We did it! 30 Days strictly vegan! We ended the challenge right with a delicious Carrot and Quinoa Soup made with some of the beautiful fresh and organic produce I received from Farm Fresh to You! Have I not told you about Farm Fresh? Well let me get started…

A patient recently referred us to the company and I thought I’d try it out. The farm is located in the Imperial Valley, privately owned and completely organic. I received my first delivery this Tuesday morning. 8:30am and it was already waiting for me outside my front door. How exciting to wake up to a box of fresh fruits and vegetables. I love delivery!

What I like most about this CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that differs from others is there is no commitment. I can cancel up to 48 hours in advance to a delivery and suspend a week if I’m going out of town. I can also choose to order weekly, biweekly, and even choose which produce I don’t want to receive. This prevents us from wasting foods we might not like.

The price is very reasonable and look at all the great produce we got!

So tonight I made one of the recipes included with my veggie box. (Isn’t that cool? It comes with recipes!) It called for the carrots, and carrot tops, and onion included in the box. I added some of the FarmFresh basil and the rest of the ingredients I picked up at Trader Joe’s on my way home from work.

Here’s the recipe for those who’d like to partake in it’s nutritional goodness! It’s a simple but hearty recipe…vegan, gluten-free, low on the glycemic index, basically good for everyone, unless you hate carrots. But who hates carrots?

Carrot and Quinoa Soup

• one bunch carrots and carrot tops (chopped)
• one onion (chopped)
• 4 garlic cloves (chopped)
• 4 cups veggie stock (plus extra if needed)
• 1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed (I used red – but it doesn’t matter)
• salt and pepper to taste
• red pepper flakes (if you like it spicy)
• herbs of your liking (I used basil and parsley)

Saute onions, garlic and red pepper flakes over medium heat. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until carrots are tender. That’s it!  Simple, tasty, and good for you. Enjoy!

Oh by the way. If you live in California and are interested in signing up with Farm Fresh to You, contact me and I’ll send you a code that will save you $5 off your first purchase!

Happy Days!

As you can probably assume by my lack of posts it has been a busy few weeks. I held my first Nutrition class, my business is continuing to grow, and the Vegan Challenge is drawing to a close, oh and The All-Star and I found a “secret” beach that we’re really excited about, it’s not really secret, but we’re pretending that it is.

I’ll catch you up a little bit on the Vegan challenge. Today is Day 24. No bail-outs or break-downs. We may or may not have consumed hidden ingredients.  Unless a food is labeled vegan, you really can’t be sure.  But we’ve done our best to avoid animals products at all costs and now over the half-way hump, I’m proud to say that I’m not missing much. It is doubtful that I will put this much effort into avoidance come July 1st but the continued effort to put high quality and nutritious foods in my body will continue! I’m really looking forward to my usual left-over lunches, which we haven’t had much of during this challenge, making grab-on-the-go a necessity at times. I found a very tasty Trader Joe’s wrap labeled vegan. Unfortunately it contains a little more salt than I’m used to. How do I know this? Not by reading the label. I know this by understanding my body and how it reacts to what it would rather do without.

This was a major message in my class last Wednesday – understanding our bodies and understanding our diets.  By recognizing simple changes in the way you feel, you gain insight into how to modify your diet effectively to one that is health promoting.

Here’s a little exercise I’d like you to try. Take a week, just seven days, and cut out all processed foods. Make everything from scratch, even your dressing, and use salt minimally. No more chips, or cookies, or canned soup or crackers. No frozen dishes, cured meats or boxed cereals. Let it all be fresh and whole. If you’re motivated, write down how you feel after each meal and at the end of each day. On day 8, eat something typical of your usual diet. This will give you a quick insight into how foods affect you. If when you reintroduce a food back to your diet, you feel crappy, it’s probably not good for you. If you feel fine, munch away.Of course this is just a little test, but you should notice a change. I takes a bit more work, but once you form that relationship with your body and how it reacts to food, you can gain back control over your diet and your health and feel confident that you’re on a path towards wellness!

Still going strong with the Vegan Challenge. We’ve been eating lots of beans and vegetables. My anti-oxidant levels should be through the roof. I feel good. No need for meat yet, though The All-Star explained to me this morning that eating meat makes him happy. I do believe that happiness is an important part of wellness, so we’ll let him have his hamburger on Day 31.

We finally took a trip to the Long Beach South East Farmer’s Market last Sunday. For $25 we scored a bunch of really delicious organic and locally grown fruits and vegetables. I bought some really inexpensive swiss chard that we still have plenty of. The strawberries were incredible, though must be eaten quickly as they are not long lasting.

Here’s a few pics of our awesome finds!

Amazing smelling basil – which I didn’t but buy will this Sunday- I sense vegan pesto on the menu for Monday!

The All-Star loves his cauliflower!

Crazy hybrid potatoes. The farmer said, “I’m the only one who’s got em.”  Lol, crazy farmer.

Nothing beats an Orange County strawberry!

Baby bok choy, the last of it for this season – already starting to bloom?

The full bounty

Twice as much organic Swiss chard for half the store price!

Lots of delicious veggie dishes this week, and one big baking success. I made another really awesome ragout. It was super fast and easy to make. It was just a large can of diced tomatoes, onion, sherry and assorted dried herbs. So simple and so good. I also added some chard ribs which I worried would make it bitter but did no such thing. I’m really excited about this ragout. The best part is that it doesn’t take hours to simmer like my Sunday Sauce does. I wish I had some pictures for you. You’ll just have to create your own visual.

More zucchini from the Hernandez garden was turned into a fabulous zucchini bread creation.  I found the recipe on Hell Yeah it’s Vegan and tailored it to fit the diets of everyone at the office. Bob’s Redmill Organic Rice Flour to make it gluten-free and Ener-G Egg Replacer for those of us challenging to be vegan. There’s also a very similar carrot cake recipe that I’m dying to try. I just have to figure out how to make the icing. I’m leaning towards coconut cream.

The recipe on the website calls for vegan cream cheese which is soy based. Most vegans use a lot soy. Soy milk, vegan cream cheese, tofu are common replacements for their non-vegan counterparts. We’ve been using organic soy milk in our morning coffee but I’m starting to think this isn’t a good route for the Cultivate Your Wellness household. We’ve both had an headache for a few days and neither of us ever get headaches. My digestive system is definitely off, and he’s felt bloated since Sunday. I’m blaming our symptoms on a possible sensitivity to soy. Once the carton is done, we’ll switch to rice milk and see how we feel.

Food sensitivities seem to be on the rise in this county. I blame processed foods and poor diets but regardless of where you place the blame, modifying your diet is necessary so as to not reap preventable havoc on your health. If you have unexplained symptoms you may want to consider food sensitivities to be the culprit.  Trying an Allergy Avoidance Diet can give you insight into what types of foods you make need to omit. Gluten is a big one, as is soy. But it could be dairy, or corn, or even yeast. The only way to know for sure is to remove a food from your diet and monitor your symptoms. For more information on food sensitivities visit the World’s Healthiest Foods website.

Two nights ago I made polenta for the first time. It is my new favorite starch. Good for you gluten-free folks out there as it’s basically just corn meal but blood-sugar watches take care, it’s a carb after all.

I served the polenta with a most delicious vegetable ragout. The All-Star said, and I quote, “If every meal tasted this good, I wouldn’t need meat.” I’d say that’s a grand-slam for team Vegan.

I didn’t feel like cooking tonight. I had planned to make the ragout again but I’ll save that for tomorrow. Thanks to HappyCow.net, we were able to find an Asian style restaurant that had a separate vegan menu. If you’re looking for a vegan restaurant in your area, you should check out their website. There’s a pretty distant listing. We would have never found this place, and it was only a couple of miles from our apartment. Happy days!

Here’s the ragout recipe for those who are interested. The polenta can be prepared however it says on the package. I just boiled 4 cups veggie broth and whisked in some corn meal. In 20 minutes I had warm and creamy goodness. Note: the more finely ground your polenta, the creamier it will be.

Vegetable Ragout

Ingredients

• olive oil, 2 tbsp
• 1 chopped yellow onion
• 3 finely chopped garlic cloves
• 2 sliced zucchini
• 3/4 lb mushrooms
• 1/2 lb seeded & chopped roma tomatoes
• 1/4 cup marsala wine or sherry
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary
• salt & pepper

Warm the oil over medium heat. Cooking the onion about 4 minutes. Add the garlic, zucchini and mushrooms and cook them about 4-5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, rosemary, marsala (or sherry), salt & pepper. Cooking another 3-4 minutes.

Serve over most delicious polenta.

Enjoy!

I received a text message yesterday which read, “Can I eat Pringles?” To which I replied, “Read the label.”

One of the most important aspects of the vegan challenge and any change in diet is understanding what is in the food that we eat and reading labels is the first place to start. It’s easy to avoid milk if it’s sitting in a glass right in front of you. But what about when it’s hidden in something processed?

Most processed foods have ingredients that you wouldn’t expect to be in them. I just learned that Red Vines (a type of licorice candy) contain wheat gluten. Fortunately for The All-Star they contain no animal products, but there are plenty of foods that he would like to eat that do. Below is a list of ingredients you may not know are not vegan. For a more detailed list visit HappyCow.net

• Casein – a milk protein, found in non-dairy creamers and some soy cheeses
• Gelatin – protein obtained by boiling the skin, tendons, ligaments, and/or bones of cows and pigs, found like lots of candies, cakes and puddings
• Rennet – an enzyme from calves’ stomachs
• Whey – a serum from milk, often found in baked goods

Well folks, the day has arrived. 30 days of a strict plant based diet. I’m nervous and excited and half forget why I decided to do this. But only half. My goals…to become more mindful about the things that I eat and how it affects my body and the environment. Will I become vegan for life? I’m not sure. The All-Star has made it quite clear that for him this will only be for 30 days, so I will be purchasing and preparing meat in the future. I will, or rather hope, to only serve meat that was brought to my table in only the most humane ways possible and, I believe, a strong plant-based menu will allow me to do that more effectively and affordably.

I shopped at Whole Foods for the first time yesterday. After watching Food, Inc. I’ve decided that it’s finally time to switch to local and organic. Whole Foods isn’t as scary and expensive as I imagined it would be. If you stay on the perimeter and in the bulk section it’s actually quite reasonable. Plus, without spending any money on meat I was able to splurge on their gorgeous and delicious organic produce!  Sunday I’ll go to the farmer’s market where I’m sure I’ll find some great deals. I hear that carrots are very good right now!

Okay, so back to the Challenge! 30 days. No animals products of any kind.  This includes fish and dairy but does not include honey, which doesn’t actually come from an animal but is sort of made by one, but it’s not the same so I’m chucking the notion. I probably won’t be eating many processed foods, which I really don’t anyway so that’s not an issue. I also don’t plan on eating much seitan or tofu. I don’t think there is anything wrong with those foods necessarily, I’m just not a huge fan. I can easily just eat beans and whole grains for my nutrients, and of course lots of vegetables!  Breakfast is going to be a challenge since we won’t be eating eggs. Hot cereal and breakfast bars I suppose. I have a colleague who eats rice for breakfast, I’m anxious to try that out. Suggestions are welcome!

The challenge commenced at tonight’s dinner table and since it’s Tuesday we went Crock Pot style. I used another recipe from the wonderful Fresh from The Vegetarian Slow Cooker. Page 40 – Moroccan-Style Lentil & Chickpea Soup. It was really amazing. I added some rice since it contained no whole grains. It’s the first time I’ve cooked with harissa sauce, which if you like spicy and fragrant is a sauce you’ve got to try! I made it myself thanks to the recipe on p. 41 of the cookbook but you can also buy it at the store.

This picture does it no justice.

So that’s about that. As I go along I will post about snags I’ve encountered, helpful websites and useful health information. Feel free to comment. You opinions are always appreciated! Good luck to all those playing along or embarking on your own challenges. See you at the finish line!