Day 16: Saturday and its Waffles

      Yum! Yum! I could not wait to make waffles. The second day of class we had tasted the Cashew-Date waffles. I was finally able to locate raw cashews, so this morning made the waffles. Phil repeated several times how good they were. A green light breakfast, but next time I need to have more fruit or at least a small smoothy to prevent us from eating too many waffles.

Lunch: Phil had a ham sandwich. He finished the ham lunch meat. Yippee. I am going to leave his lunch alone, but will only be purchasing real meat, rather than processed meat (ham, bologna, salami). He is just going to have to learn to like sliced turkey. Also, because of the hearty breakfast, he only had one sandwich. :-) The same hearty breakfast kept me from being hungry to eat lunch. So...I ate potato chips. :-(

Unfortunately, we fell off the wagon. I purchased a bag of potato chips while shopping hungry at Costco; always a bad, bad move.

Life being what it is, its hard to manage time during the day and add cooking vegan meals into an already full routine. Preparing healthy, tasty meals is time consuming; so different from tossing a frozen pizza in the oven and tossing a salad. Grains and beans have to be cooked. Vegetables and fruits have to be in the fridge, house, or garden. It is challenging. I had a busy afternoon, visiting my mother-in-law, Emily, working on OHAS stuff, and stopping to make some cookies for Emily and Phil. After a week that caught me driving into town every day and working hard on non profit and financial stuff while at home, I gave in to the smells and bought a rotisserie chicken. I know it is nowhere close to the vegan end I aim for, but it is on the yellow food list and I chose to make the rest of the meal vegan. Roasted red potatoes and broccoli.

I see it now, the go to meal. Salad with nuts and beans, roasted red potatoes and roasted vegetables. The roasting recipe I found in from Plant to Plate, was one we tasted a in class as a breakfast dish. Keep that in mind. You can make a large batch, have some for supper, and reheat the rest for breakfast paired with scrambled tofu, Soyriso, or even eggs.

I did make cookies today, first sweet snack we have had in days. Vanishing Oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips and walnuts. To justify, we all need a little sweet diversion every once in a while. Long ago, I realized it was better to make our sweet treats in order to better control what is in them. I generally make my cookies with half whole wheat flour, cut butter in half and exchange canola oil, and cut sugar by 1/2 to 3/4. I like to make oatmeal cookies as they add  lots of relatively low glycemic rolled oats. I also add walnuts, a healthy nut.