2nd Week of Veganisms

Phewwww!! Had a scare for a moment. Usually the pictures I take during the week I modify them with nice little borders and stuff and then post them here. However, when I transferred those photos over to my computer they disappeared into the abyss of "your file is no longer and has never been here-sorry, you may throw your computer into the street now and laugh every time it gets hit by a car" folder or something. So, I was a bit unhappy by that. Until---duh---it dawned on me that I still had the unpretty originals. Woot! Everybody dance now! \(-0-*)/

Okay, so the pics won't be pretty this week, but at least I have something. Food this week was about the same as last week with the few exceptions you'll see below. I made my usual vegan mozzarella cheese, tortillas, and soy milk from scratch. However I made a few other things that were new to me this week that were interesting. (-_-)...

As a whole this week, I'm still fine. Unfortunately didn't lose any more weight, but I did workout about the same (or less I should say) amount: walked 2hrs 20m, Zumba 2 hr, an hour bike ride, and ran approximately 40 minutes this week.  I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos about different types of vegan foods, diets, and so forth.

Pics:

Homemade tortillas and vegan mozzarella cheese.
Always a winning combination. Though the week coming up I'll limit the tortilla's to one everyday or every other day.

















Soy milk action time!
Here is one version I've used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDdzSr7RqC8
Except now I don't take off the shells of the beans anymore because it was an utter waste of my time and life!

Bean have been soaked and ready for blending

Blending- looks like milk uh?

the most messy process, removing the "chunks"

cook it for at least 30 or else it's super soy beany

Usually I have a small cup of it after it's done. I added cinnamon to this one. 

Breakfast!
Bran Pancakes of Chalky Goodness--Not.
So most of my breakfast this week has been Okonomiyaki. But I messed up and put waaaaaaaay too much celery (my worst enemy) and it just tasted so yucky. By Thursday I was done with it and made tortilla's with some onion and leftover chickpea salad.
However, Saturday morning I had these non-delicious utterly fiber full pancakes of soon to be regret and despair! Hey with enough syrup and peanut butter you can make cardboard taste good right? They needed bananas or flavor or something that resembles delicious. I followed this recipe for Buckwheat pancakes but used bran instead (for some unknown reason) and it's just a no. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwC8bu7qte0 However, I do have leftovers and will eat them because I hate to waste food, unless it's celery.... evil vicious celery....




Lunch!
Tortilla Greatness with Yummy Stuff on Top of them!
Just like I mentioned with breakfast, I'd put a tortilla down with some mock-zerrella cheese, cooked onion, and chickpea salad on top. Minus the onion and add some lettuce was most lunch days.







Broccoli stems with veggie delight!
I found some broccoli stems (they are broccoli without the flower portions- sold here) and decided to stir fry them with carrots, cashews, garlic, and Chinese/Japanese sauces. It was good, but dang make sure you steam the heck out of the broccoli stems or you'll be chewing for days.









Zucchini Spaghetti
So, I found zucchini!!! And totally forgot the millions of recipes I wanted to make with them, if I was to ever find them in this part of the world! So, I tried to make zucchini noodles with tomatoes, mushrooms, chives, fake cheeze, and garlic. It turned out very well- a bit on the sweeter side. I think pepper would have solved all my concerns. So I'm happy with this one!











Out to eat!

Japanese!

So some days we go out to eat. We had Japanese again! Blackwood had a vegan steak which was two portabella  mushrooms of sadness. We had some nommies Indian food (one of our favorites). But the best this week would be our vegetarian restaurant. They had some special fried rice that was entirely green! Apparently they made a sauce from Taiwan cilantro and thus green fried rice. Frank was delighted by this dish. I'm avoiding rice this week to help the whole lose weight process.

sadness

Green Fried Rice

Indian 

Dinner

Last week's special and extra

I had made Takikomi again and threw that together with some sour Chinese cabbage (cabbage cooked in Chinese vinegar and garlic). Along with my usual from last week. Probably a tortilla or two as well. Dinner wasn't bad this week at all, just the same story. 

Snacks

Most of the snacks this week have been the same. Fruit, veggie chips, and nuts. However I made ohagi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qau8jLPltjM an exceptionally messy but fun mochi like thing to make. Mine wasn't the greatest. I also don't eat that much rice so I left like 80% of it in the fridge for a few days and guess what doesn't taste good after a while? ... yup... like hard snowballs of sandpaper nastiness. But it was neat to make.

leche and mangosteen

bags full

veggie chips

banana chocolate soy milkshake

lots of cherries.... shaped like (_|_)

some dates

nuts 

Thanks for reading. Leave any comments/suggestions you'd like. Sorry I haven't made videos in like forever. Maybe I'll get to one soon.

First week as a Vegan on the 90 Day Vegan Challenge

Monday 6/15

Today I discovered a few things. One, people don't really comprehend what vegans eat. I got a lot of "what do you eat now?!" and I responded with "sadness and the tears of lettuce." Actually, my diet today seemed pretty normal. There have been days I've gone vegan without noticing it. However, I tried a newish recipe this morning. I've been making okonomiyaki (a Japanese pancake that has a variety of versions https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=okonomiyaki) since mom arrived last week. I wanted to keep making it because I use a ton of veggies in the recipe. However, subbed out flour with dahl, green bean, and black bean flour (I know!!) and used flaxseeds mixed with water as a sub for egg. I put the mush, I mean, formed a pancake and placed it in the oven (I would usually fry it) and it turned out awesome!!! I have pictures and descriptions below. Usually you add okonomiyaki sauce to the dish (which I have) and mayonnaise. Guess who made vegan mayonnaise and was utterly shocked and surprised by how easy it was (and didn't taste like barf which I had anticipated it to taste like)!!??? Go ahead and guess. I'll wait. Here's the recipe I used: https://youtu.be/5r4BAWXY9sw 

Saturday 6/20

Well, almost a week has gone by and I'll do some fillers now before I put some pictures up. During the week I ate mostly the same thing for breakfast- my okonomiyaki pancake thing. Lunch was either a homemade tortilla or we went out to eat. Dinner was always the same, a chickpea salad with lettuce. Snacks were varied: homemade chickpea chocolate cookie (a protein cookie I had before I ran in the mornings), nuts, fruit, and veggie chips. I made a few things vegan: mayonnaise and mozzarella cheese. I also watched toooo many vegan videos on YouTube and discovered a culture I both like and dislike. There's a lot of "Be Vegan so you can Be Skinny" and less of the whole do it because it's the right thing to do. There are a lot of weird scummy people out there (no matter the genre) and I'll have to learn to avoid those. I also learned to avoid vegan videos involving "buy the vegan cheese/product from your local store so you can make this blah" or some cross breed of raw cooking and vegan cooking. Like I have that option of purchasing said vegan products or making "raw" stuff.  However, I found a few I'll keep watching for inspiration/ideas. I also found a lot of neat testimonials on this diet as well.

I have to be honest. I feel different. There's a few things I think are associated with this. I've eaten almost no processed sugar (except what might be in my okonomiyaki sauce and veggie chips). I've also had a lot less oils (I only cook with olive oils). I've been avoiding treats (latte's, cakes, cookies, and so forth) due to the fact it might not be vegan. I've not starved myself at all. Actually, because I've been making my own tortilla's and turning them into vegan pizza's I've felt that maybe I've been eating more carbs than usual (I'm not sure though). On top of eating vegan I've done my usual exercise routine (some type of running, walking, or other thing during the week). This week I've clocked about 48 minutes of running, 2 hours of Zumba classes with my bud Zetty, 1 hour of home Zumba, and about an hour+ walk in. I've lost 3lbs this week, so basically I feel pretty good both mentally and physically. Hoping to keep this momentum up!

Pictures of the Week:

Okonomiyaki (Jenna's Vegan Version) 
I left a link above for you to see the general gist of this pancake. I basically shredded a lot of veggies together (broccoli stalks, carrots, celery -yuck-, cabbage, sweet potato, probably chives) and mushed it in a batter made from flaxseeds, dahl flour, green bean flour, and black bean flour- probably some rice flower with water. Every morning I'd take the mush, throw it in the oven for 30 minutes, then cover it with vegan mayo and okonomiyaki sauce.
I've left this description vague because you can do whatever you want to it. Next week it'll look different as well.




Vegan Mayo
Again I think I have a link above about this. It truly does taste good. There were a few other versions of vegan mayo, especially in a cookbook called Afro-Vegan. I haven't tried any of their recipes, but watched a video with someone who tried it. I think I have a lot of things already to try before I get experimental.

Vegan Mozzarella Cheese

I've been making this cheese sauce for a while now. It's hella good. Even my mom was shocked by it's chemistry!! It magically turns into cheese. She stated it'd be good as a dipping sauce. I use it for anything that would need mozzarella sauce. Annnnnd it's like half the calories and taste pretty darn good. Suggest adding some nutritional yeast to it as well. Here's the recipe: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-recipe/how-to-make-fresh-vegan-moxarella-cheese/

Vegan Pizza

Okay there's a few things happening here. First I found two videos regarding homemade tortillas that are a perfect crust for this pizza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmvr1ql2xAs & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVx1Fnqimmo  at least in my mind. I used dahl, green bean, and black bean flour, only because I found it in the store and was like WHAT THE and needed to use it. It gives it a lot of flavoring BUT doesn't make it work like a tortilla- hence the pizza crust. The sauce was leftover from when we had a spaghetti night dinner and of course the vegan mozzarella cheese was used. I've now had this twice. It's filling in a craving I didn't even know I had. I keep wanting more of this!! Thinking of making a mushroom sauce next time. Not sure yet.

Out to eat! Chinese Vegetarian and Japanese Food!

On Wednesday we went to our local vegetarian (mostly vegan) spot in town. All of their food is vegan, except occasionally they will serve a tea egg. I had something special though: zongzi http://i2.w.yun.hjfile.cn/slide/201305/2zongzi_1476.jpg . Dragon Boat Festival is today and traditionally zongzi's are served. They are steamed rice in a banana leaf. I usually despise them, however this restaurant made the first kind I've ever liked!! Nummmys! 

Chickpea Salad with Lettuce: Dinner Time
I'm into convenience but I'm not really into salad's, however guess which two go with each other!? The chickpea salad I made with two cans of chick peas, a red pepper (but it was a green one this week-disappointed), and one onion. I mixed it with a balsamic vinegar, mustard, and olive oil combo and let is sit overnight. This is what I added to the lettuce and tomatoes. Easy, quick, and full of protein. This worked well when coming home from Zumba.
Yesterday I modified it by adding one of my homemade tortilla's to the mess.... (it was a mess) and it was utterly delicious!!!

Snacks

Most were healthy-ish: nuts, fruit, smoothies, vegan chips, and my homemade chickpea n' chocolate protein cookie pre-run snack. Just look up any chickpea chocolate chip cookie recipe and go for it. 

Saturday Morning Breakfast: Tofu with Stuff

I wanted to make waffles, but I was lazy, so I made Frank some eggs and was like hmmmm.... substitute... obviously tofu! So I made a tortilla from yesterday's dough and threw stuff on top of it. I called it breakfast and consumed it happily. Supper good!!














Takikomi Gohan (non-fried rice fried rice)
Mine is a little different than Ryoya's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePqGCIyV_BE
Basically you put everything you'd put in your fried rice pan into your rice maker with your rice. I also added steamed broccoli to the steamer that fits snuggly on top of the rice cooker. I gave Frank a bowl with a fried egg on it, mine was straight out of the cooker. I also took the broccoli off and satay-ed it for a minute with garlic and some extra sauce. I was still hungry so I had some watermelon for dessert.



See ya next week!

90 Day Vegan Challenge

It's been a few months since I posted anything, including anything on YouTube. I had a feeling that would occur. I literally have videos sitting on my desktop unedited with full blogs ready to go. Well these things happen.  However, I have a new motivation which would allow me to utilize this blog post more often (and maybe even inspire others- or just keep me focused).

As most of you know I'm a vegetarian. I've been a vegetarian for almost 22 years. Over the years though I've become more interested in becoming vegan, however I've lived abroad in countries that weren't always vegetarian friendly (let alone vegan friendly). That didn't mean they didn't accept what I was (most Buddhist are vegetarians/vegans in this part of the world). What I meant was finding and supplying myself with "vegan supplies" in general would be hard to come by. Keeping it vegetarian, in my mind, was easiest. I also repeated become/becoming and supplying/supplies... hate that!!!

Well, something changed. I've been watching on YouTube a Japanese vegan chef named Ryoya:  Peaceful Cuisine ☆ Ryoya. His videos are both very easy to follow and surprisingly beautiful. Japan is one of those countries where seafood is everywhere, even in it's noodles. I had to make sure I knew how to say I was vegetarian when I went out to eat and keep an eye out for vegetarian options. From it's appearance I thought I'd really be working hard to maintain just a vegetarian diet. However, Ryoya has been vegan for seven years and has even stated he finds that Japan is an easy place to be vegan. Well, mind explosion. If it can be done in Japan, it can be done here in Malaysia.

In Malaysia there's a lot of distractions (cakes, lattes, food of sugary-ness). Losing weight here is a pain in the (_|_). Ryoya had a small two/ three part episode called 90 Days Vegetarian Diet Challenge (though it was really vegan). The man in the video ended up losing a lot of weight and felt pretty healthy on this diet. I began to think that I could attempt a 90 Day Vegan Challenge (my own version maybe) and see where it could lead.

So, after some planning and help from my sweety (thanks for the vegan book downloads)! The 90 Day Vegan Challenge begins tomorrow (Monday the 15th). I will completely eliminate dairy and eggs from my already vegetarian diet and go full vegan or Super Saiyan (whatever comes first). During this process I will take pictures of the food I eat during and keep a log on the amount of exercise I do.  So, in essence I'm still keeping this a food blog, but also like a diet tracker (just not an annoying one). I will post weekly my thoughts during the week and maybe a few recipes. Dang!!! Week/weekly! Stop this!

I do hope this is a successful challenge for myself. There's a lot to vegan-ism (it's not just a diet) that I hope to learn about and be successful with. I hate using the same word twice after I've already used it... successful........ stop!