Vegan Creamy Green Sauce

1 large bunch of cilantro

1/8 sweet yellow onion

2 cloves garlic

Juice of two lemons

Splash of canola oil

Splash of agave (optional)

Dash of dried oregano

Pink Sea Salt

Black Pepper

Blend all in food processor. Store in mason jar in fridge.Can be served cold or lightly heated.Would be great on salads, sandwiches, potatoes, burritos and just about anything else :)

The Excitement Continues...

So far it is technically day 2 of my new vegan life.  I haven't found sticking to a vegan diet to be as challenging as I had made it out to be.  This is partly because I am getting to eat things that have been off limits to me for years in my former Dr. Atkins Diet years.  I use to snack on cheese almost exclusively.  Now instead I'm reaching for a box of Triscuits and loving every bite.  Drinking unsweetened iced tea has been a great way to satisfy my hunger cravings.  Black tea, green tea, decaf and caffeinated, just whatever I reach for in the pantry.  I've been drinking about 8-10 cups of tea a day.

I'm pretty sure I've identified that my number one reason for becoming vegan is weight loss.  But I also am just super amped about experimenting with new recipes.  As mentioned, food is all I think about.  Well, that and my children and husband, but mostly about food and what kind of wine I'm going to drink.  I've been overweight since I was about age 7, according to my Mom.  There was a time when I was about to give birth to my first child and I toppled the scales at 265 pounds.  For my petite 5'4" frame you can imagine I was pretty big.  Yeah, obviously, 9 months pregnant, but still.  Most strangers were certain I was having twins if not triplets.  To me this is absurd as if you have ever seen most women when they are 9 months pregnant, they are as big as house.  Perhaps it never occurred to these strangers that I was as big as a house before I got pregnant.

I'm one of those women you look at and probably would never guess I weighed over 200 pounds.  This is because (and go ahead and hate me for it) I have excellent proportion in a bod whether I'm 175, 215 or more.  Big bust, decent waist, and, a big ass-butt.  Pardon the pun.

I have never experienced what it feels like to be truly thin.  I think I have weighed over 150 since about 6th grade.  My late Mother used to tell me (she fluctuated weight her whole life but wasn't overweight until her 40s and beyond) that no matter how thin she was, it never made her happier, necessarily.  In the same breath, she'd say there were definite advantages to being smaller in stature and by scale.  Making love, for example, she said was more enjoyable in her smaller frame.  Sounds good to me!

Having always been a bigger girl, and a happy one at that, I can totally understand what my Mom meant.  A person needs to be happy from the inside out and being thin does not, by default, mean you are happy.  In fact, I'd venture to say that I've had some of the happiest moments in life when I was at my heaviest because it wasn't what I weighed that made me happy or sad, but rather how I felt inside.

People in college used to tell me that they never noticed my extra weight because I was one of the most confident and happy people they had ever met.  Props to me for learning to love myself at different stages while the world around me was trying to convince me that if I wasn't thin, I wasn't going to have a happy life.

Alas, the irony, here I am changing my entire life of eating as I know it, mostly because I'm determined to lose weight.  I kind of just want to see what it feels like to weigh sub 150 and enjoying love making more in a smaller frame doesn't sound like a bad idea either.  Luckily I'm married to one of those insanely rare men, who swears up and down he will love me whether I'm 400 pounds or not.

In case you are curious, I currently weigh 197.   10 years ago, I successfully lost about 60 pounds on Atkins (went from 240 to 180) but I never felt like I could be quite as fulfilled or as creative with food as I have been with vegan food thus far.  Craving some Chumbutt yet?  Stay tuned.  We'll get there.

Here is a picture of me a few days before giving birth to my first son. I weighed 265 pounds.

Vegan Live-It, Day One

This week, I decided to become a vegan.  But let's get real, I can't stand labels of any kind (unless I'm reading a package of food) so instead of calling me a vegan, let's call me "Chumbutt".  I promise to reveal the recipe for Chumbutt very soon.  It's a glorious veggie stew you won't be able to live without.  It's something I remember my Mother making for me, especially on cold nights, and it was always served with delicious crusty bread slathered in butter.

Today is the first day I have consumed zero animal products.  I started to transition a few days ago but was still having half n half in my coffee.  Finally I made a trip down to the market and picked up some soy creamer so today is officially day one.  I have been eating meat and animal products for most of my 35 years on planet Earth.  I did have a vegetarian phase in my teenage years but it didn't stick.  My reasons for becoming a vegan are numerous and not really important at this point because I am not trying to preach veganism to anyone.  If you are curious I can say that the primary reason is my health.  I want to be healthier and this is one way I intend to achieve this.  Another key reason for my vegan endeavor is because I absolutely adore food and cooking.  Frankly food is what I think about all the time.  I'm excited to explore vegan cooking and teach myself some new ways to enjoy foods I already love.

Growing up in Humboldt County, eating fresh fruits and vegetables from the local Co-Op and Farmer's Markets were tantamount to my existence.  I had a Mother who was gracious enough to slather them in butter, cheese, mayonaise, or all three, so putting away the veggies was really a non-issue.  And while I may be looking at ways to mimic such flavors on my new pathway in vegan food for myself, I'm a huge proponent of the use of fat in cooking.  I also have three children and a husband who are not going vegan so I will still be purchasing and cooking animal products for them.  Animal products don't gross me out.  I just don't want to eat them anymore, for now.

On this blog you will find entries on all of my vegan cooking endeavors but for the meat eaters and cheese lovers (I'll always be one of those no matter what I'm eating) I will share some of my favorite recipes too.  See, I don't believe there is any ONE right way of eating.  I do believe, though, that we are all ONE.  So regardless of who you are, where you live, or what you like to eat, I believe we are connected somehow.  Albeit perhaps only because we all need to eat something at some point to survive.  And if you are anything like me, you spend some part of your life reading other people's banter and recipes on-line so consider me officially google-able.  It is the internet that will bring us to together, for better or for worse, and our lives will never be the same.  Enjoy!!

Creamy Raspberry Sriracha Dip

I am a dip fanatic.  It occurred to me that in all my days of eating meat, it was pretty much always all about the sauces that coated them.  So in my new vegan life, I decided that if I can have the dip, I can definitely do without the animal that used to be underneath it.  This sauce is pretty spicy but you can tone it down by adding less Sriracha to suit your taste preference.

Creamy Raspberry Sriracha Dip
1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise (I like Vegannaise)
1/8 cup raspberry preserves
1 Tablespoon Sriracha (use 1 teaspoon if you don't like it spicy)
1 small clove garlic (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Whisk ingredients up and put into a bowl.  Taste test for seasoning level.  Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to use.  

Serving suggestion:  pairs well with french fries, as a sandwich spread or coated on fried tofu or seitan.

Makes about 3/4 cup.