Day Three of the Vegan Challenge
Yesterday I ate:
– 5 buckwheat pancakes with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and 1/2 tsp maple syrup; 1/2 an apple with 1/2 tbsp almond butter
– 1 celery stalk with homemade hummus, 2 figs with 1/2 tbsp almond butter
– Milkshake! I used 1 cup unsweetened chocolate Almond Breeze with 1 frozen banana and a hefty sprinkling of wheat germ and ground flaxseed meal. It was so deliciously perfect.
– 2 slices homemade bread grilled on the George Foreman with homemade hummus, tomato, red pepper, and spinach
– Salad with romaine lettuce, cucumber, broccoli, tomatoes, raisins, chickpeas, 1/2 an apple, sprinkle of wheat germ, balsamic vinegar
– 1 cup quinoa “pilaf”, cooked with sauteed garlic, onion, red and green bell pepper, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, can of mixed beans (chickpeas, red kidney beans, Romano beans, and black-eyed peas), bean sprouts, peas, tomatoes; tossed with red pepper flakes, black pepper, salt, lemon juice, hummus, coriander seed, oregano, marjoram, garlic powder
– 2 apples
– A few mouthfuls of spaghetti squash with marinara sauce
Crepes to Pancakes
I intended on making buckwheat crepes as my very first meal as a vegan, the recipe of which can be found in The Veganomicon but also on SmarterFitter’s blog. Before Tuesday I had never made crepes before. As a result, this is what happened to the first crepe:
This is what happened to the second crepe:
I can’t flip crepes. Evidently. I even tried the old trick of turning the pan upside down on a plate and sliding the crepe back into the pan to cook the other side, like I do with frittatas, but as you can see by the second crepe that trick just didn’t work. So for the remaining batter, I just made smaller crepes that were more flippable. Hence, they became very thin pancakes:
This batter made a huge amount of crepes/pancakes! And they are delicious with fresh fruit and a little agave/maple syrup.
Beans
Yes. I made a dish with beans. And, get this: it tastes good! When they’re combined with so many other vegetables and quinoa, beans are delicious. I’m so glad to have made progress towards enjoying beans. I don’t think I’m quite ready to eat beans alone with nothing else, but that’s okay. I’ll work towards it.
Cheesecake
A few of you have mentioned that you have tasty cheesecake recipes. Please share them! Who knows, maybe we could turn this into a month-long epic journey to find the perfect vegan cheesecake. Yum.
I admire you.
that said, I will eat plain ole beans.
does that count for anything giving I refused to join you in this whole experience? 🙂
Your crepe incident totally reminds me of my own vegan crepe endeavors! hahaha! Too much fun….Looks good anyway!
I’ve tried crepes before (not vegan) and they were hard to turn! Yours sound like they were really delicious!
Perfect cheesecake (3 recipes mentioned):
http://veggiegirlvegan.blogspot.com/search?q=cheesecake
For such a small girl, you sure eat a lot! Your food looks delicious!
Glad the crepe finally worked out, and they look very tasty!
So you enjoyed the beans? I think adding beans to other foods, or mixing them with other foods is a great way to make them taste good, and I’m glad you discovered that!
The crepes sound great! I think if I tried to make big, real crepes mine would end up looking just like yours! 😉
I went to dig up my cheesecake recipe and haven’t been able to find it yet (but I will! I know I kept it!). I did find my vegan tofu pumpkin pie recipe tho so if you need a yummy treat for Thanksgiving…
PS> Very disappointed that the link from VeggieGirl didn’t have any recipes, just pics of stuff she made:(
My husband finds it weird that sometimes I just want a rice and beans dish. I grew up eating very little meat and sometimes I just need to eat “lighter” for a few days in order for my body to re-balance itself.
@Charlotte – Tofu pumpkin pie? Please share! I love pumpkin anything.
MizFit- teach me your way of plain old beans please!
Lia, Diane & Andrea- I should make that my next nutrition challenge. One week to learn how to flip a crepe…
VeggieGirl- love. Got any recipes for them?
Hanlie- hehe, yes, I do eat rather a lot. But all of the above food is estimated at about 1750 calories… I just eat a very wide variety of food because I want to taste everything! This is something I’ll be addressing in a future post, though.
Gina- it really is the best way to learn to like a food, isn’t it- hiding it amongst things you DO like.
Charlotte- ditto the PS. Especially because the pics look SO DELICIOUS! 🙂 And YES to the tofu pumpkin pie!
Asithi- I’m with you. Cravings for things like chicken or steak etc are pretty rare.
HA I have the same feelings about beans!
Sounds like this is going well! Aw poor crepe…still looks delicious! 🙂
trick for flipping crepes is a long “knife”, or something like that. you can’t do it really with some short appliance.
You think those crepes looked funny, you should have seen the first patient I ever operated on 🙂
I’ll paste in a recipe for a dish I had at a friend’s house yesterday–it’s loaded with beans…and it was sooo good! Unfortunately it calls for a little bit of white sugar, but I’m sure you can think of a substitute for it. Or omit it completely.
Belgian Salad
* 1/2 cup EVOO
* 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
* 1/3 cup white sugar
* 1 (15 ounce) can green beans, drained
* 1 (15 ounce) can baby peas, drained
* 1 (15 ounce) can white corn, drained
* 1 (2 ounce) jar pimentos, drained
* 1 cup chopped celery
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 1 (15 ounce can) black beans (optional)
* ½ cup chopped bell pepper (optional)
* salt, pepper and garlic to taste
Heat vinegar, oil & sugar over the stove or in microwave until sugar is dissolved. Let cool and then mix with the rest of the ingredients. Marinate overnight and serve chilled.
HealthySDLiving- yes, they sure are yummy!
Littlemissminny- I was using a spatula… but a long knife might be a good idea. Next time I’ll try that.
Dr. J- ahahahaha EEK!
Cammy- ooh that sounds tasty. I’m cringing at the amount of oil but I bet its SO GOOD. I’m writing this one down.
You’re really making me hungry! Sounds absolutely yummy. I don’t eat a lot of meat or other animal products, but I do eat some. I’m not sure that I could go totally vegan. I do like salmon fillet once a week.
Keep up the good work, and the good blog.
Diane