Dinner Plan for Week

This is my dinner plan for the coming week. It helps me to have it planned out ahead of time.

Monday: Potato Leek Soup, Salad with Cucumbers and Chickpeas
Tuesday: Bean and Rice Microwave Casserole
Wednesday: Veggie Burger (Amy's Quarter Pounder), Cucumber, Baked Potato
Thursday: Chicken Enchilada Casserole, Green beans
Friday: Leftovers from Thursday
Saturday: Dinner at Pasta Primavera for hubby's bday

Working Mother Magazine

I receive Working Mother Magazine in the mail. I didn't subscribe to it, I don't know where they got my address. It is definitely not a magazine I would ever choose to buy, even though I do work, and do plan to be a mother.

But seriously, now they just have to stop sending me this hateful garbage. Here are my three favorites from the current issue:

An advice column with the headline "Slave-at-Home Mom". Uh oh. A woman wrote in because her neighbor stays at home, and often helps out with the working mother's kids. How can she repay her? The answer begins with "Ah, the ongoing exploitation of the slave-at-home mom." Stop saying that! It finally suggests that you can help stay at home mom have a date night with her husband. This implies that A) Stay at home mom is married, B) She is heterosexual, and C) It is not ok for parents to have arrangements where they help each other out with child-rearing.

An article in the "Ages 3 - 5" section called "When Parents Fib". Ok, great, don't teach your kids to lie, I'm all for that. But it also tells parents that they shouldn't always tell it like it is. For example, "If a child does messy artwork, for example, a parent shouldn't tell him he has no talent." Wow! No they shouldn't, but that's because 3 to 5 years olds MAKE MESSY ARTWORK. Don't they?

Finally, my favorite. This is in an article about educational family vacations. "Judge a Witch Trial" in Salem. "Give kids a feeling for the era's hysteria by joining them as 'jury members' in the first defendant's trial." Oh what fun! This magazine seems to be geared towards upper-middle-class parents, so maybe they have plenty of money to take little Janie to the therapy she may need when she wakes up in the night screaming about women being tortured and drowned and hanged. Family fun! This one's got a fun photo of a woman being dragged through the street. More fun! (I apologize for the extreme blurriness.)

Tomorrow is Henna Day!

I have a goopy bowl of henna and lemon juice marinating on the counter as we speak. Tomorrow I am going to use my henna from .

Over the next several months, my goals are to get my body in good shape, and to try to put natural things in and on my body. I weigh 375 as of last Sunday (down from a high of 381!) After a refreshingly and startlingly frank talk with my ob/gyn last week, I have chosen 240 as my goal wait for pre-pregnancy. This should put me in a much less risky BMI range.

I had been using Feria hair dye, which is gorgeous, but not very natural. I had wanted to try something different to keep my hair red (it's naturally a dullish red), and one day I happened to see the lovely Pure Jeevan post about mehandi.com henna. I will post before and after pictures!

Tomorrow is also weigh-in day. I have been working pretty hard, and I hope the scale is still headed in the right direction. I have some mixed feelings about weight loss, but I need to be healthy for my family, and I do not feel healthy now. I am using the Weight Watchers Simply Filling Technique, which focuses on fresh, healthy food, and small amounts of healthy oils. And I'm using the treadmill and recumbent bike.

Salty Success!

I am not a great veggie eater. I like some veggies very much, others not at all. Kale and I had lately made friends by way of the green smoothie (kale, frozen mango, water, blend, delicious!). But cooked greens? Hate them.

Late last year, I was lucky enough to be invited to a small, excellent raw foods potluck. The hostess had made kale chips in her dehydrator. I had heard of these, lots of people make them, and you can even buy them packaged. They sounded horrible. They tasted great! A salty snack with no bad ingredients, based on a green veggie??

I had wanted to make some myself, but I was afraid I would mess them up. And my dehydrator is not very good. Today I finally made some of my own, and baked them in the oven. I consulted several online recipes, then did this variation of my own.

Soak four big curly kale leaves in a bowl of water. Kale can be super dirty. Rinse and dry them. Tear leaves away from the stem, and tear them in to bite size pieces. Put them in a bowl with one teaspoon olive oil, juice of half a lemon, a sprinkle of salt (I like hawaiian red salt), and a generous sprinkle of spice of your choice. I love Raw Parma Chipotle. Spread on a baking dish. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Check them and realize they have started to burn. Turn oven down to warm, cook for five more minutes. Eat them and be delighted that they seem to fit the potato chip sized hole in your brain.

This makes one big serving.

Weekly Round Up

I had a bad weigh-in last week, I was up four pounds, which is about all I had lost in the last three weeks. I was frustrated, but determined not to give up, like I had before. I talked to my awesome leader about the filling foods technique. Because really I can eat a lot of bad stuff and still be within my 42 daily points. He thought it was a good idea and suggested that I try it for a week.

So I was still thinking about that. Then yesterday I went to the ob/gyn, new doctor. We are trying to conceive, the previous doctor just wanted to give me prescriptions and sent me away. I am 41, and don't have any time to waste at all. New doctor was good but frank. She advised me that (TMI ALERT!) my cycles are irregular because of my size, and she would not recommend I conceive before getting to a BMI of about 40. But, she also examined me and we talked about a lot of questions I had, so I like her.

Then I got back into the car with hubby and melted down. Just sobbed. Very dramatic.

The upside is that we went home, looked at all my materials, and we are doing the Simply Filling plan together. I am hoping like crazy that I will lose the weight in time to get pregnant, but if I don't, I'll be healthier and will be around longer for my hubby.

And I like the SFT plan a lot so far. It makes me eat lots of fruit and veggies. And I can't spend 25 points on chinese food two days before weigh in.

It is Sunday now, and I've been eating this way since Monday evening. I am really looking forward to my weigh-in tomorrow.

Here are some lunch photos of the turkey taco salad we had for lunch.

Sunday Menu Plannning

I'm going to start blogging my dinner menu plans here. It keeps me organized and inspired.

Sunday Night - Coconut Curry Red Lentil Soup (from La Dolce Vegan http://www.amazon.com/Dolce-Vegan-Livin-Made-Easy/dp/1551521873/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267998848&sr=8-1 ) Sarah Kramer's cookbooks are my go-to cookbooks, since I have almost NEVER had a bad recipe from her wonderful books!

Monday Night - Sarah's Hot and Sour Ginger Soup (from Garden of Vegan
) Baked Veggie Egg Roll from Trader Joe's

Tuesday Night - Late night, I have Statistics class until 9:30, get home at about 10:30. Leftover Hot and Sour Soup.

Wednesday Night - Taco Night

Thursday Night - Leftover Taco Night! or Tortilla Soup

Friday Night - Hopefully we are going to a board game night, so we might have to grab dinner out!

The Weight Loss Thing

So, Weight Watchers and I have reconciled. I broke up with them last year, because I was going in and weighing, tracking my points in a half-ass way, and not losing.
And being generally pissy about it.

Now I'm back. What's different? It's dovetailing with a twelve-step program. So far so good. I've lost a couple of pounds so far. A couple a week would be fine with me!

This, then, is my before picture, at 381 pounds (plus one chihuahua).

Fertility Talk

Hubby and I have started the process of getting pregnant. I was six weeks late recently, so thought I might be pregnant. But, I was testing negative on the home pregnancy tests. My cycle has always been pretty regular, maybe one week off occasionally. So I thought, am I pregnant? Have I stopped ovulating?

I found a good doctor based on an internet list of "size friendly ob/gyn's", and he wasn't too far away, and my insurance seems to cover him. He did some tests. I am not pregnant, which is not a surprise, as the doctor thought I was not. I have an elevated thyroid, so I'm going back to see the doctor next week so that we can prescribe meds for that. My FSH was normal, so that means I'm not menopausal, I should still be making eggs. FSH is Follicle Stimulating Hormone, and an elevated level can mean that a woman is nearing menopause.

I also started Metformin last night, which is supposed to help reset my cycle. I am taking 250 mg twice a day, while my body gets used to it. It can wreak havoc on your stomach. On monday, if all is well, I will go up to 500 mg twice a day. Three days after my period starts, I begin Clomid and Prevara.

I started going to the gym with hubby last night to make myself stronger, so hopefully I am going down the right paths. I am also focusing on non-junky foods, good percentage of raw, lots of fruits, veggies, whole grains. Cutting down my caffeine, which is a big challenge for me.

I have a headache today and am congested, wonder if it's my body getting used to the Metformin.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Weekly Dinner Plans are Back!

Lots of things going on. Tomorrow is the beginning of the Raw Fu Whole Fu 100 Day Challenge, hooray!



I'm starting tomorrow using a McDougall meal plan (drmcdougall.com if you want to check him out), but focusing on 50% or more Raw Food! I made dinner plans for the week, which I'll post in a minute. We go shopping about two days at a time, since Trader Joes is on the way home from the train station. Here's a picture of today's shopping! (Milk is for my hubby.)



This week's dinners will be:
Monday: Spicy Tomato Couscous with kidney beans, big salad
Tuesday: Leftovers from Monday
Wednesday: Rainbow Skillet Medley
Thursday: Leftovers from Thursday
Friday: Bean and Corn Enchiladas http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2008nl/jan/favorites.htm
Saturday: Leftovers from Friday
Sunday: Polenta with Mushrooms

DIY Soda for Summer!

Did you ever wish that you had a cheaper, healthier alternative to coke and Diet Coke? Did you know that Coke is the drink of the Death Squad? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HFZ3cH1UAI

Well you do have an alternative. Yes, of course you could drink water, but sometimes it does not hit the spot for me. So what's a thirsty person to do? Easy peasy.

1. Take a mason jar or other container, and put two tea bags in it. Use any tea of your choice. I like the Tazo Passion Tea for this. Fill it with water, place in the fridge and wait two hours or more.

2. Remove tea bags. Now you have a strong concoction that you can use as a sort of soda concentrate base. I use about 1/4 base to 3/4 seltzer water. Pour over ice. You can mix it with non fizzy water if you prefer. Garnish with a slice of citrus if you're feeling fancy.

3. Drink, repeat, be refreshed.

July Issue Rawks!

First, the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale in San Francisco earned $3000 for animal groups last weekend. I am very happy to have donated some whole wheat chocololate chip cookie squares! Kudos to the awesome people who organized it so that people like me could drop off cookies and feel warm and fuzzy all week!

The July Issue of Rawk You Like a Hurricane is shaping up to be exciting! Articles about prenatal yoga with the awesome yogaformommies.com system, waste-free lunch, adding raw food side dishes to healthy vegan dinners, meal planning, Health at Every Size, my break up with the weight loss industry, reviews of delicious Zukay dressing and more! Will I be pregnant before the July issue is complete? Maybe not, but I'll keep you all posted!

Bake Sale Sunday!

I am excited! This weekend, I am baking some vegan chocolate chip cookie bars to take to a vegan bake sale to benefit animals. A year ago, I would have wanted very much to do this, but I would not wanted people to say, "Oh, of course the fat girl made cookies." Now I think "Yeah, the animal-loving girl (who happens to be fat) made cookies because she cares." That makes me very happy. And I'm confident in my cookie bars, because I'm using the chocolate chip cookie bar recipe from How it All Vegan. One year I made these and gave them out in little individual containers for Xmas, and people loved them. They always turn out well. Yay cookies! Yay animals! Yay changing perceptions and rejecting limitations!

I'm also going back to Belly Dance classes in less than a month. This is daunting, but I have always enjoyed it before. I am almost always the biggest girl in the class, but teachers have always been cool (with one notable exception who need not be named).

Have a great weekend everyone. It's Pride Weekend here in San Francisco, and I am proud to be part of the diverse Bay Area. Cuz hey, there are people that think fat people shouldn't have families too. Everyone should have fair treatment.

Dinner Plans for Week of 061509 to 062109

Monday Night - Veggie Fried Quinoa with Baked Veggie Egg Rolls
Tuesday Night - Burnin' Butt Burritos from Garden of Vegan with Corn
Wednesday Night - Veggie Pizza Salad
Thursday Night - Tabbouleh, Hummus and Pita
Friday - Hongshao Dofu with Broccoli and Rice from Please Don't Feed The Bears
Saturday - Black Bean Soup from Moosewood Restaurant
Sunday - Chef's Choice

Mushroom Couscous Success

Woo hoo! I was trying to recreate a mushroom couscous dish that I previously made from a boxed mix. Through the magic of the internet, someone else had already done it! I used way more mushrooms, and Mr. Monster said to post that he RAVED about it. Hooray! http://vegfrugalhousewife.com/2008/05/11/curried-mushroom-couscous/
Thanks vegetarian frugal housewife!!

I also made Sunny Shiitake Carrot Salad from Frank Giglio's Raw For All book. It was delicious. I recommend this book, and will be reviewing it in the next zine. You can check out Frank Giglio here: http://rawfoodfrank.wordpress.com/purchase/

Yoga and Dinner Plans for Week

I picked up a book today called Mega Yoga by Megan Garcia. It's yoga for larger people, with modifications. I did the 30 minute sequence today, and it was good. Challenging, but my muscles feel good. My quadriceps feel like they worked hard. Her website is here if you want to check her out: http://www.megayoga.com/index.php

Dinner Plan for Week of 06/08/09 - 06/14/09

Monday, which is now Mexican Monday! Mexican Pizza, Corn and salad. Mexican Pizza is an old recipe I have in my recipe box. You just cook 3 oz of soy taco crumbles for a minute, add 1/4 c salsa and cook five more minutes. Spread a 6" corn tortilla with 1/2 cup refried beans, top with soy mixture and 2 TBSP cheese (optional, or soy cheese for me). Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Serve topped with 1/2 cup lettuce, 1/2 cup chopped tomato.

Tuesday is Israeli Couscous with mushrooms and broccoli, cooked in veggie broth.

Wednesday is Microwave Lentils and Rice, from Garden of Vegan.

Thursday is Leftovers.

Friday is Big Bowl of Miso Noodle Soup from Garden of Vegan.

Saturday is the WTF "Chik'n" Wings from the PETA book that I didn't get around to making this week.

Sunday is open for chef's choice!

Cooking Up a Storm Saturday

What a lovely Saturday. Woke up late, did yoga with the hubby. Went to farmer's market at BART station, it was only so-so. Made Puttanesca Scramble and toast for breakfast (with Iced coffee of course). Recipe here: http://theppk.com/blog/puttanesca-scramble. We gave it two thumbs up. Didn't take a photo of anything today, just ate it.

Went to dog park, always a good time. There was a very sweet little girl there who was totally in love with all the dogs. She kept calling Gomez and he would jump on her lap and she would squeal and say, "He's a cuddler!" every time.

Came home, chilled out. Made Polenta Croutons (YUM!) and caesar salad with Living Caesar Dressing (both from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan, linked in earlier post). I loved the dressing, hubby not so much. I think I'll definitely make it again to take to work. Also made mixed berry cobbler. Used the recipe from Vegan With a Vengance (altered the peach cobbler recipe). It turned out very well. Lots of cooking and homemade eating today. The link to Vegan with a Vengance is here: http://www.theppk.com/veganwithavengeance.html. I've made several recipes from it, and they were all good. Can't wait to see Isa's new Brunch book.

Then we watched Murder My Sweet on dvd. Excellent.

Movement

Didn't think about calories today. I did think about movement. When I got home, hubby and I did the evening segment of the Plus Size Pilates dvd. Then I rode my recumbent stationary bike for a while. I'm aiming for consistency, for moving more days during the week than not.

No Longer Feeling It ("It" being Weight Watchers)

I'm just not feeling it. The weight watchers leader at my center is one of the nices people I've ever met, but I've been doing weight watchers off and on for about twenty years. I'm just going to stop doing it. I know what to eat, I know that exercising makes me healthy and makes me feel good. I can't keep paying $40 to the weight loss industry. I just don't want to. It's a little scary to "say" this out loud.

Don't Know Beans? Now You DO!

I was able to coax the pictures out of my digital camera, even though its batteries are protesting. Here is my bean photo-essay.

Do I always use dried beans for recipes? Heck no! But if I'm cooking on the weekend, I try to use dried beans. They taste better and you can feel the love. Does it matter where you buy your beans? Yes and no. I'm super in to Rancho Gordo beans right now, which I can buy at the farmer's market down the street from my office. (You can also order them online at their website, which I will link to in just a moment.)

Rancho Gordo heirloom beans are more expensive than grocery store beans. And still less expensive than meat. And they are freshly dried beans. They have not been sitting around on the shelf for a year at the store, after having been warehoused for several years already. And Rancho Gordo does some good things in this world of ours. And I have now used several packages of their beans, and I never find stones or bad beans. But I still check. You can still use grocery store beans with good results, especially if you buy them out of the bulk bin of a busy store. And yes, you can still open a can!

I used the White Tepary Beans, and made White Bean Soup with Rosemary from Dreena Burton's "Eat, Drink and Be Vegan" cookbook.

Thanks to the good people at Rancho Gordo, I now have a great bean-cooking method. I used to just boil them in a pot of water, which technically works. They cook, but they have no sass. Check out their method here. http://ranchogordo.com/html/rg_cook_beans_primer.htm. Buy something while you're there, why don't you? Their pictures are much better than mine, but here are some pictures anyway.

Here is one pound of White Tepary Beans, still in their lovely package. Note how small they are. They will double in size, at least.

This is my version of mirepoix. I don't like onions, so I use leeks instead. Here my veggies are, with garlic, being sauteed in a very small amount of olive oil.

Here is the pot of veggies, with the water added. The beans are now in the bottom of the pot. Watch the magic. (Did you know that you should never add salt until your beans are done cooking? Otherwise, they will not get done!)

The water is not yet at a full boil, but the beautiful beans are swollen with excitement and have rushed to the surface of the water. They are already a lot bigger, and they are not weird and wrinkly like some beans. I think that this is because they are not old.

This is not a great photo, because it was so steamy. Now the beans are done and delightful. The yield from one pound was exactly six cups of beans. Now just drain them and get on with whatever your recipe is!

Dinner Plans for 06/01/09 - 06/07/09

So, this last week threw me a bit of a curveball, mostly because I caught a cold, and I had two audits at work, so I was stressed. I cooked some of my planned meals, but definitely not all.

I did make the Veggie Fried Quinoa, which we both liked a lot. I also made the White Bean Soup with Rosemary, which was very rich and delicious. I modified it a bit, made it slightly lower fat. I used Rancho Gordo White Tepary beans, which I will have a separate post about tomorrow, when I have batteries for the digital camera. I definitely recommend "Eat, Drink and Be Vegan" by Dreena Burton, the book that this soup recipe came from. I ordered it after hearing about it on the Vegan Freak podcast, she had me at "whole chapter on hummuses!" Here's a link if you want to check it out: http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Drink-Be-Vegan-Celebrations/dp/1551522241/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243807827&sr=8-4

The meal plans this week: (As always I have posted links to recipes that appear online already, because I wouldn't ever infringe on a hardworking author's rights.

Monday: Tofu Tacos, from the Dr. McDougall dvd "McDougall made Simple". Recipe here: http://drmcdougall.com/mcdougall_made_easy.htm. For a side dish: roasted corn, tomato and broccoli raw salad with cumin lime dressing. http://veganagogo.com/show/corn-and-radish-salad/

Tuesday: Leftover Tacos and salad

Wednesday: Raunchy Red Lentil Soup from "La Dolce Vegan" by Sarah Kramer. Cucumber and romaine salad as a side dish. This is a great recipe and a fairly regular dish at our house. Easy enough to make on a weeknight without making me swear, tasty, healthy and cheap! Check out her cookbook here: http://www.amazon.com/Dolce-Vegan-Livin-Made-Easy/dp/1551521873/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243808307&sr=1-1

Thursday: Leftover Raunchy Red Lentil Soup and salad

Friday: Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Pizza from "Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan"

Saturday: Caesar salad with Living Caesar Dressing and Polenta Croutons (both from "Eat, Drink and Be Vegan"). Baked Potatoes with fixings.

Sunday: WTF? Wings from the PETA's Vegan College Cookbook, you can check out the book here: https://www.petacatalog.org/prodinfo.asp?number=BK226 I'll serve these with cucumber spears and Raw Ranch Dressing. (Check out that recipe here http://raw100.ning.com/. This is my favorite place to be on the whole internet.)

I was ready to make fun of this book, because I'm kind of jerky that way, and it had a whole section on RAMEN, and I have mixed feelings about PETA. But I cannot make fun of it now that I've made the Dorm Room Shrooms. I cut down the earth balance a little, but they still tasted awesome. And I like to make something slightly junkier on Sundays, because I have my weigh-in Sunday mornings. Speaking of which, I lost one pound this week. Not bad for slacking so much on the dinners.

Next Sunday, I expect better numbers. I am staring my Walk Away the Pounds dvds again tomorrow morning.