Vegetarian Gravy (that tastes like the real thing)

I made this amazing vegetarian gravy for a turkey fry that my professor had at his house. It's really easy to make, and everyone at the turkey fry loved it! (*Warning!! It looks like baby poop at the end, but it is SOOOO delicious! Don't let the way it looks scare you....)

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons nutritional yeast
• 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

 Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour, nutritional yeast, and soy sauce to form a smooth paste. Gradually whisk in the broth. Season with sage, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, stirring constantly, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until thickened. 

 

Pumkin Pie recipe

This is the best pumpkin pie ever!

Here's the original recipe (my modifications are in parenthesis):

• 1 cup sugar (or 3/4 cup agave syrup)
• 1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• one half teaspoon ground ginger
• one half teaspoon salt (optional, I don't use any)
• 4 large eggs (or any equivalent egg replacement)
• 3 cups pumpkin glop (I'll explain below)
• 1.5 cans (12oz each) of evaporated milk (or any non-dairy equivalent, but make sure you don't STRAIGHT substitute with regular milk of any kind)
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract 

To make the pumpkin glop mentioned above, use one small "pie pumpkin" for best results. None of that carving pumpkin silliness. Quarter it, and use an icecream scoop to remove the seeds inside. From here, there are a couple of ways to go about 'cooking' the pumpkin to remove the skin:

1) Place the pumpkin in a bowl with a few inches of water. Microwave for 15-20 covered or until soft.
2) Fill a cookie pan with a few inches of water. Place pumpkin pieces in pan. Roast in the oven at 350 degrees until soft (I don't remember how long this will take).
3) Steam the pumpkin pieces on the stove until soft.
4) This is our favorite method -- pressure cooker. It's like steaming on steroids :)

Any way you chose, after the pumpkin is soft, remove the skin. Mash the pulp into a nice, pureed pumpkin glop.

Combine all the above ingredients and pour into a pie crust. We chose to use a gluten/dairy-free crust we made from New Frontier's, but any crust will do. I fill it almost all the way to the top for a nice, deep pie.

Bake at 425 degrees for the first 15 min. Then turn down to 350 degrees and bake for 50-60 min. Use a knife to check the pie (it should come out clean after stabbing the pie). Let it cool, then enjoy :)

Fortunately, I remembered to take a picture before it was all gone. But only JUST BARELY! It was so stinkin delicious!

I like my pie so covered in whipped cream that you can't even see it. Haha!!

6 pounds!!

While at a friend's house today, I took a quick step on her scale. It has been over a month since I've weighed myself, and honestly I wasn't expecting much. But it turns out that I have lost six pounds in the last month! (That's including the week or two of bad food.) Woo! I am officially at 144 :)

Surprise Diabetic Friendly Lunch

Today, Ryan and I went to Wildflower for lunch. We each got a vegetarian soup and a side of salad. After lunch, Ryan took his insulin, as usual, but only took a small amount as we didn't think he had eaten too many carbs (or hidden sugar in the soup!)

About an hour later, Ryan realized he was going low -- perhaps a little too much insulin. He ate a crap-ton (a very legitimate term for measurement) of fruit, but found that he was still going low! Turns out he didn't need to take any insulin for lunch!

I now have a new favorite lunch spot =)

Forks over Knives

After falling off the band wagon due to a shortage of money two days before a payday, it's been so freakin difficult to get back on! Which surprised me, honestly, because we were genuinely enjoying our food choices. Since bad food eerily resembles a low-grade addiction, I guess it's not terribly surprising that it took some time to get off of it. And sadly, the cheap food is almost always the bad food...

I will say that during this last grocery shopping trip, we've made an effort to improve. Half of our cart consisted of lean meat Turkey burgers (no added sauces or anything), chipotle salmon fillets (unfortunately, they are breaded), BBQ Tilapia fillets (still haven't tried these), and hummus. UN-fortunately, our cart also consisted of baklava and caramel apples. I love me some gourmet sugar!

I would post a picture of the apples and baklava, but they are gone. Already. <oink!>

Last night, Ryan found a video on Netflix called "Forks over Knives". It is definitely on my top ten must-see movies. If you get the chance to watch it, DO! It shows the research of two doctors that over a lifetime discovered that -- ta da! -- a plant-based diet is basically the best cure for every major medical problem in America. And yes, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and weight issues are almost exclusively an American problem. Although we have seen other documentaries emphasizing the importance of a plant-based diet, we still had meat as an essential part of our diet. It was certainly reduced, but it was still a part of at least one meal every day. In America, we've been taught that the only source of protein is meat. "Eat plenty of meat, 'cause you won't get any protein if you don't!!"

This is not the case.

Even in the least protein-filled vegetable (potatoes, in case you were wondering), it is composed of approximately 9-12% protein, which is actually about how much daily protein you need anyway.

Crazy!!


This movie also went into exactly why animal protein is not necessarily healthy, which is something I never quite got a satisfactory answer to. And now I know. But, that's a topic I'll save for another day, seeing as I've ranted enough for one post :)

*Disclaimer: I'm not saying meat is bad. Not at all. But our conception of meat as a nation is wrong. It's not a main dish item. It should be treated as a topping. For flavor, as it were.

In addition to "Forks over Knives", I highly recommend two other movies: "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" (the movie that originally jump started our diet) as well as "Food Matters". If you're the book-reading type, then I highly suggest "Eat to Live". (Yup, Kaysie, we love it!!)

SO, with our new-found motivation, Ryan and I have constructed our diet again, this time almost eliminating meat entirely. If we do eat meat, it will be a topping, or very small side dish. Non of this main course business. We are back on a plant-based diet, consisting of fruits, veggies, grains, beans, and nuts. No gluten, dairy, animal products (including cheese, sadly), processed nastiness, or sugar (perfect right before Halloween... note the sarcasm). Our plan is to be VERY strict for a least a month, not allowing ANY of the "No" items on our list into our diet. That's so we can get all the addictive stuff out of our systems. Then, we can slowly sprinkle a little bit of naughty into the diet. And by sprinkle, I mean you can barely see it.

You are what you eat!

Yay for one pound!

I finally lost another pound :) I am now down to 150 -- woo hoo! Only 10-15lbs to go! *Insert wavering smile*

Ryan and I happened to run low on money this pay period (but at least we got an amazing deal at the ski swap!! :s), so buying healthy food has been a challenge. We got a couple days worth of romaine lettuce and spinach for only about $5 at Sam's Club (Yay for savings!), but we have had to intermingle some $5 pizzas from Little Caesars as well..... so sad...... This being said, it seemed unlikely that I would lose any weight. Gain most likely. I attribute my dropped pound to perhaps being so busy as work and school.

Ryan has found a recent love for plums, strawberries, and nectarines as perfect snack foods. They're some of the easiest snack foods to make too! As a treat, we've occasionally been sprinkling the strawberries with truvia or stevia. Yum.......

(On a random note, I have found that I no longer hate water. I actually crave it! So weird.)

As soon as we get ourselves a camera, I promise I'll start adding pictures. Or maybe just start using the camera on my phone more.....

Welcome!

We have finally created the long-overdue blog where you can follow our progress with eating healthy and (hopefully!) losing weight! Some beginning info:

We started on a raw foods diet about a month and a half ago. We ate raw fruits and veggies for the first two weeks. Ryan managed to lose 12 lbs within the first week and a half! While I was only able to lose about 5 lbs :(

Since then, we have slowly introduced other foods back into our diet: some meat (fish whenever possible), beans, cooked foods, and lots of nuts! We still don't eat any added oil (with the exception of most salad dressings) and limit the amount of processed foods. We're reading the book "Eat to Live", which has been amazing! Read it, when you get the chance!

So, I suppose I will end this for now. I apologize for how boring this first post is -- I've never blogged before :) I expect it to get easier over time....... *optimistic!*