French lentils make me happy

They're small, speckled and wonderful. 

This morning, my sister came over and the wee tot decided that Auntie was the greatest in the world.  I took the opportunity to make a lentil salad for my lunches this week and some gingery  marinated chickpeas for later in the week.

This lentil salad recipe was given to me by a friend's father, an old hippy who seriously sounds exactly like Mitch Cohen (Eugene Levy) in A Mighty Wind.

So.  Take some lentils (for a lot of salad, I do one cup dried).  Put them in a pot with a lot of water.  Boil for 20 minutes, or until they're tender.

Drain and rinse.

Put lentils in a bowl with some olive oil and vinegar (Mitch Cohen told me to use red wine vinegar. Later, he told his daughter to use balsamic vinegar.  We're pretty sure he told a third party to use lemon juice.  This time around, I used rice vinegar because that's what I had on hand).  I'm a vinegar fiend so I used a lot.  If you're not, don't.

If you have time, let that cool and marinate for a while.  If you're in a hurry, chop up the scallions right away (use a good handful) and toss into the salad (do this later if you're marinating it).

At this point you can add salt and pepper and be done.

OR
You can add in some:
parsley
tomatoes
walnuts
cucumber
zucchini
red pepper
whatever other vegetable you want.

So this makes a good lunch salad.  Leftovers can be put into a pita and immediately eaten.  I know from experience that you don't want to put the lentils in the pita and then wait around until lunch 'cause that's how you end up with a soggy sandwich.

Quick!

Quick! You have a toddler who clings to you like life itself and wants you to play with playdoh. Your husband has gone to the grocery store for much needed supplies.  And it's 5:45pm, dinner must be made....what do you do?

Okay, so first, you pull out a box of mac and cheese (don't judge), thinking you don't want a food struggle with your toddler, it's fast and at least it gets some much needed food in her system.  Plus, if you use yogurt instead of milk and butter and then add in some peas, you can at least pretend its healthier than intended.
And you can make something for yourself later on.

But your toddler shows no interest in mac and cheese.  And you still have to figure out something for dinner for yourself at the very least

Time to rummage through the cupboards and fridge.
You find
some Israeli couscous
cans of diced tomatoes
onions
chickpeas
fresh spinach
and a tofurky Italian-style sausage

This could be a meal!

Put some water on to boil, pour in couscous.

Slice the sausage, add some oil to a pan and heat.
While the sausage is browning, chop up some onion.  NOTE: watch the toddler while you do, otherwise she's going to shove her stepstool over to the cutting board and grab the knife and pretend to cut up her own onion.  Why? Because you were foolish and let her help you cut up potatoes last week and she remembers all about knives now.  Should you be less than vigilant in this respect, at least review the lesson of "Knives are very sharp, don't touch them unless mommy helps you." She may still want to help you chop onions. But at least you're managing to watch the toddler and cook dinner at the same time.

Throw onions in the pan with the sausage.

Saute onions until brown.

The couscous is probably done, so drain it.  All the while making sure that your toddler does not shove her step stool over to the counter top near the stove.  SHOULD SHE DO THIS, remind her that stoves are hot and should not be touched.  Comfort her and run her fingers under cold water when she quickly touches the stove anyway.
Add in a can of diced tomatoes, the couscous and some dried garlic 'cause it's a lot easier than chopping up fresh garlic while keeping an eye on that curious toddler of yours.

Order the dog out of the kitchen. Her digestive system can't handle anything other than her kibble.

Lock cat in the bathroom to keep him from stalking the dog.

Add in chickpeas and some italian style spices (although I was thinking that some smoked paprika would have been nice too)

Cook for a while

Keep the toddler from opening the box of mac and cheese, which she suddenly now wants.  She really only wants it to throw dried macaroni noodles at the floor to feed the dog.

Order the dog out of the kitchen again.

Order the dog out of the kitchen again

Really mean it this time.

Swear that your husband should never leave you alone so long during dinner prep again.

Eat.

You can let the cat out of the bathroom now, but he'll only jump on the table and try to eat your couscous when you're not looking.

(No toddlers were injured in the making of this recipe.)

On cold, thinking ahead and soup

I have to admit, I never really considered soups until I became a mother.  Yeah, they were good and something to go in the crockpot, but I really, really didn't have as deep appreciation for them as I do now.

I have a two year old who will not eat, which is normal for her age.  I'm convinced she survives on breastmilk (yes, we're still nursing), hotdogs and air.  But you stick a bowl of lentil soup in front of her and she will scarf it down like there's no tomorrow.

I work full time. So my evening time is limited and rather structured.  As much as I like cooking, I don't always want to spend my entire evening in the kitchen chopping and cooking and trying to divide my attention between that and paying attention to my daughter.

Which is where soups and stews come into play.  I can make a soup on a Sunday when I have extra time.  Heck, sometimes, I make two. Pour 1-2 serving sizes into quart sized freezer bags and freeze them flat.  And I have quick meals for the week that EVERYONE in my house will eat.  And the best part is, all I have to do is come home, put some rice in the rice cooker and then go play with Dria until the rice is done.

Last night, while it wasn't a weekend, I did have a little extra time in the evening.  So I sent Ry off to play with Dria and I heated up some pasta and sauce for our dinner (it was a husband and daughter request), and at the same time, I prepped one of our favorite soups from <a href=http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/coconut-red-lentil-soup-recipe.html>101 Cookbooks</a>.

Of course, I ended up making some changes to it because I was still a bit pressed for time and not terribly inclined to dirty every single pan in the kitchen.
Here's my version:

1 cup / 7 oz / 200g yellow split peas
1 cup 7 oz / 200g red split lentils (masoor dal)
7 cups / 1.6 liters water
2 medium carrot, chopped (original recipe calls for 1 carrot, but we had a lot of carrots and hey, any way I can get extra veggies into Dria is A Good Thing. Also, it calls for a 1/2 inch dice, but my knife skills in the kitchen are limited and slow and I was in a hurry.  So we had chunky chops of veggies)
2 tablespoons fresh peeled and minced ginger
2 tablespoons curry powder
8 green onions (scallions), thinly sliced
1/3 cup / 1.5 oz / 45g golden raisins
1/3 / 80 ml cup tomato paste
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
2 teaspoons salt (or you know, to taste)


Give the split peas and lentils a good rinse - until they no longer put off murky water. Place them in an extra-large soup pot, cover with the water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and add the carrot and 1/4 of the ginger. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the split peas are soft.


So here's where I changed it.  The original recipe calls for toasting the curry powder and then setting aside and then sauting the green onion and raisins and tomato paste in butter in another pan.  However, like I said, my time is limited and the fewer pans I have to wash, the happier I am.  So, really, while the lentils and peas were simmering, I chopped up the green onions.  Once the lentils were soft, I dumped in the rest of the ingredients and simmered another 20 minutes or so, until everything was good and thick.
If you have time, by all means, go the extra steps and toast and saute, but I am currently eating a butterless, untoasted and unsauteed version of this soup and it's still knock your socks off good.


And it turns out, it was a really good idea for me to have made this soup last night.  This morning, we woke up shivering in our bed (Well....Dria woke up around 3am and wouldn't settle back down, so I brought her back into bed with me because her room was FREEZING.  Since she was sleeping between me and Ryan, she was actually toasty warm.  Ry and I were cold). There's apparently an air bubble in the radiator pipes.  And due to some complications with a stripped screw, he potentially has a big project to work on tonight.  So now, instead of trying to entertain Dria, keep Sally from chasing the cats, keep the cats from scaring the bejeezus out of Sally when she gets too close AND making dinner, I can put on some rice, reheat the soup on the stove and play with Dria until everything is ready.  YAY me!

The advantage

So one major advantage I'm finding to this vegan experiment is that I'm nibbling on junk food in the office less.  And, let me tell you, for all that I work in public health with obesity and nutrition researchers, there's a hell of a lot of candy and other junk food around here.  Freely accessible on nearly everyone's desk.
And none of it is vegan.  So while I do really want the york peppermint patties that are available the next cube over, I won't be touching them. And as much as I adore york peppermint patties, I'm glad to have this extra layer of excuses not to eat them because I've noticed for a while that my junk food eating was a bit out of control. And this month is helping reign that in.  In fact, I'd be surprised if I didn't lose a pound or two this month just due to avoiding candy.

Of course, that all goes out the window if I ever had time to bake up some vegan cookies...

The first weekend

Okay, so things are going pretty good.  Over the weekend, I went out on a REAL ACTUAL DATE with my REAL ACTUAL HUSBAND.  Not that we were excited about that in anyway.  We like to play it cool.

At Ry's request, we went to The Good Earth.  I do have to say, for it being awarded best vegetarian restaurant in the Twin Cities, there's surprisingly little vegan fare.  I ended up having a butternut squash and pear risotto, but had to request no goat cheese on it.  OMG GUYS, IT WAS TASTY STUFF ALL THE SAME! And there was a blood orange sorbetto which was so very full of win.

I do have to confess that I ended up drinking a glass of hot chocolate with my daughter on Sunday.  See, we had been outside for quite some time, playing chase up and down the street (it was that sort of day) and it was time to come in and we have a tradition of making hot chocolate after we've been outside.  Without thinking about it, I ended up pouring 2 cups of cows milk into the pan instead of 1 cup and getting out a second pan for 1 cup of my almond milk and coco powder.  And Dria was so very eager that someone else should be drinking "coco hot" too, and no one else in the house wanted any.  So.  I had a cup myself since I have a hard time saying no when Dria says "You want cocoa hot, too?"  Next time, I'll remember.

Todays meals: bagel w/ the last of the walnut/pecan pate, tomatoes, spinach and hummus (hummus went on the other half). Apple slices (which got accidentally coated in hummus).
Lunch is tofurky deli slices on ciabatta, w/ parsley pesto and more dr. cow aged cashew cheese. w/ apple and banana.
Dinner...I dunno.  I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to go to the special chinese calligraphy class at the dojo or go home and make coconut red lentil soup

Day 3!

Breakfast:
I decided against miso soup today and changed it up and had some granola (Kirkland's Ancient Grains.  Thank you for the tip, Celine) with almond milk instead.  I actually ended up waking up way before anyone else in the house (which is a miracle since my dad is in town and he wakes with the metaphorical chickens), so I got to read a book and eat a bowl of cereal in the relative quiet.  Well, mostly quiet.  I had to convince our dog Sally that despite her attempts for the last year and a half, the cats STILL don't want to play with her.

And I brought to work an onion bagel topped with walnut/pecan pate (from the coop) on one half and my homemade parsley walnut pesto on the other and some grape tomatoes ('cause I miss summer).

Lunch was leftovers from Mai Village, some clementines, half an avocado and more grape tomatoes.  And some almonds and cashews.

I really want a cookie right now.  :P

I'm mildly worried that I didn't bring enough to eat today. Halfway through my lunch prep, Dria woke up and insisted that I play with play doh with her until Ry got out of the shower.

So...that happened

I suffer from migraines.  It's been a problem since puberty, although has increased since I hit my 20s and started working for a living.
In general, I can keep them under control by eating regular, well balanced meals and sleeping enough.  However, I have a toddler, so both of those things sometimes get thrown out the window.

Like today.

I should have grabbed a small thing to eat before I got to work instead of waiting to eat breakfast until I was sitting at my desk. Usually, I can wait until I get to work to eat, but some days, not so much.
So I've had a persistent headache all morning. Normally, I can get rid of these by having a cup of coffee.  I'm normally a green tea sort of girl, but damn it, sometimes I need the caffeine.  And when this happens at work, I can usually use a splash of a coworker's half and half since I don't drink coffee regularly enough to justify bringing in my own creamer.  But, vegan experiment month.  This makes borrowing creamer from coworkers harder, since there's not a lot of silk creamer floating around the office (which, considering how many vegetarians are here, is actually kind of surprising).
So I braved the cold and walked to the coffee shop that's two blocks away.  They have really good coffee and soy milk!  YAY!  Only, I really only need a small cup of it.  And I have no cash. And there's a $3 minimum charge on credit card purchases. And none of their sandwiches or pastries are vegan.  And I already have a soup for lunch.
But they did have bananas. Hooray for more fruit!  Total purchase came to $2.94
The amount of effort that it took to find coffee to relieve my headache is kind of amusing me today.  Tonight, I'm getting my own soy creamer for work.  :P

Also: I still have a headache.

Oh hai!

This blog is really green.

Day 1, continued. The Oops factor.

Apparently I forgot to mention to Ry that I was going vegan this month.  I swear I remember telling him, but it was two weeks ago when he was fairly delirious with the flu (so he claims).  I'm pretty sure he was lucid when I told him, but well...he doesn't remember.  Here's why I'm married to an awesome guy:

"Does this mean that I can buy cheese and it won't mysteriously disappear in a matter of days?" he asked

Yep.

"Hooray!"

And that was that.

Anyway.  Dinner last night was tomato soup and a parsley and walnut pesto sandwich with grape tomatoes and Dr. Cow aged cashew cheese (I will eventually get around to telling the story about that later). 
My only mistake yesterday was just as I was putting the wee tot to bed.  She asked for some crackers, which is fair since she didn't eat much dinner. I brought her some animal crackers and, true to form, she immediately turned her nose up at them. "No! I want fishy crackers!" I started nibbling on animal crackers on my way down the stairs to get our little imp some goldfish crackers.  I got through two before I realized that they probably weren't vegan.  D'oh.

The great experiment, Day 1

So I guess I should explain how this came about and introduce myself and all of that.
I've been vegetarian since...(thinks back), 2005(?) and while that started out as a month long experiment too for fairly flippant reasons, I decided to stick with it because I was increasingly aware that there really is no honor in the way that the vast majority of animals are raised for slaughter in this country and quite frankly, I cannot afford free range, local, grass fed meat.  Beans and rice just seemed like the saner option.  However, that created a dilemma for me, as dairy cows and egg laying chickens are raised in the same conditions and by staying vegetarian I've been still participating in the same system.
However, I stuck to the middle ground of vegetarianism mainly for easy of use.  My family freaked out at the whole "vegetarian" thing, my husband was happily following me down the vegetarian path but had some health problems and decided he felt better with some meat in his diet (and I'm not pressuring him on that). 
So for years, I've been vegetarian while flirting with veganism.
My last serious flirtation was derailed once I found out I was pregnant with my daughter.  The idea of planning for this new little life and the whole mind change than came with it caused me to feel too overwhelmed with the idea of a diet change as well.
So, anyway.  Here we are.  Two years (and nine months) later, I'm ready to try this out again.  I'm not guaranteeing that this will be forever. But I feel like I keep leaning towards veganism so heavily that I may as well embrace it whole heartedly at least for a month to see where it leads.

I should point out that I live with an omni husband and daughter who will not be following me on this.  The husband because he can make his own choices and the two year old because she is two and is currently going through an insanely picky eating phase right now and turns her nose up at damn near everything and I'm not feeling inclined to limit her diet further.  Although, to be fair, she's mostly along with me anyway.  She's the only two year old I know who won't touch cheese for love nor money and milk is only interesting like once every two weeks or so.  And you could not pay her money to get her to eat eggs...

Anyway, I'm starting this here blog out of an extreme sense of self importance to see if it helps keep me on track.  I'm hoping to start posting pictures starting tomorrow, although, honestly, good pictures will probably only happen on the weekend.

The challenges:
1.) Husband and daughter eat meat
2.) Husband and I both work outside of the home, so our evening meal prep time is insanely limited.  We get home at 5pm, the wee tot goes into the bath at 7pm and if we're lucky, is asleep by 8:30pm.  Although lately, it's been taking her so long to fall asleep that I usually end up falling asleep with her
3.) We've gotta be out the door in the mornings before 7:30am

Yeah.  This is going to be interesting.

Anyway.  Today has been a fair success so far. 
Breakfast: Miso soup (I throw the ingredients in a container while the wee tot sleeps and then once I get to work, I add some hot water and eat it at my desk), bagel w/ curried butternut squash hummus and some sprouts and some rose tea

Lunch: I was enticed away from my very tasty lentil soup and bread by a good friend to head over to Noodles and Co. I had a small dish of the Japanese Pan Noodles (I was assured it was vegan)

Snack: Banana.

It's 3pm and I'm starting to get hungry again.  Luckily, I'm heading home for a snack!