Show me what you're working with!

I may be militantly lazy about preparing and cooking/blending/whatever-ing delicious meals, but that doesn't mean I don't have a system. In fact, the only reason I can generally be so lazy about food in my house is because I periodically organize my kitchen and pantry space to my advantage. In fact, let's take a tour!

Here you can see all the rejects from my pantry:

I haven't been able to part with every canned item (yet!) in lieu of fresh choices, but I have made some improvements, as you can see:

 The pantry is on the far side of my generously sized kitchen. Below the pantry is a small counter (not pictured here), and across the room is my work space.


Ah, work space. This is where I blend, chop, and create delicious dishes! Notice the dry erase/bulletin board above my spices where I make all sorts of notes about which recipes I like and what ingredients I need:

Close up on the 'frequency of use' items like protein powder, chia seeds, nuts, et cetera, that I know I need to be able to access quickly, especially in the mornings for smoothies:

There was no new recipe to try today, though my lunch was an excellent pairing of  leftover black beans and mexican-flavored tofu mixed with salsa I made in my blender. Dinner was a black bean burger with half an avocado and one small roma tomato. No pictures of that tonight, since it was so delicious I scarfed it down before I could even think about taking a picture.

I spend a lot of time in my kitchen. Ironically, although I have a dish washer, I am getting to the point where I prefer to hand wash the dishes and wipe down the counters each night rather than let them build up in the sink. When I walk into the kitchen in the morning and it's clean, I derive a sense of immense satisfaction. Although I let the dishes go a few days on occasion, I am finding it so much easier to keep up with the cleaning since I am not using as many pots and pans, which is a blessing.

Now it's off to count up my change and attempt the Yoga for Beginners video, again. One day my head will actually rest on my shin. Until then, it's yoga videos chez moi!

Weekend Wrap Up

I have a confession to make.

This weekend, I ate lots of cheese. And it was delicious.

To be fair, I haven't told myself that I can't ever have cheese. But I am learning how addictive I find it to be. Once I start eating it, I really want to eat it. ALL THE CHEESE!!! I can go without bread and I'm fine. No refined or processed sugar? No big deal. But take away cheese and I am ready to cut a bitch throw down.

And that, my friends, is cause for concern. In my heart of hearts, I really want to clean up my eating. I personally believe that eating dairy isn't doing me any favors, around my midsection or in my arteries and veins. No good can come of this. I don't mean to sound alarmist, but I believe that not kicking my addiction to cheese will be very detrimental to my long term goals and my overall health and wellness. I also believe I have some underlying emotional attachment to cheese. I think if you showed me pictures of cheese while you had my brain attached to some electrodes and were monitoring it, you'd see the same section light up as a drug addict to her drug of choice. I don't want to feel controlled by a desire for unhealthy foods anymore.

It's important information for me to have so I can figure out how to fight back against my learned response to it.

This weekend, I also learned that despite my set backs, I am really proud of myself. I have accomplished some great goals so far, and sometimes I downplay my own progress. I'm not sure if it's the perfectionist in me or what, but that's kinda why I started this blog in the first place.

I need to be reminded that every little victory, no matter how small is worth celebrating.

Just look at this blog-I started off today's entry confessing my food 'sin'. And that kind of attitude will slow my progress.

So I'll end tonight's post with this small joy: I can do 50 sit ups. I do them almost every day. Sometimes I can push myself to do as many as 75 before I just have to give up. And I voluntarily worked out on Saturday since I missed my time on Friday. THAT is nothing short of a miracle.

Oh, and my food processor is back in business. I'm going to make all sorts of delicious foods this week! I might even get around to posting pictures.

A fabulous Friday

I had today off work, which was such a blessing in so many ways. This morning I made yet another delicious smoothie (spinach, banana, raspberries, and carrot!) and cleaned up in the kitchen.

I was sorting through the fridge, trying to figure out what else I needed to use up or toss. It just so happened I had 2 cups of cooked black beans and some diced green peppers that needed used, so I cut this recipe for black bean burgers in half and made 5 fantastic (but vegetarian, not vegan, since I used and egg) burgers.

They were so amazing that I ate one for lunch and had to force myself to put the other 4 away in the freezer for future lunches. Yum!!

Dinner tonight was leftovers from yesterday's recipe: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/quinoa-mushrooms-kale-sweet-potatoes-recipe-00000000019649/index.html

Which was followed by dessert!
http://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/meal-ideas/quick-and-easy-chia-seed-recipes?page=4

Chia seeds. I never thought I'd enjoy them, but I've come to believe that if you put enough chocolate powder in recipes, anything can be delicious! The consistency is somewhat of an adjustment for me, but if that's a way I can have a vegan dessert, I'll take it!

On being militantly lazy

I read a lot of blogs in my free time. I am constantly trolling the internet for delicious and simple vegan recipes. What better way to track my successes than to start yet another blog?!

I cannot be bothered with veganism being complicated. Or any food being complicated. Working my way out of the Standard American Diet is tough. I'm not officially a practicing vegan yet, since I am working on cutting dairy out, and that is going to be nothing short of miraculous.

Going vegan is something I am doing for my own health, physically and emotionally. Like many people, I've had a really unhealthy relationship with food in the past. It has done damage to me physically and emotionally. Enough is enough!

Since January, I've been working to change my relationship with food. I have a goal of losing 32 lbs. by my 32nd birthday at the end of May. However, if I can make it to the weight listed on my driver's license, I'll consider that a major victory!

But along the way, every milestone is worth celebrating.

Tonight's victory: raw 'cream' of asparagus soup. In a blender. With things that I had on hand because I'd read the recipe 8 times and in all of last week's shopping trips without lists, remembered almost everything!

I could eat this soup for the rest of the week. In fact it made enough that I can likely take it to work at least twice. That is, if I don't go back to the kitchen and get the rest of it out of the fridge!

I found the recipe here: http://www.bostonfoodandwhine.com/2009/07/16/raw-cream-of-asparagus-soup/