Beyond Willpower

We got a new cookbook ! Eat like you give a fuck is right! This book is amazing! We've already tried 4 different recipes and talk about impressed! So far I've made the spiced chickpea wraps, the biscuit and lentil gravy (which is my absolute fave so far!), Joey made the sriracha cauliflower and peanut dipping sauce and today I made minestrone! Pics below! *Clearly there are pics of the food and plenty of them! Prepping: The delicious finished product!   I'm going to be honest here and say this isn't a 30 minutes or less cookbook (nor does it make any claims as such), and it does take a little work, and you do make everything from scratch. Although I would be sorely disappointed if I bought a cookbook and it said "Now take the chipotle mayo out of your fridge and slap it on that sammie."  BUT to be fair I absolutely love cooking, that means I love all the prep and 'extra' (the meat of the meal if you will) work. So, there...

So, I'm having a holiday party this coming Saturday. I have a bunch of friends who all have different dietary restrictions/choices. I'm trying to cater to my vegan and dairy free friends as well as my high protein diet friends who are trying to cut out carbs! I have decided to make two different types of cookies, Lazy Samoas and mint chip and I'm making peanut butter blondies and also buckeyes. I'm super excited. All of these recipes will be coming from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar Food wise, I'll be making vegan chili, and roasted ham to be sliced for sammiches. I have a cocktail style dip and vegan buffalo chicken dip. I've made the vegan buffalo chicken dip twice, once with seitain (this did not turn out well, sorry T.J) and once with smart strips 'chicken'. That came out FANTASTIC! We did buy some groceries for the house today as well, and we are making veg choices when eating out, and then eating the left over meat that's in t...

This is from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen Check it out of you'd like to increase the amount of raw food you eat, it has some nice recipes. :) I made the cabbage and kale slaw in simple greek dressing last night, and it was pretty good. I didn't have scallions but I did add sweet onions and it gave it a nice kick of flavor. It's basically what it sounds like. First you chop the cabbage into slaw type bits: I use my ninja, which I think I've professed my love for here before. A lot of people say it's a physical impossibility for the ninja to chop evenly due to the way the blades are spaced. The ninja pictured here is the newer food processor/smoothie making one and it has three blades in the big container, not just two. It does chop far more evenly than the old one, but I loved that one too. Just so you can see what it chops like, the pic below shows the finished results of my slaw, with one large piece of cabbage that didn't get chopped quite right, but that was...

Ellie! From Books, fitness and other stuff! <<<Be sure to check it out! NOTE: I did end up using www.randompicker.com for the randomized winner as raffle king did not allow enough entrants. *I am contacting ellie now and she needs to get back to me with a shipping address within 3 days or a new winner will be chosen.* For those of you who didn't win I hope you all check out appetite for reduction anyhow! It's a great way to incorporate tasty plant based meals.

Don't forget, the contest deadline is before midnight on April 22nd! Enter to win a copy of Appetite for Reduction, a fabulous cookbook!

I got my juicer today!  and I made deliciousness! Until I get more supplies tomorrow I just threw whatever I had in the house into it. this was apple, orange and strawberry. Fruit juices are a bit high calorie, so I'm going to mix them with low cal veggies starting tomorrow.  My review: Breville JE900 Juice Extractor After reading reviews for a few hours....okay, a few days! I decided on the Breville JE900, it was on sale, had free shipping, and was one of the highest rated not just on amazon, but on juicer review websites as well. So far I love it, it's fast, it's fairly simple to put together once you read the directions. (I had some stuff on upside down at first. But I'm also ridiculous.) The directions are pics with instructions so it's easy to get together. It juices fast, but let me warn you, to quote my boyfriend joey, "It sounds like a jet engine", which it does. I live in an apartment with a baby downstairs and there is no way they would ...

This contest is for U.S residents only: Okay, so I have a few ideas for some giveaways that I'm planning on doing over the next few months. This is the first one, the next one I'll do once I hit 100 followers cuz it's a bigger prize and I'd like as many people as possible to be able to enter and spread the word. Contest Deadline: Starts now (April 12th) Ends before midnight (eastern time) April 22nd 2011 For now, I will be giving away a copy of my favorite cookbook, Appetite for Reduction , by Isa Chandra Moskowitz  << Her website. The Prize: This book is amazing, a lot of non-vegans think that vegan cookbooks are all full of strange ingredients that are only available at health food stores, but that isn't the case with this book. It has simple recipes made with easy to find and prepare ingredients and nearly everything in the book is between 200-400 calories per serving, and the servings are a good size. I've made many fabulous dishes from this b...

So, the last time we tried our 75% raw week it was about 50%, Joey was off work for vaca and it was our anniv and I was having fun cooking, so, meh. :( Before we get into that though, just want to provide these links: www.meatout.org and < here > is my blog post on the subject. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog posting... But, this week we've decided to do it again. We both need a jumpstart to our weight loss. I only lost 1 lb last week, which is fine, it's not a gain, but it's not on target either. I know some of it is my stomach issues. (Was recently diagnosed with ibs-c, the doc thinks the gluten intolerance was masking it.) I know the raw will help with my stomach as well. I think I need to be a bit more structured to keep me on track with the raw thing, I may be posting a daily raw journey on here for what I plan to eat to keep me on track. I know it helps.  I also got this raw uncookbook.  There seems to be way too much fat in it, even if it'...

~*~*~This recipe is gluten free and vegan~*~*~ As are all my recipes I tend to shoot for 2 servings, but this very low cal dish makes enough for leftovers unless you are both VERY hungry! This recipe was inspired by the potato spinach curry in Appetite for Reduction (pg. 232). I think this is a little quicker and I hate potato chunks so it uses marinara instead of chopped tomatoes. I think that makes it creamier too. *NOTE* Also, this recipe is best if made ahead of time and eaten later/the next day. The flavors really have time to soak in that way. Or you could probably make it in a slow cooker, I don't have one but this is an assumption. EDITED TO ADD:  I forgot, it's a bit more bitter than I like. I like to add a tiny bit of sweetener, this should just be to taste and the sweetener of your choice. Stuff you will need: to the drawing board! Prep directions: First, put 2.5 cups water with a veggie base/or use veggie broth, in a medium pot. While waiting for the wat...

~*~*~This recipe is gluten free and vegan~*~*~ As are all my recipes This makes 2 servings Stuff you will need: Stuff I forgot on the drawing board: Chili powder Daiya (if you like) or nutritional yeast Chopped red onion Prep Directions: The first thing you want to do is put your 2 cups of light plain soy milk (for the calorie watchers) over low heat while you chop your broccoli. Add 1 tbls veggie base. I just got some Spike veggie base powder and it's pretty good. As for the broccoli, I just use mostly florets and break them off or chop them into large chunks. I used about 2 cups of broccoli for the soup. *NOTE* I set aside about a half cup for garnish. Over low heat let 2 tbls of earth balance melt and simmer and then add the onions and saute until they start to turn clearish. Here, you need some type of blender/food processor. I use the new ninja master prep pro . I just add the broccoli Florette's to the bottom of the large container and pour the hot soy milk o...

This post was inspired by a blog I read called  My Effortless Vegan Weight Loss  over at  www.vegansoapbox.com : It got me thinking about my motivations as far as veganism goes. I will say I am not a fan of PETA so with all of their outrageous efforts to convert people, I most likely would have converted sooner if not for them. Seeing this ad did not make me want to 'go veg', it pretty much just made me feel like shit and if I had seen it a few years ago I most likely would have gone and eaten a full order of wings to drown my big fat sorrows. Annoying PETA ad:  When I watched  Food, Inc  sometime last year, I started to get really aware of just how horrific modern agriculture (aka, big food) really is. The changes I made to my diet happened slowly over the course of 2009-2010. After I went vegan  I started buying as much local organic stuff as possible. Food, Inc trailer: So anyhow, I did originally go vegetarian in July 2009 for healt...