Vegan Meal #2

Pictures coming soon!

Last night I threw together some Noodles, Spaghetti Sauce, Kidney Beans, Zucchini, Onion, Mushrooms, Asparagus, Bell Pepper, and frozen veggies; Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots, Corn, Peas, Green Beans, & Lima Beans.

The resulting meal was delicious!

Here's how I did it;

I cooked the Noodles as you normally would, mean while I warmed up some olive oil in a skillet. I threw the Asparagus stalks in first to cook for a minute, then I threw the rest of the non-frozen veggies in. I drained the beans and rinsed them off, then added them to the veggies.

I meant to cook the frozen Veggies in with my other veggies, but forgot to throw them in first, so I cooked them separately in boiling water. Once the veggies in the skillet were done, I added some Spaghetti sauce to it. Seeing how I wouldn't have a lot of sauce to put over my noodles, I saved half the jar of Spaghetti sauce and warmed it up in another pan.

Once everything was done, I put the noodles in a bowl, threw in the boiled veggies, put the extra sauce over it, followed by the mixture of Sauce, Beans, & Veggies.

This meal was really good and definitely one I will do several times again! Highly recommend you try it! The Kidney beans were a wonderful addition to it!

My Vegan Food Journal

I found a nice Vegan Food Pyramid, to help me get good balanced nutrition in my day. I also bought a Vitamin B12 supplement yesterday since it's extremely important and hard to get in a Vegan type diet.

I'm noting down everything in a notebook to help me keep on track.

I'll include a picture of it when I get a moment to post it.

Here's a run down of what I have in it:

• *B12 (Where I can mark if I have taken my vitamin for the day or not)
• *Exercise (A spot to keep track of any exercise I've done for the day)
• *Water (A spot to put marks of how many 8oz glasses of water I've drank)
• *Protein (A place to mark how many grams of protein I've eaten)

^I have all of those on the side bar going down

Going across I have:

• *Oils, Fats, Sweets, Salt, & Spices (Serving Size: Use Sparingly)
• *Dairy Substitutes (2-3 Servings)
• *Legumes, Beans, Nuts, & Seeds (2-3 Servings)
• *Veggies (3-6 Servings)
• *Fruit (2-4 Servings)
• *Whole Grains, Rice, Bread, Pasta, & Cereal (6-11 Servings)

For everything I am putting little ( I ) Marks by everything so that at the end of the day I can total them all up.

Example:

Fruit: IIII = 4 Servings for the day.

Today, I had leftovers from last night for lunch, and already have a total of 15 grams of Protien :) I need about 50.

Starting weight for this week is: 140.2

My goal weight is still: 135

Though I am not eating this way to lose weight per say, I'm doing it more for the health benefits and for the fact I haven't enjoyed eating meat in years. I also have an extremely sensitive stomach, so I'm hoping this new diet helps me to feel better and have more energy. However, I do believe it will help me lose weight, so I'll be keeping track of that as we go.

Vegan Meal #1

I was at the store last night in need of something for dinner and decided since we were planning to start our Vegan diet on Monday, I might as well start now. So I grabbed some rice, black beans, a sweet potato, some asparagus, parsley, a mixed bag of frozen Broccoli & Cauliflower, and a mixed bag of corn, peas, green beans, lima beans, and carrots.

I cooked the rice, beans, and sweet potato as I normally would. I cut the asparagus, some onion that I had, and a tomato I had on hand. I warmed up the skillet with some Olive Oil in it and a little bit of a Dry White Wine, then threw in the Asparagus stalks. I let them cook for a minute, then I threw in the frozen veggies. Once the frozen veggies were about ready, I threw in the Asparagus tops, onion, & tomato. I cooked it all until it was ready, then I snipped parsley over the top of the veggies and cooked it for about another minute.

You can see in the picture above how I put it on my plate.

I didn't use any seasonings, salt, or butter in or on anything. I thought it taste wonderful! So many flavors and something I'll definitely do again. Only thing I wish I would have added was a bit of minced garlic to the veggies.

I have an extremely sensitive stomach that most food makes me feel sick, and after eating this I felt Great! It was also very colorful and had a bit of every color in it. An excellent first Vegan meal!

Hubby & I have decided to start this way of eating slowly, so we aren't going to take everything out of our way of eating right away. Right now we are getting rid of meat at dinner time, and switching to Soy milk. We'll cut more out as we go.

Are You Vegan? Share your favorite Vegan Recipes in the comments!

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog. My name is Amy, I am a Professional Dog Trainer & Behavior specialist, a Wife, and a mother to a baby girl. Hobbies include; Spending time with Hubby, Daughter, dogs, training, camping, rafting, snowboarding, wakeboarding, hiking, biking, walking, reading, computer, blogging, writing, making websites, programing, swimming, boating, having fun, and much more!

My Hubby & I recently watched 'Forks over Knives' on Netflix. It was very informative and eye opening on what animal meat is doing to our bodies and had some amazing studies. If you haven't watched it, check it out! So we decided to give a Vegan diet a try. We both love meat, dairy, and all the non-vegan foods, so this could be easier said than done!

I am just getting serious about this today, so I figured I'd start a blog to take you all through our Journey of going Vegan. My goal is to try it for a month and see if we will continue or not at the end of the month. Actually, I'll probably do 2 months since I'll get a new cookbook called Vegan on the Cheap: Great Recipes and Simple Strategies that Save You Time and Money. It said it would arrive between the 18th and August 2nd. So we'll need plenty of time to try out all of their recipes!

I found two helpful blogs, Well Vegan & I Eat Trees to help me out through the process. On the 'Well Vegan' blog I found 5 recipes to give a try next week. We will try grocery shopping this weekend and start out Vegan eating on Monday.

I am excited to try this, though I know I'll still have cravings and such for my normal eating habits, but if I do cave, I'll jump right back on track. A little here and there shouldn't do too much damage.

I've made a special 'Vegan' bookmark folder to bookmark blogs, recipes, and any other helpful advise I find on the internet. This way I can find it nice and quick!

Next week's recipes include;

• Linguine Arrabiata
• Pasta With White Beans & Tomatoes
• Burrito Bowls
• Tortilla Soup With Black Beans
• Chickpea Alfredo

Wish us luck!