Music ?

Can popcorn stomach aches last 3 days?

That's the question of the day, and I wish I had a definitive answer. Something funny is going on in my tummy, and I wish it could leave me in peace! Maybe I should try pepto bismol. Is it even vegan? I've never had it. I'll have to look into that.

Anyways, lunch yesterday was the above pictured 'pita pizza', a meal that tasted better than it looked.

Dinner was this Boca burger with pretzels and hummus. Yum! I've eaten more processed veggie burgers in the last week than I did last year, without a doubt.

My mom pointed out a while ago that even though this blog is called "Music and Veganism" I rarely mention the music in my life. I'm going to try to from now on, since it i the focus of my life and what I want to be doing. For now, if you are interested, my myspace page is www.myspace.com/charlottelittlehales , and for anyone in the Philly area that is reading this, I'm playing next Tuesday (7/15) at the North Star Bar!

See you later-- lunch is cooking up and I've got a chick-flick a-waitin.

Day 8

Can you tell I'm a little uninspired by this diet?

Well, I did lose 2 pounds last week, so that's pretty inspiring, I suppose. Here are some more pictures of 'diet food'.

I did pretty well on the 4th but destroyed my diet on Sunday when I devoured a huge dinner at Sabrina's, ate craploads of popcorn at the movies, then washed it down with beer. Don't worry, I paid a painful price. Apparently stomach's shrink pretty quickly.

I do have to say that all-in-all I'm impressed by E-diets. The recipes are decent and there's a large vegan selection. Even Phil has been enjoying some of it, like that like picture which was a "Moroccan Stew" served with couscous.

Alrighty. I hereby promise to post more often, diet or no diet!

day 3

My day started off with sodium-free whole wheat bread, soy yogurt, and watermelon. Yesterday was a gym day and I like to eat breakfast and have a cup of coffee before working out, which is exactly what I did. Good workout, too.



Lunch was supposed to be a burrito, but I forgot to buy tortillas so I used some pasta instead. This was actually really good: chopped up veggie burger, green bell peppers, mushrooms, green onions and teriyaki sauce. Salad and apple on the side.



Here's my dinner packed up for me to take to work. This is an "Italian" tofu and spaghetti dish. I tweaked the seasonings and it was still bland bland bland, even after adding a splash of Bragg's at work. Oh well, I was hungry and it did the trick.

The vegan options aren't bad, and there are a lot of them. I am noticing that it helps to tweak the spices to your own liking. I'm a sodium hound, so my taste buds are a little biased-- I really need to just get used to eating less salt all around.

Also, I had just eyeballed the calories before, and it turns out the intake is more like 1250 or thereabouts, so that does make a difference (especially since I've decided to double my snack, so I'm getting almost 1400). Plus I had 2 pints of beer last night.

:)

Day 2

So, today is day 2 of Ediets, and I found the battery charger but the batteries weren't charged until lunch, so no breakfast pictures today. Today's food was:

Cereal with blueberries soymilk. One slice of sodium-free whole wheat bread with jam and peanut butter. Watermelon.

"Latin American rice and beans" (recipe courtesy of Ediets). Mixed greens with tomatoes and some of that fancy spray-on dressing (I love Newman's Own). Orange. See above picture. I added red chili flakes, cumin seeds and coriander to liven it up-- good choice.

Vegan boca burger, on a whole wheat english muffin, with VeganRella (which is sort of gross, btw) and dijon mustard. Tomatoes and fresh basil marinated in balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Silk soy yogurt.

And a snack, which was supposed to be some homemade trail mix but instead was a serving of some lingering sodium ridden snack food that we had hiding around.

Alright, so the question is: Did I stick to this meal plan?
Answer: Mostly, yes. However, I can't properly function on 1100 calories, and I definitely had some fresh warm bread at work. But not much! I'm also drinking my second glass of red wine as I write this. But I think it's fine.

So far my only issue is that I can't figure out why they've allotted me only 1100 calories. I run 5k at least 3x week in addition to biking 6 miles 5x a week and lifting weights. I think I need to make an executive decision to add 100-200 more calories per day.

So, that's today....

Missing Batteries

Phil cleaned recently and I can't find our spare batteries or battery charger. So, no pictures until he tells me where they are (our work schedules are pretty conflicting this time of year, so usually when we see each other its late at night and we're both tired and incoherent).

Needless to say, I did something sort of silly and impulsive and I joined E-diets. Not really sure why. Or actually, I do, it's because I want to lose a couple of pounds. But I think it will help me control my portion size, as that seems to be my biggest food problem.

Anyways, I'm only doing it for a month since thats what I paid for, and I thought I'd keep track of the meal plan with pictures and talk about their vegan meal options. So far they aren't too bad, albeit a little bland. For the most part I realize how many carbs I've been eating, which is a LOT, way more than you should be eating, and I do tend to indulge in unbleached all-pupose flour quite a bit.

On the same subject I tracked a days worth of food that I ate on a day where I was being "health conscious" and I eat copious amounts of sodium, as well, and apparently not enough iron. I could do with more protein, too. I think I need to sub out some of my carbs for more veg's and protein sources.

One thing I've noticed so far (that I like) is that although caloric information is available, they don't tell you to count calories. Instead you keep track of servings and portion sizes.

I'll keep you posted!

Pepita Crusted Tofu

I haven't been spending as much time cooking lately due the heat. Our air conditioner is broken for the second time, so we've been eating mostly cold or cool things-- using the oven guarantees that it will be over 90 degrees in our apartment for the rest of the night.

But since I knew Phil would be home from work in time for dinner, I decided to go all out. We had steamed green beans with almonds, garlic mashed potatoes, and these pepita crusted tofu slabs I whipped together.

Pepita Crusted Tofu
serves 2-3

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. extra firm tofu, drained and pressed
• 1/2 c. teriyaki sauce, or favorite marinade
• 1/2 c. raw pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 c. panko bread crumps
• 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. onion powder
• 1/2 tsp. dried, rubbed sage
• 1/2 tsp. dried French tarragon
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. salt
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 tsp. canola oil

Begin by slicing your tofu into six pieces: into 3 pieces the long and narrow way, then in half the short and wide way, so that you have six centimeter thick rectangles. Throw them in a large tuperware container with your marinade, seal, and set it aside. Every now and then give it a shake or turn it upside down You want it to marinade for at least 20 minutes-- the longer, the better, of course (overnight is awesome).

While that's marinating, throw the dry ingredients into a food processor or small blender. I use a mini food processor, and it's perfect. Blend until the seeds are beginning to break up, then add the oil and continue to blend until it looks like crumbs.

Preheat the oven to 375 and spray a baking pan with a small amount of oil if you want. Once the tofu has been marinating long enough, coat it in your crumbs and place in the pan. Stick it in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes, then turn it over and do another 10-15 min.

Note: I really like Soy Vay's Veri Veri Teriyaki Sauce but it's a little pricey so it's usually a 'special treat' buy. However, Trader Joe's has their own version of it (or maybe it IS it, with a private label, which seems more likely) called Trader Ming's Soyaki Sauce and it's only $2.99 or something, so that's what I used. If you haven't tried it, I suggest it!

Today I'll leave you with a picture of my Brandywine tomato plant's first flowers. Let's hope they're followed by fruit!!

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