Our Blooming Plant Based Journey

Mama Howard and Papa Howard's journey to health -- the whole food, plant-based way.

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

Homemade Pizza featuring “sausage”, avocado, mushroom, tomato, white garlic sauce, macadamia “ricotta”, and spinach!

Okay so full disclosure: I made this pizza dough before we set out on our plant based whole food journey and had it in the freezer for a quick meal night. I got the dough from Good Cheap Eats and it thankfully did not include milk or eggs, however this dough doesn’t necessarily meet our goals, since it’s not made with whole wheat, unbleached flour.

Full disclosure part 2: I didn’t read the ingredients on the Lightlife Meatless Sausage until after we ate it, and come to find out -- it contains eggs. This is VERY disappointing because the flavor was superb. If anyone has any suggestions of similar, truly vegan options for sausage, please let me know.

Moving on from the goof ups, this pizza was immaculate. So many flavors combined to create a one of a kind smorgasbord. I loosely used the spinach and macadamia ricotta pizza recipe from But I Could Never Go Vegan, but I also added my own toppings.

I’ll be honest, in the past my idea of pizza, even homemade pizza, even meatless pizza, included a TON of melty cheesy on top. This was a huge sacrifice. I thought I would definitely not enjoy this pizza. 

I. WAS. WRONG. 

Flavor: 8/10 Texture: 10/10  Serving Size: 10/10 Meets Goals: 6/10

[calumns-deactivated20210112]

Bear in mind that veganism is threatening to a lot of people because it makes them feel judged, unkind or uncomfortable even if you haven’t said a word. We are the elephants in the room who can’t help but draw attention to things people would rather ignore and as such, we come with a lot of baggage - our own and that of the people we meet - just by existing. Because of this, there are many people who will try to undercut your veganism, some innocently and some intentionally. Try not to take it so personally but do identify when it’s happening.

Marla - The Vegan Street Blog (via calumns)

To be honest, I planned to be a friendly unjudgy vegan but I've already experienced so much hostility, even jokingly, and it's only been two weeks. It's pretty aggravating.

[working-class-vegan]

I’ve never seen the show “Adam Ruins Everything” until today, and I just watched the episode on nutrition. I was pretty pleased throughout most of the episode, especially as a vegan who has been trying to communicate the same points to people for years. He even covered the whole “milk is super healthy and necessary” thing as being dairy industry propaganda, even siting studies that showed it actually causes osteoporosis. 

I only had two issues with the episode. 

The first was at the end when he said “just listen to your doctor.” Generally, I agree, but not all doctors are well versed in nutrition and can also fall victim to false media hype about fraudulent or unsubstantiated nutritional studies. 

The second was also at the end when he said “just listen to your body.” Though I obviously agree that if you put something in your body that is bad for you, your body will tell you by making you sick, this advice is especially disconcerting because I’ve heard many people claim that their body was telling them to eat some pretty heinous and unhealthy shit. What is usually happening in these cases is that some outside influence, such as advertising, something they smelled in passing, etc. got stuck in their subconscious and started triggering cravings. Hell, it even happens to me all the time. It’s all psychology. But this doesn’t stop people from falling for some pseudoscientific claims like “you must be craving a corn dog because your body needs some nutrient in it!” If you’re really deficient in any specific nutrient, your body will get very sick, and then you will know exactly which nutrient you’re deficient in by the symptoms this sickness displays. 

TL;DR: I’m glad that dismantling the ridiculous arguments that people throw at vegans is now sort of starting to become more mainstream. 

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

Adam Ruins Everything is one of my absolute favorite shows. He's really good at debunking nonsense that we've been force fed by ad campaigns and corrupt politicians.

I think for safety reasons, it's important that he said to listen to your doctor. I realize that most doctors are not thoroughly trained in nutrition science, but they are still our medical doctors. For many people with certain illnesses, taking "TV advice" without consulting a doctor could be life threatening.

Personally though, I think more people need to be made aware just how undertrained or downright untrained our medical doctors are in the human diet and nutrition. The same way your primary care physician might refer you to a dermatologist or a gynocologist or a gastroenteroligst or any other specialty, your doctors should be referring you to nutritionists for your nutritional needs... at least until med school catches up and realizes that they've missed an entire chunk of human health by failing to properly train their students.

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

Last night we made sweet potato tacos from the Forks Over Knives website plus Mexican rice (we just googled a recipe). We didn’t have corn, so we subbed in the rest of our mushrooms. The taco mix was delectable and the sweet potatoes were filling. Obviously sweet potato wedges don’t have the same consistency as taco meat, but I really didn’t miss that texture anyway. There was an explosion of flavor in every bite than can hardly be rivaled by meaty tacos. There was also plenty leftover for lunches etc. We cooked this with no oils or sugars or processed foods (we used store bought corn tortillas but made sure the ingredients were suitable.)

Flavor: 9/10 Texture: 7/10 Serving size: 10/10 Meets goals: 10/10

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

Lunch = Pasta salad with grapes, tomatoes, potatoes, and chopped almonds.

This stuff was delicious. Sweet, savory, crunchy. I subbed tahini for oil and it worked like a charm. Next time I'll use whole wheat noodles.

Flavor: 10/10

Texture: 10/10

Meets goals: 6/10

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

@journeyofamaleseahorse

[smallraisinblog-blog]

If you’re a vegan blog please repost

repost this and I’ll follow you :) I want to find vegan blogs to follow

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Genesis 1:29-30

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

New year’s day meal ❤ Who says vegans can’t eat well?

We used the daily dish’s recipe for cornbread (http://thedailydish.us/bread/happy-herbivores-fat-free-cornbread/) because we had all the ingredients. We subbed out maple syrup with honey. There are plenty of variations on vegan cornbread out there, so I suggest finding the easiest one for you.

The peas soaked overnight in cold water. This morning I threw half an onion, some mushrooms, and garlic in my food processor and finely chopped it. I sautéed it in the skillet (with no oil, onions and garlic create their own juices). I added half a cup of veggie broth and simmered to get some flavor into the broth. Then I added the peas and two and a half more cups of broth. I brought this to a boil and then reduced and simmered for two hours. Salt and pepper to taste of course.

Meanwhile, Papa Howard boiled a head of cabbage in water and veggie broth. We served it this way and added salt and pepper as needed.

All in all a super yummy day 😀

The cornbread does have white flour and white sugar, which doesn’t meet our goals, but this meal pretty much covered everything else.

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

WEEK 2 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

This week is trickier. Since one of the goals is to save money, I tried shopping deals this week. I got a pretty good haul, but I did go over budget. I wanted to spend $35 but I actually spent $43.

I would have stayed on budget, but I got sidetracked by honey, peanut butter, and tahini, which were impromptu purchases.

This week I did not meal plan before shopping, as I find I spend more when trying to stock up for specific recipes than I spend when choosing and adapting recipes to what ingredients we already have. Post shopping meal planning can be more difficult but I’ll take this as a challenge.

Overall, I’m very happy with our grocery haul this week.

Some tips to keep costs down:

1. Read your local store deals and write down the best ones. You can either go to each store, or find a store that price matches (Walmart does).

2. Don’t buy produce that is more than $0.99 per pound.

3. Spread out pricier purchases over weeks instead of all at once.

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

"Nice" Cream Guys... this is literally just two pureed frozen bananas + a little bit of peanut butter (to taste). Feels like soft serve ice cream, tastes like banana pudding. This is what dreams are made of.

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

Breakfast this morning has our house divided. Papa Howard refuses to eat the eggs that we still have in our refrigerator. He sees the eggs. I see dollars spent. I'm boiling the eggs for breakfast. Any leftovers I'm taking to my mom's. Papa Howard's oatmeal is just old fashioned oats, cinnamon, flaxseed, and brown sugar. We are in need of fresh fruit, so I'll be grocery shopping today and I'll show my haul tonight or tomorrow.

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

EASY VEGAN RAMEN

I am in love with Minimalist Baker. She only uses recipes that use ten ingredients or less, take thirty minutes or less, or can go all in one bowl.

This is an amazing, one bowl recipe that hit every spot. Despite that it did not meet every one of our goals, this is one of our absolute favorite dishes so far. We replaced the dehydrated shiitake mushrooms with regular white mushrooms and added more of them since we didn’t have the baby bok choy. I always “eat with caution” when it comes to mushrooms, as I don’t particularly enjoy the sought after earthy, nutty flavor of mushrooms (it kind of tastes like sweat to me). These, however, soaked in the broth alongside ginger, scallions, and garlic and they were melt-in-your-mouth amazing. 

The carrots nearly burned, as you can see in this picture but were otherwise immaculate with the miso glaze. Even the flash fried tofu, which I was a skeptic of, tasted amazing once it soaked in the broth. 

Now: about the goals. Ramen is absolutely a processed, refined carbohydrate. It is not a “whole food” and does not occur naturally in nature. Additionally, this dish is loaded with sodium (as is suspected when cooking with miso and soy sauce). Our version of this recipe gave us one carrot each, with 8-10 mushrooms, and really nothing else in the way of veggies. Plus it called for oils, which we want to minimize our use of. So while vegan, and delicious, (and probably lower in calories than our meat eater meals), this beloved dish will have to be used sparingly in our journey.

What’s the rating??

Flavor: 10/10 Texture: 10/10 Serving Size: 10/10  Meets Goals: 5/10

[organicfeelings]

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

IMPROMPTU GRILL OUT

My aunt and cousin were preparing to return home to Texas, so we were invited over to grill out steaks on their last night in town. The horror! We have barely begun (like we still have cheese and eggs in the refrigerator) and already we are being tempted with steaks!! I quickly sent Papa Howard to the store to grab an eggplant and portabella mushrooms, our “steaks”. To be honest, this impromptu meal was not that great. I’m a skeptic of mushrooms as is, and the exterior of the eggplant ended up tasting like coal. However, I made this spiked sour cream to add to our baked potato and salad, which we ended up loving on the salad and was really not bad on the potato either.

When I discovered that it didn’t taste like sour cream (or really anything), I made a few tweaks, like adding garlic powder, some extra vinegar, and some dried basil. Silken tofu seems to be an EXCELLENT cream base for dressings and sauces.

Due to the impromptu nature of this meal, I won’t rate it, because frankly, it wouldn’t get very good ratings. But hey, it was a learning experience!

My family was surprisingly supportive also, which will certainly make this journey easier.

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

TOFU FETA, SPINACH, & POTATO GRATIN

I broke down and purchased a vegan recipe book, But I Could Never Go Vegan!. This book does not feature all “whole foods” but I find the recipes are adaptable, and helpful for the transition. It addresses your objections and provides recipes to mimic the meat or dairy that you crave.

I found this recipe in the chapter about missing cheese, my biggest complaint with veganism (and even more so with whole foods, as vegan cheese is not considered acceptable due to its high oil content).

This recipe turns extra firm tofu into a feta type “cheese”, and I LOVE feta with spinach, so I was eager to make this dish.

The tofu feta turned out to look quite a lot like feta, and once mixed into the dish, tasted and felt quite a lot like feta! Now, I’m fresh off the dairy, goat cheese, and meat, so I know the difference. But I can see this tofu feta becoming the new “norm” around here. It’s just close enough to appreciate it.

The full meal itself was not much in the way of flavor. The recipe did not call for many spices, which I think the meal would have greatly benefited from. However, by not calling for specific spices, you do have the freedom to season as you see fit. I used four russet potatoes and two pounds of fresh spinach, though the recipe called for a 16 oz bag of frozen spinach.

I also had half a pan left over which has made for a great breakfast on my lazy mornings. I’ve been sprinkling nutritional yeast over the top to give it a nutty flavor and get my B12 dose.

This will definitely make it to our menu again, next time with more seasoning!

So what do I rate this?

Flavor: 6/10 Texture: 10/10 Serving Size: 10/10 Meets Goals: 9/10

[ourbloomingdiet-blog]

MEXICAN FALAFEL BITES

We LOVE Mexican foods and I’ve had a can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas) hanging out in the pantry for quite some time, so I was ecstatic when I found this recipe. We used whole wheat flour, plus wheat bran in place of the coconut flour (we are not a gluten free family). We also replaced the oil with vegetable broth (a common trick among the plant-based community).

Unfortunately, while these balls packed some good flavor, they did not quite crisp up when cooked in vegetable broth alone. I quickly replaced the broth with olive oil and I was able to create a firmer exterior, however the bite sized balls didn’t have quite the crunch or pop that I was looking for. The insides were like mush.

We each had seven “bites” and half a can of corn, which satisfied the hunger well enough. We are used to much larger portions and serving sizes (think 6 oz steak + baked potato + salad, and clearing the plate), but this is something that we want to reduce.

We had this with canned corn and Tostitos salsa, though you could easily create your own salsa and shuck your own corn if you have it laying around.

This one may pop up on our list again as an appetizer, but likely not for a dinner. We will not replace the oil with veggie broth next time, and see if this helps to “crisp” the falafel to poppable, bite sized crunchies.

For now, here are my ratings.

Flavor: 7/10 Texture: 2/10 Serving Size: 6/10 Meets Goals: 5/10