Week Two is over and I messed it up quite a bit. You see, Sunday was Mother's Day so hubby and daughter did all the cooking; and the meal plan (especially on the weekends) is quite a lot of work. Besides that I REALLY wanted eggs for my traditional Mother's Day breakfast. We got our eggs from a local farmer who treats his chickens quite well so I have no guilt there (the bacon and sausage is another story but we'll pretend it didn't happen : / )
Since I didn't do any of the cooking on Sunday we didn't have the left overs to use as lunches for the next few days therefore we were forced to improvise.
Also, on Friday my daughter's best friend slept over. Long story short we strayed from the meal plan on Friday and Saturday. :(
Ah well, pobody's nerfect as they say.
For the most part we stuck with the breakfasts and had a few of the lunches and dinners as scheduled. There were actually a few items on the menu this week that I regret not making; like the kidney bean burgers and the Tamari Stir Fry.
One thing we did have, and it turned out marvellous, was Coconut Rice with Sweet Potato Curry! Another surprise was the Lemon Dill Bean Dip. Surprisingly good.
Tonight's dinner, Mashed Potatoes with Peas and Tamari Sautéed Mushrooms was good but not very filling. Guess it's time for a snack.
Tomorrow is shopping day for the start of Week Three and I am going to try and pre-cook some of the main
items to help stay on track the rest of the week. I am also going to try and give up milk for the week. I've been resisting. I really enjoy a glass of milk with dinner but I think it's time to try and forego it.
Until next week!
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Saturday, May 11, 2013
My Vegan Adventure - Week One
As promised here is more about my foray into the world of Vegan eating.
I have completed week one and I feel great! I have lost 6lbs!!! And that is solely from eating on this meal plan as I have not increased my physical activity to any great degree.
Some of the highlights, surprises and disappointments from our first week.
1) It does still take some work and preparation as the goal is to make everything from scratch. This means I made guacamole, peanut sauce and hummus from scratch for the first time ever.
2) The amount of "sweet treats" in the plan is AMAZING! I have not felt deprived once. There have been no mid-day cravings to grab a donut at the coffee shop or a chocolate bar from the corner store (which were pretty daily cravings before this plan!) My hubby even survived a cupcake day at his work without any real struggle!
3) The amount of food in general is a lot. I don't think I have been able to eat everything on the menu for the day, yet.
4) Some of my favourite meals has been a Black Bean Taco Salad over Quinoa, French Toast with Raspberry Sauce (who knew you didn't need eggs and milk for that!), Mushroom Marinara Pasta and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I am blown away by the types of food I get to eat. Even my twelve year old daughter is loving the plan. (she's by no means a picky eater but I was worried she wouldn't enjoy the change in diet as she loves cheese and ham!!)
5) There was one night where I just didn't have time to make the meal that was planned for dinner. Had I reviewed the plan for the week more thoroughly I would have thought to make the main portion of this meal ahead of time and just put it in the freezer until the day of... live and learn.
6) My only real problem with the plan is the amount of peanuts used... and the only reason it's a problem is that my daughter isn't allowed to bring anything with peanuts in it to school which makes some of the snacks a little hard. Other than that, all is good!
Thank you so much +Heather Nauta for creating this plan!
I have completed week one and I feel great! I have lost 6lbs!!! And that is solely from eating on this meal plan as I have not increased my physical activity to any great degree.
Some of the highlights, surprises and disappointments from our first week.
1) It does still take some work and preparation as the goal is to make everything from scratch. This means I made guacamole, peanut sauce and hummus from scratch for the first time ever.
2) The amount of "sweet treats" in the plan is AMAZING! I have not felt deprived once. There have been no mid-day cravings to grab a donut at the coffee shop or a chocolate bar from the corner store (which were pretty daily cravings before this plan!) My hubby even survived a cupcake day at his work without any real struggle!
3) The amount of food in general is a lot. I don't think I have been able to eat everything on the menu for the day, yet.
4) Some of my favourite meals has been a Black Bean Taco Salad over Quinoa, French Toast with Raspberry Sauce (who knew you didn't need eggs and milk for that!), Mushroom Marinara Pasta and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I am blown away by the types of food I get to eat. Even my twelve year old daughter is loving the plan. (she's by no means a picky eater but I was worried she wouldn't enjoy the change in diet as she loves cheese and ham!!)
5) There was one night where I just didn't have time to make the meal that was planned for dinner. Had I reviewed the plan for the week more thoroughly I would have thought to make the main portion of this meal ahead of time and just put it in the freezer until the day of... live and learn.
6) My only real problem with the plan is the amount of peanuts used... and the only reason it's a problem is that my daughter isn't allowed to bring anything with peanuts in it to school which makes some of the snacks a little hard. Other than that, all is good!
Thank you so much +Heather Nauta for creating this plan!
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
My Vegan Adventure
Wow... over a year has come and gone! I did get back on track fitness wise for a little while but than the autumn came and I soon found myself falling back into my old routine. Little to no exercise and slowly started increasing my carb intake until the next thing I knew I was up 11 pounds! What is wrong with me!?!
Anyway, I've been hunting around trying desperately to put together a vegetarian meal plan but it is so much WORK! After months of trying I gave up and was just trying to add more veggies into my diet and substitute where I could.
Then I watched Vegucated and thought "hmm... what would it be like to go vegan??" So off I went again scouring the net for info. Trying to make sense of all the contradictory information and weed out all the irrelevant arguments. After a few weeks of looking I thought I might like to try a few vegan meals but every time I looked for recipes everything had tofu in it or soy.
And then I found her. Heather Nauta and her website Healthy Eating Starts Here.
I read through her site and found that she has created a four week vegan meal plan with recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks! Not only that but it's customizable, so I put in my height, weight etc and that of my hubby and daughter and the system will calculate how much of everything to buy (and gives a great shopping list), calculates how much to make and how much each of us should eat! AND there's NO tofu!!
You can further customize the recipes to be low glycemic, gluten free etc.
After hmm-ing and ha-ing over it with my hubby we decided to opt in. I am SO HAPPY we did. Best purchase ever!
I'll tell you more about it later but right now I must go feed the family.
Health and Happiness to all!
Anyway, I've been hunting around trying desperately to put together a vegetarian meal plan but it is so much WORK! After months of trying I gave up and was just trying to add more veggies into my diet and substitute where I could.
Then I watched Vegucated and thought "hmm... what would it be like to go vegan??" So off I went again scouring the net for info. Trying to make sense of all the contradictory information and weed out all the irrelevant arguments. After a few weeks of looking I thought I might like to try a few vegan meals but every time I looked for recipes everything had tofu in it or soy.
And then I found her. Heather Nauta and her website Healthy Eating Starts Here.
I read through her site and found that she has created a four week vegan meal plan with recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks! Not only that but it's customizable, so I put in my height, weight etc and that of my hubby and daughter and the system will calculate how much of everything to buy (and gives a great shopping list), calculates how much to make and how much each of us should eat! AND there's NO tofu!!
You can further customize the recipes to be low glycemic, gluten free etc.
After hmm-ing and ha-ing over it with my hubby we decided to opt in. I am SO HAPPY we did. Best purchase ever!
I'll tell you more about it later but right now I must go feed the family.
Health and Happiness to all!
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