Splitting The Recipe

A day of Vegan

2009-02-10T18:01:00.000-08:00

I didn't mean to plan it this way at all, but today's three meals consisted of all vegan ingredients, even taking into consideration my morning coffee which I put soymilk in.

Two days ago I cooked a couple cups of kidney beans, and they were featured in a couple different ways today. Considering how fast I've been going through them, I should have prepared more.

Breakfast today was rolled oat porridge/oatmeal with dried cranberries.

Today's lunch was a bean salad with homemade salsa fresca.

Dinner was thrown together pretty quick as I got home a bit late from work. This dish was sort of a creative way of combining a couple of side dishes - Mashed Kidney Beans served over a toasted pita with a side of sauteed zucchini and greens. A take on the Tostada, the mashed beans were topped with lemon zest and chopped fresh parsley. Pretty tasty, although next time I will be certain not to slice the zucchini so thin, as the olive oil and garlic saute came close to wearing through the vegetables.

What happened???

2009-02-09T17:55:00.000-08:00

"Well?"

I have a lot of explaining to do. The last two weeks of food consisted mostly of diet items (posted below) some bad decisions (which you won't see) and redundant items (things I've cooked before)

"What happened to your Iron Will???"

The last couple of weeks caused it to bend due to work related travel to hotels and weird towns which hindered my planning skills as well as some late nights where a home cooked meal seemed too much to put together myself.

"Whats next?"

More of what we all got used to when I started this project. I've learned way too much and lost enough weight to realize that this eating lifestyle can work for me. Contained in this post are some of the highlights of the last two weeks. Pardon my lack of brevity with this post. Daily content to resume tomorrow.

Chickpea Stew with Linguine and Diced Fennel

Breakfast Couscous with Chopped Peanuts and Dried Cranberries

Whole Wheat Pitas stuffed with Avocado, Tomato, and Greens

Cod with Roasted Potatoes and Greens

Spicy Black Bean Soup

Diced Fennel Salad with Blood Orange

Catching up

2009-01-26T18:17:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of content! Sunday consisted of one wonderful meal which I ate out of the house. I went to the always awesome Carmans Country Kitchen where enjoyed an indulgence of challah french toast with mangoes, cocunut cream cheese and country sausage. I don't feel guilty about it at all and I can't say enough how much I like this place. Highly reccomended, and they allow you to call ahead(!!!) unlike Sabrinas or Morning Glory for those who don't like freezing on the sidewalk. No photographs here. I did some light snacking on dried fruit before sleepy time

Also no photographs of breakfast (easy one, i skipped it) and lunch. Lunch today was a quick bean salad with homemade salsa. It didnt look any different from the bean salad I made last week. Thursdays beans are still fresh, but im not sure how much longer that will be so.

Tonights dinner? Edamame with string beans, tomatoes and cilantro. Served with a side of wheat bulghur. Skipping breakfast today may have caused me to over portion this one, but it was not wasted.

Stuffed Vegetables

2009-01-24T17:44:00.000-08:00

One stuffed tomato and one stuffed green bell pepper with some greens and whole wheat baguette. The stuffing consisted of beans, grains, seasoning and herbs. With precooked grains and beans, this one is effortless. I used some kidney beans from the large batch I cooked on Thursday and for grains I used quinoa, a relatively inexpensive high protein grain.

Saturday Lunch

2009-01-24T14:48:00.000-08:00

Lunch today consisted of a wheat pita with tomatoes, sliced avocado, greens, and a little mayo. Pretty easy to throw together and quite tasty.

Where's breakfast? I skipped it. Sometimes you get up a little late on Saturdays and it just happens. For someone who managed to skip breakfast almost every day of the week for most of his life before changing his habits, I'm not going to beat myself up for missing it once a week or so.

Friday recap

2009-01-23T17:27:00.000-08:00

Today's breakfast was quick and a bit of a repeat from earlier this week - Porridge with chopped nuts. With a good variation of chopped dried fruit, nuts, or other counterpart this dish can be served several times a week without becoming routine or rote.

Lunch consisted of a bean salad with greens and homemade salsa, a clever arrangement of leftovers from last nights bean burritos.

Friday night's dinner of braised vegetables over wheat bulghur was a real treat considering the doubts I had as this was simmering. Bacon aside (which is pretty important to this dish), this dish was a savory near vegan wonder consisting of little else than grains, vegetables, aromatics and cooking liquid. With a long enough simmer (I gave it 30 minutes) the vegetables turn into wonderful fall apart in your mouth stuff and not the mushy mess I feared when I plated this one.

Thursday's Dinner

2009-01-23T16:54:00.000-08:00

Two bean burritos with homemade salsa and a touch of sour cream. With precooked beans these are effortless. Two nights ago I fully cooked about 2 cups of dried beans and stored them in the fridge as they keep up for a week. A vast taste improvement over canned beans and extremely cheaper.

Dinner, sort of.

2009-01-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

Tonights dinner was a reheat of the bean and vegetable casseoulet which I made a large batch of last Saturday and froze. I have to say that the texture was pretty muddy and the zucchini especially was a little limp. Not horrible, but not something I would prepare again.

Fennel Salad

2009-01-21T13:17:00.001-08:00

With orange and cilantro. I can't say that diced fennel is the best way to prepare fennel, but until I get a really sharp knife or a mandoline, it will have to do. This one is as simple and economical as it gets, probably just two dollars for all of the ingredients involved and plenty of flavor.

Porridge

2009-01-21T13:13:00.000-08:00

with chopped dates

Photo blunder

2009-01-20T18:26:00.000-08:00

So we're one day into my project and I'm already having camera mishaps. It should be of note that today's breakfast was "porridge" which was made with rolled oats and chopped nuts. So simple to prepare, and with so much more texture than anything made in the microwave. I've been missing on out this for too long.

Today's lunch consisted of reheated lentil soup.. which is a trend you are going to see quite a bit here for personal budgetary reasons.

Cod in Olive Oil and Thyme

2009-01-20T18:19:00.000-08:00

Served over wheat bulghur with chopped dates

Lentil Soup with Curry and Vegetables

2009-01-19T20:35:00.000-08:00

With Zucchini, Potatoes, and fresh Cilantro

And so it begins

2009-01-19T19:29:00.000-08:00

I recently got my hands on "Food Matters" by the great Mark Bittman of the New York Times Minimalist column as well as several great cookbooks. Once through reading, it became clear to me that changing my eating habits could save me money and possibly even reduce global impact in addition to benefits to my health which I've been meaning to address for some time now. What will follow this post will be a photo essay documenting every piece of food I prepare and consume, and even what I eat out depending on how comfortable I feel with having to explain myself every time I photograph something prepared at a restaurant or bar.

Think of this as an unofficial visual companion to "Food Matters" with the occasional variations with respect to availability of ingredients or preference of taste. To the urbane or the fooderati, the images to follow could be seen as pedestrian and possibly by-the-numbers dishes but that would miss the point as this is more about self discovery and visual reaffirmation of my change in behavior and eating habits.