Body Update

For anyone following my blog, I said that I would update every Sunday so that the changes in my body after adopting a diet that included one vegan meal a day could be tracked. Well I missed my first Sunday update so here's my first official update:

I'm 5'9" and my weight has dropped to 156.6 lbs.

My quality of sleep has improved, and I'm less irritable in the evening. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that I've made my vegan meal, dinner. It's actually been pretty easy to make every dinner vegan, so easy in fact that I don't even worry about making my meals vegan. 

I bought a blender today and I've jumped on the smoothie craze. I'm now making two meals a day vegan, breakfast and dinner. Stay tuned to see what changes happen.

Red Lentil Soup

I know when I started this blog I said that I would post daily, which was the plan. However many of the vegan recipes I'm coming across are made in large batches. In fact if you're a once a day vegan like me, than you could probably get away with making one of these recipes and have one vegan meal a day for the entire week. This Red Lentil Soup Recipe is no exception. This recipe is not an original I came by it after having a conversation with my mother about veganism. My mother suggested that I read some of the findings of Dr. Neal Barnard. He is a leader in research of plant-based diets. After reviewing his wikipedia I found a website which contained a few of his recipes kickstartdev.pcrm.org I suggest all of you 'Once a Day Vegans' and Vegans review his studies.

And now the Red Lentil Soup which I call Yellow Soup.

Ingredients:

7 cups of water
2 and a half cups of red lentils
4 tbsp of lemon juice
black pepper
salt
1 tbsp tumeric
1 large white onion
large pinch of chili pepper

I've altered Dr. Barnard's original recipe slightly, based on what I had in the pantry. Add the water, lentils, onion and turmeric to a large pot. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer half-covered until the lentils have disintegrated, for me this was 30 minutes, but simmer to your desired consistency. Add lemon juice, chili pepper, salt, pepper and serve. Makes 6-7 servings.

Kale Chips with Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Toast

I loooove!! Kale! I've recently discovered this nutrient dense, ultra-filling leafy green veggie and I'm head over heels. There are so many ways to cook with kale but I'm keeping it simple today and making kale chips. I don't like my kale chips to be to crunchy or crispy, I don't like the idea of eating burnt veggies at all, so I stick to this recipe and it works every time.

KALE CHIPS

You will need:

-1 bunch of kale

-Olive Oil

-Sea Salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is heating up give your kale a quick rinse in cold water and pat dry. Tear into large bite size pieces (the pieces will shrink in the oven). Place in a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil, toss to coat. Place in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with sea salt. Serve immediately.

The toast is a basic side for all the starter vegans out there. I topped mine with a store bought roasted red pepper hummus for some extra flavour.

I realize the picture makes my kale chips look like a side salad but trust me, its sooo good and sooo filling. Happy Vegan-ing!!

Quinoa and Roasted Sweet Potatoes

My first vegan meal was a Quinoa and Bulgur blend with Roasted Sweet Potatoes. I went the easy route when making this meal. It was also quite a large portion so I have left overs for 4 more meals.

To make the roasted sweet potatoes you'll need

-1 large sweet potato
-sea salt
-oregano
-olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Chop up the sweet potato into bite sized cube pieces and rinse under cold water. Spread evenly into a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and oregano and toss. Make sure the sweet potatoes are completely coated. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

To make the Quinoa and Bulgur blend is even easier. Just open a package of President's Choice Quinoa and Bulgur blend. It cooks in 10 minutes just boil in water.

My first vegan dinner. It took 30 minutes to cook, had few ingredients and very little cleanup. Plus I have 4 more meals sitting in tupperware in the fridge. Hope everyone enjoys.

A New Beginning

I'd like to start this blog by saying that I love meat and cheese! My entire life I've had a healthy balanced diet. I've always maintained a healthy weight and lifestyle, and never felt the need to go on a diet or change my lifestyle. That was until a recent health and fitness challenge at work made me aware of how few fruit and vegetables I actually eat. I had never 'tracked' what I ate, I thought that was just something dieters did. The challenge at work was pretty simple, exercise for 30 minutes a day (easy) and eat at least 3 servings of fruit and vegetables everyday. I was eating 2 servings tops. So much for my delusion of eating a balanced diet. Well, I like winning and I was determined to get ahead in this challenge and the only thing holding me back was my fruit and veggie intake. The solution seemed simple, eat one vegan meal a day. Now some of you may ask why not just go vegetarian for one meal a day? The simple answer is I wanted to cut out all animal products so that I could have a healthier option as well. I could just see myself making a huge meal size caesar salad and covering it with creamy caesar dressing and totally defeating the purpose.

With this blog my objective is to see the difference to my body by making one of my daily meals vegan. When I say my body, I mean my entire body, not just my weight, but my skin, hair, nails, teeth, endurance levels, energy, digestion, even my sex drive. Everyone says start small when making big changes, so this is my first step. 

To keep my readers interested I'll be posting my daily vegan recipe, and I'll post the weekly changes to my body every Sunday. To give you a frame of reference my starting stats are:

Height: 5' 9"

Weight: 160 in the morning

BMI: 23.6

I'll post pics of my first vegan dinner tonight!!