P, white cheddar cheese.

Broccoli and pasta casserole - Made this last night, very yum; even better warmed up as leftovers!
Bread crumbs, head of broccoli, S&P, spiral pasta, EVOO, onion, flour, ground mustard, ricotta cheese, parmesean.

Roasted eggplant Caprese salad -
EVOO, eggplant, S&P, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar.

Pasta with roasted cauliflower and lemon zest -
Head of cauliflower, red onion, capers, EVOO, S&P, pasta of choice, flat-leaf parsley, lemon.

Obviously some of these ingredients are negligible like S&P, flour and EVOO that are always in my pantry. I just wanted to stress that nothing i'm using is unusual or hard to find.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are a big staple in our lunches, Gary still eats a lunch meat sandwich most days but many of these recipes are made large enough to provide substantial leftovers.

Breakfasts have been primarily eggs and toast, whole grain cereals with almond milk, or just some good-ol' coffee (a bad habit of mine, ooph!)

Snacks are all over the place, some healthier than others. A few cracker items, root veggie chips, hummus and veggies.

The biggest hurdle i've hit so far is fact that Gary is not able to eat quite a few foods including beans, peas or some gords as they give him awful acid indigestion. This isn't a major problem thus far, and hopefully by adjusting our diet this problem with correct itself or at least lessen.

In the meantime, happy eating :)

So it begins.

I've decided rather than flooding my poor facebook friends with my vegetable news that I would move it over to a blog.

If you're reading this, you likely know that i've started a journey to a plant-based-diet centered on removing toxins from my life.

Follow, if you will, my ups-and-downs in the green world!

Amanda :)

"If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?"