The lunch box diet

I found a library book recently called The Lunch Box Diet by Simon Lovell. A Brit, he writes about a nutritious way to lose weight without going hungry. The plan is that you eat a sensible breakfast and dinner (he has advice on that) and for those long hours in between, when you might be at work, or at least out and about, he recommends the lunchbox.

This is a large resealable container into which you put vegetables (at least 5 different ones, making up 60% of your volume), some lean protein food (by which he means meat, fish, beans, nuts, tofu etc) to about 30%, and 10% sauce/dressing. You pile all this stuff into your box, give it a shake, and graze from it throughout the day.

With that in mind, I filled a container with salad and pumpkin seeds and olive oil and lime juice and had half of it before we went hiking and the other half on our return. It worked well. I also had a few Medjool dates for dessert.

Dinner was more salad – I’m really loving mango in my salads at the moment, and fresh ginger too.

A friend and I hit our LYS tonight for Knit and Chat and I have invested in some yarn for a cardigan. More info to follow on that later. We watched a short demo on dyeing yarn with Easter Egg dyes – very fun – of course animal fibres dye easiest which is a pity as it would be great to experiment with dyeing my own yarn and seeing how it looks knitted up.

 

Gluten free bread

A bit of googling for vegan gluten free bread recipes led me to a simple recipe at Hopes Kitchen which I made last night with the aim of sending ds1 off with a loaf this morning. I doubled the recipe and used (sshhhh) maple syrup instead of sugar. I just had a couple of slices this morning and WOW does it exceed my expectations. I was anticipating something gritty that I’d have to force down, but it’s really good. It provides that bread look, smell and mouth feel without the wheat, and is very moist. I will definitely make it again (though the gf flour mix is pretty expensive – I may have to mix my own again).

I’d like to add that I used Namaste Foods Perfect Flour Blend from my local health food store. It has sweet brown rice flour, tapioca flour, arrowroot flour, sorghum flour and xanthan gum, so I didn’t need to add any extra xanthan gum when making this bread.

 

christmas eve

The big dinner is over. We usually celebrate the Solstice and decided to have our feast day on the 24th this year, because it was convenient, and this is what we had.

Nut pâté en croute, mashed yams (and potatoes for the kids), cranberry sauce, stuffing, green beans, simple gravy. Pretty good, in my humble opinion.

Followed by this.

This was an experiment to recreate the trifles of my youth. This one has homemade vanilla cupcakes for the sponge cake, split and sandwiched with raspberry jam. Then canned peaches with some of the juice poured over the cupcakes. Then custard, which I tried to thicken sufficiently with arrowroot to get a firm result, but despite hours of chilling in the fridge it stayed a little wobbly. But I added the Mimicreme anyway, and some hundreds and thousands, which my mum never used as my dad didn’t like cream on things. We were so full afterwards that we only made a dent in the dessert, but there’s always breakfast tomorrow!

Now that I have given the boys their handmade gifts, I can show them to you. Definitely a low-key, low-cost Yule this year, though we are planning to go out to dinner soon.

Nyan cat bookmark for ds3

Stargate coaster for ds2

Space invaders French press cozy for ds1

Best wishes to you all, however you choose to celebrate this time of year.

 

Yule baking and things we’re thankful for

I’m very grateful to be here with the furnace running and the lights on, and the computer functional so I can blog! There was so much hype around December 21st that I wondered whether people would create some sort of event in the absence of a naturally occurring one. That’s not to say that we couldn’t still have a power cut or other type of emergency, so I don’t regret stocking my cold room – it’s very reassuring to have my own mini-mart down there!

I spent hours yesterday baking for today’s Christmas party with friends. The friend who is hosting is cooking about 15 dishes for her guests (I hope it’s a big crowd) and I am taking fruit cake, gingerbread cookies and mini Cornish pasties as my contribution. The fruit cake was really easy – just mix up and put in the oven for 2 hours – so I did it first. The recipe is from a little paperback book called Cranks that was a gift from vegan friends many many years ago. It is falling apart now. Then I made a triple quantity of pastry from Heaven’s Banquet and cooked up a big wok-full of carrots, yams, potatoes, parsnips and peas for the pasty filling. I usually make these by cutting circles out of the pastry with a small plate, but wanted them smaller this time, so used the lid of a large yogurt pot. By the time I’d finished, I had 26 of them, and a lot of filling left over (so I was creative and stuck a savoury crumble topping on it and called it dinner). While the pastry rested and the filling cooled, I made the cookie dough and used various Christmas themed cutters to shape it. They filled three cookie sheets. As soon as the cake came out, the cookies went in. While they baked, the pasties were assembled and as soon as the cookies were done the pasties went in. Considering I hadn’t planned ahead, it all went swimmingly. The last thing into the oven was the savoury crumble and while THAT baked I cooked some potatoes so I could mash them and top them with Daiya for the kids.

It felt really good to sit down after all that.

In the evening, I called the family around and we lit a couple of our new soy candles. As we each lit a wick, we said something we’re thankful for and something that we’re looking forward to.

One thing that we’re all thankful for is that ds1 is safe and well. He was working (for the office furniture company that he occasionally helps out at) Monday and Tuesday which meant getting up really early Monday morning and getting in the three-ton truck (one of the full-time employees was driving). A huge amount of mileage racked up going to the Kootenays, all the way to Cranbrook, stopping at various towns along the way to deliver/install furniture. Tuesday night, late, they’re coming back. They’ve got as far as the Sicamous area, the winter driving conditions are not ideal, and a pick up truck coming the other way goes out of control and slams into the front driver’s side of the truck. Now this is a good size truck, but the impact was heavy enough that the cab was considerably caved in. Ds1 had to help extricate his colleague from the driver’s seat, as the steering wheel and dashboard had been shunted in. People stopped to help and call 911 and they were taken to Salmon Arm hospital.

I was staying up at this time, expecting a call asking me to go and pick ds1 up at the office here in town around midnight. Instead I had a call from him telling me that they were in an ambulance on the way to hospital – needless to say, I was a little shaky.

Tai Chi Man (who works for the same company) got out of bed and drove all the way up to Salmon Arm, hoping to bring both men back home. He brought back our son, but his colleague had to stay in hospital for stitches. The next day he was transported back here for surgery to mend his fractured leg and foot.

The truck has been written off. We’re very glad that the two men inside it were not.

 

 

 

 

 

miscellaneous update #532

I don’t know how many “miscellaneous updates” I have written over the last few years. It probably isn’t 532, though I believe I have written over 800 posts in total (WordPress will tell me when I publish this).

Firstly, dad’s health. Not sure how much I’ve revealed on the blog so far, but if you’ve been reading for a while you know my dad has lung cancer. Well, since my trip to the UK in April and May, his health has declined. He had a CT scan last Friday and is due to meet with the oncologist tomorrow. My family knows the scan results, but he doesn’t, so I will reveal more in a day or two.

Second, a very healthy dessert recipe, which I made for a potluck baby shower at the weekend. Triple Almond Cherry Crumble Squares. I forgot to prebake the base before adding the cherry jam and topping. My squares were quite delicate, but nice all the same. Not overly sweet.

The blanket is now about 22.5 inches long and getting quite heavy. It’s a bit lumpy and bumpy at the moment because of the different weights of yarn. Not sure how I will wash/block it yet.

And as for my beach knitting, I have reached the end of the first ball of Knitpicks Comfy and have Russian-joined the next ball on. The scarf is now about 25 inches long, so obviously I’m anticipating a scarf that is about 50 inches when finished, plus a possible extra bit after blocking.

This yarn is very soft and I am loving to knit with it. My friend oohed and aahed over it yesterday.

The 12 row repeat is very simple to follow. This would be an excellent first lace project.

And yet more miscellaneousness – I mean, miscellany. I haven’t shampooed my hair all week. No, it’s not icky at all. Instead I have been using conditioner only in the shower, massaging it into my scalp and all the way through to the ends. It feels very soft and looks clean. I do still add a little mousse if I want some curl definition. I know many people have stopped using shampoo and I have tried it before, experimenting with baking soda and vinegar, but the conditioner-only thing seems to be working well for now.

And finally…the Fifty Percent Plan. For the last month, I have been applying a new principle. Eating 50% of what I was eating before. Half size smoothies; muesli in a really small bowl with only a quarter cup of oats and half a banana (plus some other stuff); one sandwich; one bagel; one serving of dinner and salad on a small plate. You know you’ve been eating too much when you can cut it in half and don’t feel hungry.

My motivation was that (a) I knew I was eating too much – it was a bad habit, (b) I didn’t want to get any bigger, and (c) I didn’t like feeling overstuffed and uncomfortable after I’d eaten. I haven’t weighed or measured myself but I do feel more comfortable in my clothes. On the occasions that I’ve allowed myself to have an extra bagel, or whatever, I’ve done it consciously, in the full awareness that I don’t need it and I’ll probably regret it later!

Eating mindfully is an important part of this effort. Feeling thankful for the food, not multi-tasking, and eating more slowly all contribute to making it easier to eat less.

So I think that’s us all up to speed. Have a great day!

 

 

35-35-35

Nope, those are not my vital statistics (!) but are my latest simple plan for making bread.

I have been baking and experimenting with bread for many years. I burnt out many a bread machine back in the day and eventually just gave up and started making it by hand. I have come up with a foolproof recipe that always works out well and does not approximate a brick any more!

This is what you do:

Large bowl, big spoon. Cup measure, tablespoon measure. Warm your oven slightly (some people just turn on their oven light. I turn the left hand knob to “bake” but leave the temperature knob at its minimum. When the orange light goes out, I turn it off.) Move oven racks so you have room for bowl. Three large (2 lb) loaf pans. Damp tea towel.

Measure into the bowl:

• 8 cups organic wholewheat flour
• 4 cups organic white (unbleached) flour
• 6 tablespoons organic sugar
• 1 tablespoon Himalayan or seasalt
• 3 tablespoons instant (bread machine) yeast

Stir together, make a well in the centre, and add:

• 3/4 cup organic olive oil
• 6 cups filtered water (warm – I use my kettle to heat to approx 40° C)

Mix until everything is combined. Add a little extra water if necessary – it should be a little sticky, not dry, with no flour left at the bottom of the bowl. Knead briefly, cover bowl with damp tea towel, and place in oven to rise for 35 minutes.

Remove from oven and warm the oven up again while you shape the dough.

Knead dough for a few minutes, flouring your hands and the countertop as necessary. Divide into three equal pieces and knead briefly again. Place in loaf pans (I line mine with baking parchment, or you could oil and flour yours). Place pans in oven, all on the same rack (make sure it’s not left on as you don’t want the oven to be too hot). Don’t cover the dough this time.

Leave to rise for another 35 minutes.

Take pans out and leave them on top of the stove while you preheat the oven to 350°F. When the oven is hot, bake bread for 35 minutes.

As soon as it’s ready, tip loaves onto wire racks to cool. If the bottom is well-browned and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap on the bottom with your knuckle, it’s ready. Leave to cool because if you cut it too soon it will not be as good (in fact, I could have called this my 35-35-35-35 bread because it needs to be left for about half an hour before slicing). That’s it. Really easy. As you can see, it would be a simple matter to divide my quantities by 3 to make one loaf, but it takes the same effort to make three as it does one, and I don’t feel justified in turning on my oven for one loaf of bread. You can always freeze the extra for later if you want. No photos I’m afraid, as currently my dough is in its first rise.

Edited to add: Photo

 

strawberries and “cream” and crochet

Dessert was awesome tonight. I bought strawberries at Costco this afternoon and we had them with this…

Oh wow, it’s good. It’s called Mimiccreme Healthy Top. It tastes like vanilla ice cream, but sweeter and creamier. Ingredients include coconut oil, almonds and cashews and it’s lactose-free, gluten-free, cholesterol-free, non-GMO, vegan and Kosher.  (Not calorie-free, sadly!)

No, I haven’t been paid to advertise this product!

I happened to see it in my local health food store and despite the price (about $7 I think it was, about the same as a large tub of Rice Dream ice cream) thought I’d give it a go. You just chill it, scoop it out into a bowl and whip it up with your electric beaters.  Yum.

So, earlier I mentioned the bag I’d like to make, and these squares are the ones I picked out from the 27 to use. My criteria were that each one had to have some white in it but not as the border.

Then I slipstitched them together with white yarn. Now I know why I prefer light-coloured yarns to work with – figuring out where to poke the hook through on the black and wine edges was tricky. Next I have to figure out how to gather up the two top edges so the size is just right. I did try working into every other stitch, which worked out to 9 stitches per square, but it didn’t pull in enough, so now I am trying just to work a double crochet into each space. That’s only five stitches per square. Hope it works out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

happy 20th birthday

 

My oldest son turned 20 on Saturday. Twenty years! Inconceivable!! Thanks to some friends coming into town and suggesting that we get out and do something, their family and ours had a very pleasant walk in the sunshine at a local park followed by dinner at our favourite restaurant. We would have gone out to dinner anyway, but having other people along made it more special. I didn’t get around to baking until Sunday, when I made these Chai Latte cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes take over the World. Really good!

Well, can’t hang around too long on the computer. Still stuff to do, loose ends to tie up before I leave on Wednesday. My stomach is tying itself up in knots!

 

 

Asian dinner

So once again relying on iPods here. My son’s to take the photo and mine to publish it. He emailed it to me and now I’m blogging about it on my WordPress app!

We were originally going to be having friends over for dinner today but they cancelled for now. However I stuck with the meal plan and made a variety of Asian style dishes.

In a way, it was good to have a sort of “dress rehearsal” so I can plan for the dinner party. This took me an hour and a half from start to finish. If I had guests, I would do more in advance, like make the yeasted dough for the dumplings, cook the rice and chop the vegetables.

This is one meal the boys don’t complain about, though they don’t eat as much of the veg as I’d like.

On the plate, there is
Chinese dumpling (Taiwanese cabbage, mushrooms, bok choy inside)
Fried rice
Vegan Spicy “chicken” (commercial product made from soy in Taiwan)
Stir fried vegetables
Tofu and broccoli

 

raw lasagne

Three days of about 98% raw food so far and feeling great. Today I made raw lasagne  for dinner, not just for me, but for Tai Chi Man too. I planned in the morning, so decided to marinate the zucchini slices so they’d be softer, soaked almonds for the “cheese” layer, and soaked sun dried tomatoes  for the sauce. It all came together very  nicely.

This was adapted from a recipe shared at a Raw Food Workshop I went to a year or so ago. The original has a basil pesto layer too, but alas I had no fresh basil.

Today was more vegetabley than the previous days. I do like my raw chocolate mousse, trail mix, medjool dates and smoothies,  but to balance things out I had a salad for lunch and this lasagne for dinner. A less sweet or calorie-dense day.

I forgot to show you my fridge door yesterday. Took a photo of my poetry magnets because I spent ages sorting them out into nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns etc, then made a few new poems.