Veggin' Out!

I'm actually thoroughly engaged today, spending another full day at my part-time job.  Good thing I like it.

I'm vegging out because I'm into Day 3 of being a vegetarian.  This isn't permanent.  I can't envision my life without chicken wings and the occasional Jr. Whopper.  But for lent, I'm giving up all meat, dairy, wheat and junk food in general.  After a marathon sugar session last Saturday, I knew I needed to get a grip on my eating habits, which really aren't all bad.  I eat tons of healthy food.  The problem is the TONS.  I only cook with olive oil (and now, coconut oil--I thought it was gross, but it's really good!), only eat red meat and pork about once a month, eat lots of fruits and fresh veggies, and only buy whole grain baked goods.  Except for the cookies.  I love cookies. But I also love junk food, especially strawberry fruit snacks, perhaps even more than cookies.

I usually spend a lot of time figuring out what the best start day would be, what social plans I have, and what my schedule looks like in general.  After many years of struggling to get on a healthy eating plan that I will stick with, I've learned that I just have to do it.  I used to have amazing willpower, but I feel like I have basically none left.  Still, a few days ago, I just said "that's it".  It was a Tuesday and I was about a week late on lent, but I just did it.  I literally take it one day at a time.  So now, instead of having 21 days to go, I have 18.5.  Progress.  I may stay on this plan until Easter, but I've given myself an out.  If I choose to have a wing fling on Day 22, I won't beat myself up because there's a Plan B.  No Facebook for a week.  Tough choices.

I know nothing about vegetarian cooking, but I do know about vegetarian eating.  My friend Neeru cooks the most delicious vegetarian food, but she lives too far away for me to stop by her house at dinnertime every night.  For 21 days, I can wing it.  

Day One:

It didn't take long to know that raw fruits and vegetables, with no protein added in wasn't going to work for me.  Headachy, hungry, boring.  By late afternoon, having not eaten anything but about four "Cuties", I cooked a head of cauliflower.  I love hot cereal, and this had that texture that I love.  It was really good.  Cauliflower goes from crunchy snack to soup in about 15 minutes.  I caught it somewhere in between: 

Chopped up with a fork, a little sea salt, black pepper, tumeric
and red pepper flakes.  It was yummy, really.

This kept me full until dinnertime.  I made spaghetti with turkey meatballs for the kids.  Me?  Just spaghetti sauce with "fake" meatballs.  I seriously love these things.  They pretty much saved me today:

Realest fake meat ever.

Lots of hot tea, water and instant decaffeinated coffee helped me hold it together today, but I made a grocery store run after dinner.  

Day Two:

I almost never eat breakfast, so I don't get hungry until around 11.  By eleven, I wasn't even hungry.  I was ravenous.  I ate half a canteloupe.  I ate a bowl of salad.  I wanted bread.  

I bought rice flour awhile back, for no real reason, because I rarely bake from scratch.  What I learned however, is that it's so much better than wheat flour.  My son requested fried chicken one day last week.  "I'm a little tired of baked chicken" says he.  Now, my mom made the meanest fried chicken ever, and even though she stopped about 10 years ago, he's old enough to remember it.  No batter, never.  Just salt, pepper, flour and a brown paper bag.  And Crisco.  Okay, I don't do Crisco.  I don't have "real flour" as she calls it.  I don't even have a brown paper bag.  I have coconut oil, rice flour, and a bowl.  I was completely impressed at the crispiness.  It came out perfectly. My mom was appalled. I fried tilapia for him yesterday, using the same method.  Two thumbs up!  Me?  I had quinoa, tomatoes, and my fake meatballs.  They saved me once again:  

Now back to the story...I wanted bread.

I watched a tutorial on how to make bread from rice flour.  Fried bread.  Indian bread.  I don't know what you call it, but I knew I liked it.  Since I NEVER follow instructions, I took note of what I thought was most important.  Use boiling water, otherwise your dough will be rubbery.  I'm so glad for that one takeaway.  If it wasn't edible, I figured that I'd pay more attention next time.  The tutorial showed flatbreads that came out round, and white, and nice looking.  I forgot to mention that I don't measure either.  So today, Day 3,this is what I did:

About a cup of rice flour (or whatever was left in the bag)

About a half cup of flax meal

About a quarter cup tablespoons of coconut oil

Boiling water

I mixed the dry ingredients, then "cut" the coconut oil in, making a "beady" mixture.  I remember this from 7th grade home ec class.  BTW, I am SO GLAD that this was a requirement back in the day.  I learned so much, and I use what I learned over 40 years ago in Miss Gott's class almost every day.  Next, the boiling water.  I added it slowly, until I was able to form a ball:

Next, I rolled smaller balls of dough, and flattened them out:

Not pretty, I know!

And I cooked them in a hot non-stick skillet coated with cooking spray.  I figured there was enough oil in there.  The result?  Actually, it reminded me a lot of a flat bread that I buy at the Asian Grocery.  It's kind of grainy, which I always took for cornmeal, has unrecognizable vegetables in it, and is slightly sweet.

50 Shades of Gray and all of them are ugly.

Honestly, not bad!  A bottle of water and two of these was breakfast.

This provided the chewy texture that I was missing.  And the carbs.  The color isn't very appetizing, but I could actually eat this even when I'm not on a restricted eating plan.  

Before I cooked up the remainder, I decided to add a little edamame and corn for sweetness and a little bit of moisture.  I also coated the pan with olive oil:

Aliens Attack!

I turned off the heat, and let it "bake" for a few minutes.

Tastes better than it looks!

I added some pink salt and turmeric for taste and to get rid of the ugly gray color.  I can see my kids wanting this, so I hid it.  They have plenty of other things to eat.  I got hungry pretty quickly after eating my 50 Shades of Grey Bread, so I made a smoothie.  Mango juice, banana, and blueberries.  Filling and sweet.  I think I'm good 'til dinner.  My 50 Shades turned Alien Bread may end up as dinner, but I'm hoping to hold out until tomorrow because I think I've had enough bread for today. 

I have a pot of cabbage soup on the stove.  I'm hoping to resist the fake meatball urge tonight.  

If you'd care to join me, just send me a comment.  Strength in numbers, and all that jazz.