All posts in category Vegetables

WIAW: Getting Busy With Veggies!

Yesterday had to be one of the busiest day’s I have had in a while.  I had to meet with the Accountant, run around town collecting information for our home loan, and get grocery shopping done.  The hub’s said that all we have in our fridge right now is Almond milk and Kombucha, which I am totally ok with, but apparently he cannot live on those two things alone (weirdo).

I tried to be very conscience of the veggie theme this month for What I Ate Wednesday, and my day is proof that you can fit lots of veggies in, even when you are busy, busy!!!  Once again thank you to Jenn from Peas & Crayons for being just plain awesome.

Breakfast:  Oatmeal with berries.  Along with more vegetables, I’m also trying to get more fruit in as well.  I find that some days I can go most of the day on grains alone, and I am trying to eat more of a rainbow of foods to ensure I’m getting all of my vitamins and nutrients.

Plus, I just love that it makes my oatmeal reddish, pinkish, purplish.  It makes it more fun to eat!

Lunch: Subway!  I am loving $5 footlong February.  I spent most of the day in the car (besides Hanna’s naptime), so I tried to make the best “fast food” choice I could.

I’m not going to lie, this sandwich was a beast.  I got a veggie delight on whole wheat, no cheese, and almost every vegetable they have.  I’m pretty sure that sandwich is made up of mostly black olives, pickles, and red onions.  Whatever, it was amazing.  I topped it off with yellow mustard, a stripe of oil, and salt and pepper.  It kept me full for most of the afternoon.

Confession:  I fell for the mini-cakes that Walmart had on display with all of the produce (oxymoron much?).  They had tiny little hearts, and Dustin and I ended up sharing it.  It was glorious (and un-pictured).

Dinner: This could quite possibly be the oddest dinner I’ve had in a long time.

That is a slice of a Vegan Taco Bake, with salsa, roasted broccoli (for green goodness), sweet potato fries with ketchup.  It calmed pretty much any craving I was having and it was delicious.

What vegetable have you been digging on lately? 

3 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on February 15, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Vegetables, WIAW

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on February 15, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/02/15/wiaw-getting-busy-with-veggies/

What I Ate Wednesday: More Veggies Please!

This week’s WIAW has a FUN theme.  It went perfect for the meal plan that I made yesterday.  Again, thanks to Jenn over at Peas & Crayons for putting on this fun little food shindig every week!

This month it is all about veggies!  Wednesday’s (and hopefully most other days) will be filled with foods that have lots of vegetables in them.  So let’s get started!  Tuesday was the day that I started anew from my sick hiatus.  I forged full force back into my plant based diet.  This week I will spare you the picture of my same old oatmeal and my same old pea protein green smoothie.  Lets just say that I eat the same thing until noon everyday.

Lunch:  This lunch would have been way more fabulous if I hadn’t burned my Tofurky Italian Sausage.  I was on the phone with our Realtor, and started to smell burning tofu.  I did however get a chance to snap a picture in some natural light and it didn’t look half bad (I still suck royally at photography).

That my friends, is roasted spaghetti squash with spaghetti sauce, Tofurky Italian Sausage, and Vegan Parmesan (toasted sesame seeds, nutritional yeast, & sea salt blended to perfection).  It tasted pretty good, but I could have done without the burnt pieces.

Dinner:  I had to think of something that I could make a lot of because I took dinner to a friend who just had a baby.  So I decided that Mac & Cheeze would work best since I could just double the recipe.  I used an AH-MAZING recipe from Oh She Glows. Side note:  She will be coming out with a cookbook and I can hardly wait!  I have tried numerous recipes from Angela, and they have never disappointed!

This picture on the other hand, is horrible (no judging).

There are some hidden vegetables in there.  Red Potato’s, Carrots, and Onion.

I also forgot to mention that my green smoothie had about 2 huge handfuls of spinach in it.  I think I have sufficiently gotten in my vegetable servings for the day (probably even more, which doesn’t hurt).

How do you sneak your veggies in during the day?

Have you eaten anything memorable lately?

5 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on February 8, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Vegetables, WIAW

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on February 8, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/02/08/what-i-ate-wednesday-more-veggies-please/

Friday Night Pizza…A Possible Comeback

Sweat it Out:
Spin Class 45 Minutes

When I was young one of our family night traditions was Friday night pizza night.  My mom would make homemade pizza and we would rent a few movies to watch.  It was a total couch fest, and some good quality bonding time with the fam.

One of the things I have noticed while I have been eating my plant based diet is that there is not a lot of room for indulgence (this is not necessarily a bad thing).  I have been craving pizza like crazy lately, and of course because of the cheese and some of the pizza toppings I couldn’t indulge in one of my favorite foods.

Until last night.

I have found a lot of joy in finding new recipe’s online to try, and I have found a kindred spirit (in regards to tastebuds) in the blog world.  Oh She Glows has become my go-to for delicious plant based recipes.

Back to this amazing pizza…

I’m not going to lie, there was an actual PDF attachment for this recipe and it was almost 4 pages long.  After not watching tv ALL DAY, I was up for a cooking challenge and so I got my appliances ready to make something amazing.

I had actually pre-made the dough in the morning and let it rise most of the day.  I found the secret to good dough is 2 teaspoons italian blend spice (to die for!).  And olive oil, lots and lots of olive oil.  Side note:  I have used almost an entire half gallon of olive oil in the past couple of months (crazy!).

This recipe was called: Roasted Tomato, Onion, Basil, Pesto Pizza, with Vegan Parmesan Cheese (and then I added some roasted artichokes and black olives).  There was a separate recipe for each step, the dough, the roasted vegetables, vegan parmesan cheese, and pesto sauce.  I have never really tried pesto, so I didn’t know what to expect.  I am glad that I tried it, for I don’t want to know a world without pesto again.

I won’t go into too much more detail since this is not MY recipe, but if you want to try out this seriously delicious and guilt-free recipe head on over to ohsheglows.com and print out the recipe, you will not be sorry (and please don’t compare how perfect looking her pizza is and how NOT perfect mine is)!

Finished Product!

I underestimated the vegetables and would have put a LOT more on in the future!  Also, this recipe makes a lot of pesto. If you are serving 2, you could definitely split this into 2 dinners.  Tonight we will be having pesto pasta with what is left over.

Now I am off to have leftovers for lunch, yum!

Do you have a weekly family tradition that you have fond memories of?

Do you like Pesto?

6 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on January 28, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Good Food, Indulgence, Plant Based Diet, Recipes, Tradition, Vegan, Vegetables

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on January 28, 2012

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2012/01/28/friday-night-pizza-a-possible-comeback/

Things I’ve Learned From Blogging, The Gym, & Eating Healthier (so far)…

Through this little journey of mine I’ve learned a LOT of things so far about different facets that I have added into my life and I thought I would share a few:

Eating Healthier:

  • Planning is key.  Failure to plan is a plan for failure
  • Tracking is the absolute most important part of me losing weight.
  • Plan cheat days, or meals or whatever.  When I have a cheat day it helps me to plan what I am going to eat ahead of time.  It helps me to not go too crazy, but eat the things that I know I crave regularly.
  • Cravings start to go away after not eating processed, or sugary foods in about 2 days, for me.  The more fruits and veggies I consume the quicker the cravings cease.
  • Always put the “good for you food” in your eye-line.  Put the “bad for you” food in a deep dark hole where you forget it exists.  I had a bag of Starbursts for over a month because of this strategy, and for anyone who knows me, they know that this a BIG DEAL.
  • Don’t be too extreme.  If you want to cut out certain foods try one food at a time.  Don’t become a vegan when your diet consisted of mostly dairy and meat.  You are just setting yourself up for failure.
  • Treat yourself.  Even Weight Watchers says that you should give yourself things like you like every now and then.
  • Stay away from “trigger” foods.  I love oatmeal, but if I start my day out with it, I want to eat all day long.  Same with bread.  I just have to stay away.
  • Know which foods affect you which ways.  Don’t eat vegetable soup full of cabbage when you know you have to be in public in a couple of hours.  Also goat cheese is possibly the only food that affects my stomach in a MAJOR BAD WAY.
The Gym
  • Make a schedule and keep to it. The only time the gym works for me is before 9 AM.  If I wait any longer, it won’t happen.  Sometimes I have to ditch plans if I know it will interrupt my gym time.  The gym is a priority to me and some things have to come second.
  • Keep the schedule up for at least 3 weeks.  I am a big believer in 21 days makes a habit, and when I have gone to the gym consistently for 3 weeks it gets easier.
  • Follow an exercise routine.  You can find all sorts of great workouts on the internet, or in exercise magazines.  Keeping your workout interesting, keeps you wanting to do it.  When you have a plan you are following you will be less likely into cutting your workout short.
  • No matter who I do cardio by, whether they are old, young, fat, or skinny, they all want to race.  Seriously.  I keep tempo with the music that I am listening to, and I can tell a difference when I am working out to the fast songs.  The people next to me suddenly start looking over at my machine to see what level I am and start going faster.  I liken it to having your car on cruise control.  If your car isn’t on cruise control, but mine is, there is going to be some playing of leap-frog.
  • Most meatheads don’t care if you are in the free weights section.  I was extremely self-conscious when I started doing NROLFW because it mostly uses free weights, or what I formerly referred to as the “Men’s Area”, but now I realize that my insecurities were all in my own head (as most usually are).
  • Be friendly.  We’re all in this together people!  If I see an over weight person that I’ve never seen, I try to give them a smile and a friendly look.  You never know how hard it was for them to take the step to come to the gym.  I am no better than anybody in that gym.
Blogging
  • No matter how many times I type it I will never be able to properly spell the words definitly, or myslef.  I am leaving the misspellings so that you know how I spell them EVERY TIME I type them.
  • People love to hear about periods and poop.  If they didn’t, those posts wouldn’t be some of my top read posts.
  • Keep your heart in your posts.  If you are trying to type a canned blog post, your readers will know.  Inspiration does not strike everyday, and if you need a day off then take it.
  • Connect with other bloggers.  I had no idea the blogging world was even out there until a few months ago, and since then I have made some solid friendships with people who are supportive and relate to what you’re going through.
  • Comment on other bloggers post.  One of the biggest compliments you can give a blogger is a comment.  You don’t have to go crazy and comment on every post, just something that says I enjoyed your post today!  I think we put a lot of thought into the content of our blogs and it is nice to have people recognize that.
Is there anything you have learned from Blogging, The Gym, or Eating Healthier?

 

12 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on October 18, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in About Me, Blogging, Goals, Health, Indulgence, Inspiration, Motivation, Poop, The New Rules of Lifting for Women, Vegetables, Weight Watchers, Working Out

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on October 18, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/10/18/things-ive-learned-from-blogging-the-gym-eating-healthier-so-far/

Eat Your Vegetables.

As I have said in past posts, I am trying to incorporate more vegetables in my diet.  It seems to help a lot when It comes to weight loss.  The only part that is hard for me, is that I don’t like to just eat raw vegetables (unless they have a LOT of Ranch dressing on them), and it is not always convenient for me to have to roast veggies everyday for lunch.  My solution: Vegetable soup.

Weight Watchers has a vegetable soup recipe that is 1 point per cup.  You can tweak this recipe any way you like and add whatever veggies that tickle your fancy.  I don’t measure a whole lot when I cook and usually just through whatever sounds good into a pot or baking dish and cook until it looks done (I am my mother’s daughter).  Here is what my version of the soup’s ingredients:

  • Chicken Stock (you can also use vegetable or beef, if you like those better.  Personally I think vegetable stock is disgusting, and is one of  the reason’s I could never be vegan).
  • Green Onions
  • 4 Garlic Cloves Pressed
  • 3 HUGE handfuls of baby carrots chopped
  • 2 cans diced tomatoes blended (not a huge fan of tomatoes, so when I use them in soups I always blend them so I don’t get huge chunks)
  • 3 Large Zucchini sliced and quarter sliced
  • 1/2 a head of cabbage
  • 1 whole tub of spinach
Remember that I am not a photographer, but I thought I would photo document the way I made the soup:
Started by chopping the green onions in my cuisinart mini-chopper:
I pressed the garlic
Then I added the green onions and pressed garlic to some already cooking olive oil
Chopped the baby carrots and added them to the pot
Added the chicken stock
sliced zucchini and then quartered the slices, added them to the pot
Blend Tomatoes and add to the pot
Slice up cabbage and add to the pot
Boil soup down until cabbage is tender and then add spinach
Stop boiling when the spinach turns a nice bright green
After it has cooled off a little I measure out 3 cups into 7 Tupperware bowls, and let them sit until they have stopped steaming.  Then I put them in the freezer so that I all I have to do is thaw one out to pair with lunch.  And voila!  i have a whole days worth of vegetables in one sitting.
Another wonderful thing about this soup is that it is versatile.  You can add beans for some extra protein, ground beef, or shredded chicken.  Also it is low in sodium and the chicken broth gives it a lot of flavor.
What is the easiest way for you to eat your vegetables?
5 Comments
by Shrinking Carrie on October 11, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in Vegetables

Posted by Shrinking Carrie on October 11, 2011

http://shrinkingcarrie.com/2011/10/11/eat-your-vegetables/

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