Day 97 - watermelons

OMG. I just ate a whole kilo of freshly cut watermelon! That's 1 kg! My nose serves me well, it could tell straight away the watermelon will be a delight. When you can smell them from 50 m away, you know they're going to be real good.

This is the first portion, about 0,5 kg. After I finished it I went and cut me another 0,5 kg! Nothing better after a 2 hour grocery shopping and driving in an overheatied black car. Won't be feeling thirsty for some time now :)

Lunch: asparagus on butter (yes, butter! I'm scratching already), grilled tofu and some potatoes. Drink: coconut water.

Day 94 - my vegan

Don't the days just fly by? We're approaching the 100-day mark so quickly. Less than a week, now.

Yesterday I took some time to watch the movie Earthlings. It touched me deeply, especially when I saw lab beagles being abused, since we do have a beagle back home. You can watch the movie on youtube (I highly recommend), and I believe afterward you won't look at your steak the same ever again. I am now so much more convinced that I do not want to contribute to the suffering of innocent animals. That's why I have been also using natural cosmetics the past year, that is purely vegan and not tested on animals!

I'll tell you one more thing that is eco-friendly. Why, my Kindle of course! :) Just look at this difference:

Same story on two devices. Why cutting down trees to publish cheap paperbacks, when you can have it electronic? And you only charge the device like once per month. And yes, we are already fighting whose turn it is to use it! :)

What with all the vegan spirit peaking high today I visited my Loving Hut supplier for some more of those chow mein.

A bit different ingredients today, no red cabbage for example, but plenty of some other greens I do not know the names for. And I kindly asked to hold the mushrooms and not make it spicy and the guy was super obliging and did it to my taste. It was just yummi! And no more pasta this weeks, darn.

I wanted to try the tiramisu, too, but having no fridge at work, I didn't want it to get spoiled before I got hungry again. So, maybe next time.

Day 93 - hunger

I don't have anything smart to say today, at least this far. So I'll just share with you a picture of my lunch yesterday.

Pasta (shells) with zucchini and burger bits in cream sauce. Just have vegan burgers and zucchini to spare, obviously. And by the way, I almost always read when I eat at home. Just to keep me company and eat longer, for the story takes me in and I forget about food :)

Do you do that, too? Or I'm the only freak, here?

I now abandoned books in favor of Kindle. It's just this good. And I already have some 300 books on it, so that should keep me company for quite some time! Saves money and library frustrations as well.

About food today (this far). I've been really hungry today. Like, I couldn't get enough to eat. I had some bread with chocolate spread for breakfast, a soy yogurt for snack and I wanted to eat a salad for lunch but my stomach demanded something stronger, so I went out for some potatoes, fried eggplants and roasted pepper & zucchini. Half an hour later I ate a cup of watermelon (no, it's not good yet!). Two hours later, here I am, hungry as ever. I want to use the salad I made in the morning, but I might add some pizza to that. Damn Just SO hungry!

Day 92 - pocket garden

As I promised, I'm going to share with you a little bit of my personal space. That is, my balcony, to be precise.

I currently live in a tiny 1-bedroom flat on the second floor. Which is alright, but not ideal. I do have a sun-bathing balcony though, which comes in handy, but not in winter time and not in the summer heat :) In the other days and weeks it's great for chilling with a book (or a Kindle, now), spying on neighbours (haha!), eating when inside is too hot, drying the laundry (let's be eco-friendly and give the drying machine some rest in summer time) and of course - growing a pocket-size garden!

My newest aquisition this year: hanging strawberry pot. It does have some fruit, but I fear the flowers have dried due to stress or heat or direct sunlight. Though the berries need sunlight to develop color. They're 2 days on my balcony so I'll just give it some time to adjust to the new place. Maybe they're a bit shy.

I'll tell you who's not shy out there - the cucumbers! Proving my faith (and experience) in them was not in vain! This baby is about ready to end up sliced in my salad. Or a tatziki. Can't decide yet, but there are more cucumbers on their way, so I'm sure I'll try both!

Another one growing as crazy - the basil plant! My consumption can't keep up with the growth. I'll just need to make some spaghetti al pesto, and pronto!

And a view of my pocket-size garden that is just about enough for regular consumption. There's also some rosemary there, which almost died this winter and is beginning to come to its senses, some chives that need yet anther trimming and some strongly lemon-scented plant that I do not know the name or use for, but my mom gave it to me, so I'll just keep it until it dies. What I do need to buy me is some parsley and peppermint to put in lemonades! The only plant I cannot keep outside this year is aloe vera. It grew splendidly  last year but this year it just turns brown every time I try to sneak it outdoors. And I need my aloe vera brightly green and succulent for medication, so I'm keeping it indoors until it decides it's ready to go out in the world.

Day 91 - grilled zucchini and burger

The salad for lunch left me but hungry. Arriving home I couldn't decide if I was up for spaghetti or potatoes or what (which leads me to think the hunger was only in my mind, not my stomach) so after a while of debating I pushed aside the idea of a cherry smoothie and voted for zucchini and young potatoes... which did not turn out as I wanted them to be, since half of it was not yet done, the other half already too tender and I still have the bitter test of under-cooked potatoes in my mouth. Yuk.

The zucchini and the vegan burger were a whole other thing. So yummi, I regreted making potatoes in the first place. Somehow, I don't like potatoes as much as I used to, anymore. I know, totally weird.

GRILLED ZUCCHINI
serves: 1

1 large zucchini
salt, pepper
ground garlic flakes

Wash and drain the zucchini. With a peeler, slice the zucchini into thin slices, them top them with seasoning and let it soak for 5 minutes.

Heat a drop of olive oil in a frying pan and place the zucchini slices into it, slowly grilling it from both sides. Serve with a seitan burger and maybe potatoes or salad, if you like.

Day 91 - bring on the fresh

The 3-month mark of my quest came and was gone. In some ways it seems such a along time, in other ways it's just the beginning.

My meat cravings have long disappeared, sometimes a fried turkey breast still smells nice, but most of the time it just repels me, esp. fatty burgers. I still have some issues with canned tuna, though, and have not completely given it up. Besides the occasional eggs, that's all of animal products that I consume.

With hotter days and fresh organic produce available I'm moving towards raw. I've been eating so many salads, I'm surprised it's not growing out of my ears yet. You'd think it would help in losing weight and it just doesn't.

My mom's organic lettuce (have some pounds of it), young organic carrots, red bell pepper (not organic) and canned corn. I just adore this combination. Shortly I'll be adding freshly picked organic cucumbers straight from my own balcony. I've had a plant growing last year already and it kept giving fruit as late as in October! This year, I have 2 plants! And I also have a pot of strawberries growing :) I should take a picture of that, the balcony garden, I mean.

And cherries. So many cherries. All organic without a hint of pesticides, picked from my aunt's trees (so I am 100% sure they are purely organic). I have an issue with worms, though. Organic cherries are a delight not only for humans, but for worms as well, though it should be safe this early in season. I do not check to make sure (you should NEVER check the inside of a cherry!), but I hope this doesn't worsen my (almost) vegan score.

I'll be trying a cherry smoothie today, but other than that I just eat them plain raw. It's seems like such a waste even thinking about consuming them in any other form.

I've also had a first bite of my beloved peaches (nectarines in this matter) and, although they were good, it's just not it yet. I'll wait a couple more weeks. And I'll be trying the first of watermelons soon, as soon as I eliminate my cherry supply and find a watermelon that smells nice and looks edible. I'm quite sensible when it comes to watermelons.

Day 90 - an update

We've reached day 90. That's 3 months right there, folks!

My weight loss has slowed down, actually, I'm at a steady -4 kg for some time now, occasionally dropping & gaining 1 kg. But that's OK. All my pants & skirts are loose. I am planning on losing more during summer months when eating anything beside salad and watermelon seems like suicide mission. I plan on not cooking during the summer heat, but I still lunch out, so that's really not a problem.

My mom's garden started giving fruits. I got my first larger supply this weekend (salad, spinach, onion, carrots, strawberries, cherries, potatoes) and plan on zucchini next weekend. Let the season begin :)

The weekend was unbearably hot. We had 31-32°C during the day, which is about 5°C hotter that the usual temperatures. I've spent the weekend painting wood panels for a hut, picking cherries, playing with the dog and sleeping at noon when it was too hot to even breathe. But it was alright, only that today I'm all sore and every muscle in my body hurts, arms especially. Also, since summer officially started, looks like everybody was spending the weekend on the seashore, since my return trip looked more like a tourist cruise on the highway than actually driving, due to heavy traffic, so that at one point, about in the middle of my journey, I left the highway and voted for the byways. At least I was moving forward.  I hate heavy traffic and I hate drivers who drive the overtaking zone at 90 km/h, when they should be doing 130 km/h.

In other - more splendid news -, my boyfriend decided to buy me an early birthday present and ordered me a Kindle from the USA! We were talking about it for some time now and we were waiting for a UK delivery, but since that has not been an option so far, he just went and ordered it for me from the States! I LOVE reading books, and love owning them, but have absolutely no place to store them, and I hate the libraries, because they never have the book you want. Now I'll be able to have about 3500 books in one device! And no heavy packages for holidays :) How cool is that?

Anyway, my Kindle has just arrived, delivered in a gift-wrap straight to my office! :) Can't wait to come home and start using it! (and I will need to buy it a pretty cover to prevent damages).


So, family news. My brother is getting married in September. We knew that part for some time now, but the latest news is, I am said to be the "best (wo)man" to my brother (not best man, obviously, but having that position in the wedding ceremony). Does that make me a bridesmaid, since that position is entitled to the bride's attendant? I am not sure. We do have a more common title to describe, without the sexes, it means something like a "witness", since you attend them and witness to their wedding. Anyway, my brother has not said a word about it yet, not asked me, for that matter, so I'm officially clueless, but my mom told me he told them. Since he so much loves playing games with me and keeping me in ignorance, I might just play dumb along and pretend surprise and tell him, that he should have told me sooner so that I'd save the money for it! :) And yes, that will leave me quite a few euros short, being a best (wo)man is not cheap! :) so I'll need to get married, too, some day, to make him my Man of Honor to get the money back :))

I have some even more exciting news, that are sadly not mine to share, not for now. But I'm super thrilled about it and I pray all goes well!!

Day 84 - trouble counting

Yeah, days are crazy around here. I don't cook. Not much. Not at all. I'm happy if I have time eating breakfast, usually I oversleep and then run like mad.

Lunch is either a salad (if I do manage to prepare me one) or snacks or maybe we go out. The past two times I settled for a vegetarian plate of fried eggplants, potatoes and some veggie mix of peppers, eggplants and zucchini that didn't look too edible. I keep telling myself I should make me a pot of minestrone that only requires reheating... and then end up eating salad again.

Tomorrow I should try visiting Loving Hut again for a falafel or some rice dish. I hope I make it.

A few days ago I managed to make a chocolate-coconut vegan ice-cream that was delicious and we liked the bowl and all. I'm waiting for temperatures to go up again so I can make it again :)

And today, I stumbled across this recipe for Chocolate Sundae Cupcakes. I mean, isn't this simply mouth-watering?? Wouldn't you just bite into one... or two? The recipe doesn't call for weird ingredients either.

Hm, I think my kitchen may be calling me again... :)

Day 79 - Chow mein

Chow mein is by wikipedia simply a chinese term for a dish of stir-fry noodles. But today I tried Loving Hut's version of vegan chow mein!

The circumstances and my curious nose led the way by the Loving Hut and since I was already there, it felt wrong not to stop and since I already stopped and was hungry, it would have been a sin not to order anything.

Since I couldn't decide what to try as my first Loving Hut dish, I let another lady decide and we both took the same (I only asked to hold the mushrooms).

So this was my lunch today. Yum yum. Fried noodles with red cabbage, zucchini, broccoli, tofu and a whole lot of other things. Remained nicely hot during the ride home and even while eating still. The cook overloaded my lunch box!

But I was brave and finished it all!

Next maybe a vegan kung pao or vegbab :) It's so great to simply have options! Oh, and I absolutely must try their vegan tiramisu (I was short on money today, they only accept cash?!).

Day 78 - discovery of the day

I am not sure how well you are familiar with vegan food chains and franchises. There is one, that I had recently discovered in my hometown. And just as I have taken notice of its existence, it vanished. It was not a restaurant but more of a hut on wheels. I was devastated. Before I even had to chance to try it out, it was simply removed from under my nose.

And then today, I took the bus to work and passed the spot where the hut once stood and, not driving and having time to actually notice things, I saw a banner stating the new location of the hut. And, who knew, I passed it so many times never noticing, that is sounds ridiculous.

The Loving Hut, serving only vegan food with take-away option is now conveniently a 2 minutes ride from office and I have been convincing my colleagues we simply must try their falafel. I'm a bit short on a ride today, but first chance there is, I will stop by and finally enjoy a carefree lunch, not worrying about ingredients!

I will not dig into the history and the story behind Loving Hut, but if you're interested, give it a try.

Day 77 - let the cherries begin

I feel awful. I know I planned this to be a daily dairy and lately it is just not it. Truth is, these days I live on salads and leftovers. And some supplies by my mom. Like today's barley minestrone that proved to be a life-saver when I came home at 4pm after a whole day of seminars.

And these freshly picked organic cherries.

Wouldn't you just dig in and eat them all? :)

I did also survive my first vegan picnic. My boyfriend's family made sure I had plenty of grilled zucchini, leek and seitan for picnic lunch, and all of it was simply delicious! Grilled leek in particular, I must say.

It's day 77 today, if my counting is still correct, I have been losing track. Days simply don't matter anymore. Let's just say I'm almost 3 months into my mission, sticking to it, more and more convinced and going strong. No seconds thoughts in that department.

I also have been having my milk intolerance under control lately, so if I do happen to eat some cheese on, let's say, a pizza (mind you, I still order a cheese-less version, or a piece of milk chocolate there is high possibility I won't be scratching the next day, but I'm not pushing my luck. Well, maybe I am pushing it a little bit.

Day 72 - bruschetta

Oh my, the days just fly by. Having returned from France the days had been more than busy, just a huge amount of work to do. The news is also, that since having moved office location, I do not have the privilege to cook me lunch, as I have been doing the past year. So I'm stuck with sandwiches & salads, lousy restaurant menus or - more often - just a few snacks (apples, bananas, fruit bars,...) until I arrive home and consume a meal that can actually be called food.

And when starving after a whole day at work I do not have time for slow-cooking. But I could, I guess, prepare my meals in advance and just reheat when I get home. We'll see. It's only day 3 on the new location anyway.

Today I brought me a medium salad because while preparing it I actually ran out of salad and therefore a smaller size for lunch. Oh well, I'll figure something out later.

I'm not hungry much these days. Yesterday, for example, I eat breakfast (slice of bread with vegan chocolate spread), then some fruit, and bruschettas when I arrived home along with some pistachio nuts. Today, eggs and salad so far. It shows wonderfully on my body :)

About the bruschetta. Although it categorizes as an appetizer, we often enjoy it as dinner, since we rarely cook dinner. The most generally recognized is the version with tomato topping. You can read more on wiki or google pics for drooling.

BRUSCHETTA
serves: 2-4

1 baguette (250 g)
virgin olive oil
3 tomatoes
1 bell pepper
some fresh basil leaves
salt, pepper
garlic cloves (3-4)

Peel tomatoes. The best way to do it is to boil a pot of water, submerge the tomatoes for a few seconds until the skin starts to peel away, then remove from water and peel the skin off. Remove seeds and dice finely.

Wash & dice bell peppers. I used a red bell pepper, but try other colors, like yellow and green, for extra effect.

In a bowl, mix tomatoes and peppers, top with a drizzle of olive oil, season to taste and add chopped basil leaves. Mix everything well and let it cool in the fridge for half an hour.

Slice the baguette and toast it. When hot, sprinkle with olive oil and rub with crushed garlic cloves. Serve bread hot with a topping of cold tomatoes.

Day 69 - vegetarian home-made tajine

If you've been in Morocco, you'll know what a tajine is. It's basically a one-pot dish made of vegetables (and sometimes meat). To make a tajine you need a special pot from which the dish gets its name. If you do not have such a pot, no worries. You can make it also in a regular iron-cast pot or similar.

The main point is to mix different ingredients and cook them slowly. Keep in mind different vegetables require shorter or longer cooking times.

VEGETARIAN HOME-MADE TAJINE
serves: 3

a few young potatoes, skin and all
2 zucchini
1 tomato
1 bell pepper
a handful of frozen peas
1 onion
3-5 cloves garlic, crushed
salt, pepper
season to taste
spoon of olive oil

Wash the veggies. Leave skin on young potatoes. Chop your veggies roughly, to acquire larger chunks. The harder the veggie, the smaller the chunk!

Heat oil in your cast iron pan. Fry roughly chopped onions, garlic and carrots, until lightly brown and roasted, then sprinkle with some water and let it steam. Remove from pan. In same or different pan roast potatoes until they are almost done. Then, add the roasted onions and carrots and the remaining veggies (zucchini, pepper, peas, tomato...). Season to taste, mix well and let it cook until the veggies turn soft. You can add some water or stock for steaming.