During our clean eating week, there were some definite cravings that struck. I left work late one day and heading straight to the gym, as per usual. I had just parked and was grabbing my gym bag when C called. "I'm going to order a pizza", said the voice on the other line, sounded very matter-of-fact. "what?! no! no pizza, we're eating super clean for a week!" "I need a pizza, I think I am going to order one..." "No, don't do it! I'll be home soon!" I sent a pep-talk Blackberry message as I ran into the gym for my workout. While running on the treadmill, my mind wasn't on the music but on dinner. What could I make that would squash C's pizza craving but still fall within the restraints of our 1 week diet?
Think think think think think, run run run run run.
Ok, an idea begins to form...details begin to get clearer, I have it figured out. I finished my workout, ran to the locker, texted C to hold on and rushed out to Superstore. I grabbed a basket, sprinted from aisle to aisle, grabbing the ingredients that I needed then called C right before leaving, ensuring that no delivery man had sullied our front steps. We were still ok, and I drove home, filled with determination.
C had just turned on the oven to preheat for baking, according to my text from the grocery store. I rolled up my sleeves, washed my hands and got down to business. The firm eggplant was sliced into long thins. I laid the slices down onto parchment paper covered baking sheet and then smothered them in pasta sauce.
eggplant with pasta sauce |
C is often the one that does the chopping and since I had a few other things to do, I put him to work. Onion, green and red pepper were made short work of with the sharp knives that we own. Using a sharp knife to chop is such a pleasure. C sharpens our knives every so often and it's always a wonderful surprise to slice through a ripe tomato as smoothly as warm butter.
Everything that C chopped was sprinkled onto the eggplant slices, as well as some fresh organic basil.
Chopped onions, red and green peppers, fresh basil |
I picked up some treats for C: salami and cheese! Well, the soy vegan variety. I figured we might as well give it a go and see if we could stomach the taste.
Vegan cheese and salami slices |
The salami was chopped and sprinkled on with the cheese. These babies were ready for the oven. Vegan pizzas, minus extra fat or carbs from bread or dough. Perfect. But, would C like them? Would this satisfy his craving or would Pizza Hotline be getting a whispered call at midnight?
pizzas before baking |
Out of the oven, the "cheese" was melted. Hot and Ready, minus the unhealthy.
pizzas done |
Served with a nice large side salad of fresh spinach, chopped tomatoes, and dried cranberries, this meal was perfect. The flavours of pizza, although definitely clean eating tasting. The verdict was in, C was not going to be ordering pizza tonight. Clean eating 1, takeout zero!
vegan pizza meal |
The trusty Black & Decker bread maker that I bought C a few Christmases ago finally kicked the bucket. I was incredible sad as I found this unit to make the best dough EVER! My mom bought me a new one for my birthday and I was nervous and excited to try it out. The beaters and insides felt thinner and lighter. I decided to try a basic Challah/egg bread recipe.
new bread maker |
Unfortunately, the thinner metal of the newer model (likely in an effort for B&D to save money on material) did not do wonders for the dough. The dough got too hot during the proofing process and some of the edges were cooked. Ack! I stripped off as much of the cooked dough as I could and hoped for the best. Even the proofing wasn't as good because the thinner drum didn't distribute the heat in the same manner. If only we hadn't dropped off our old model to the Salvation Army, we could have swapped out the metal bits! Alas, we went back to look but she was gone. I went ahead and baked the dough in a braided ring in any case and hoped for the best. The taste was still amazing. Light, rich and egg-y. I brought this loaf to work for a potluck for others to enjoy.
egg bread |
With the pizzas getting the stamp of approval from C, along with the vegan cheese, I figured that making more for dinner the next night would be fine. Using up some leftovers, I didn't use any sauce this time and simply spread some chopped garlic in oil over top a multigrain wrap. Fresh spinach was laid on top, followed by slices tomatoes (to replace the acid lost from lack of sauce), sliced mushrooms and some Daiya. Into the oven until the cheese melted and the wrap was crispy and browned.
more pizza, with starch this time |
Something to note with Daiya is that we both found that vegan cheese taste more "authentic" if it was left in the oven for longer. Once it started looking browned seemed to yield the best flavour and texture, otherwise it tasted a little watery.
A side of sauteed kale and baby zucchini and a very hearty meal was served. Husband approved.
another pizza meal |
With our cleaner diets, we both have been trying to drink more water and tea. Coffee, pop, alcohol, juice and most other things were off limits. I have fallen in love with David's Tea in Polo Park Shopping Centre. I love looking at all the huge silver canisters with their bright coloured labels and cute names. Picking my favorites by name and then smelling the contents to see if the aroma was as attractive as the verbiage. In many cases, no, but in many, Oh Heaven! Since we didn't have a real way to make loose tea in a teapot, we've opted to use our French press as a substitute since it would be gathering dust until we allowed ourselves coffee again. This worked wonderfully, except the tea steeped a lot longer than likely required. Forever Nuts has been our tea of choice as of late (aptly named for the two of us it seems)...warm, sweet, rich, and creamy, I would recommend this one to someone looking to try a different herbal tea that isn't too strong. Beets infuse the tea with a brilliant ruby hue! Beets! How cute is that?! Well, you also know how much I love beets so how could I resist that. David's Tea, go now!
Forever nuts |
One can only go for so many days without something sweet. In our case, a few days is one too many. Unfortunately or not, we both crave salty and sweet quite often. For me, I can stop salt cravings with air popped corn and some seasoning. For sweet, I prefer something with chew. I think that if something sweet is chewy and takes more time more effort to eat, it can be savored for longer and enjoyed slowly. Granola bars. I would make some of my mom's granola bars. I checked the base recipe...corn syrup, peanut butter, brown sugar. Hmm, nothing organic and I didn't want to use corn syrup. We had honey, so while not vegan, I felt it was more natural. Melt all that together in a large pot then instead of the rice crisp cereal, raisins, chocolate chips and oatmeal she usually adds, I would use oatmeal, puffed wheat cereal (since I had it on hand), dried cranberries and apricots, some sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and a little sweetened shredded coconut.
These turned out amazing! Chewy, sweet, filling, and full of fibre. The only problem was, we ate the whole pan in about 3 days...
home made granola bars |
Have you noticed that we've jumped on the pizza band wagon as of late? This version, we tried the cheddar Daiya and added some sauteed onions, but otherwise it's the same base as the last pizza on a multigrain tortilla (we get ours from Costco, unless Safeway's Blue Menu ones are on special). We also added veggie sausages to this pizza. We tried the Yves variety. C liked them and ate the rest of them over the next few days, I wasn't a fan. Tofurky also makes different types but they contained way more calories than I thought was reasonable. Keep in mind, vegan doesn't always mean clean. Processed veggies are also full of sodium so be careful if you're making the switch not to pat yourself on the back too much while eating fake chicken nuggets and farmer's sausage made of soy.
cheddar Daiya (vegan cheese) |
veggie sausages on the pizza |
One of the things about removing fat, salt, and sugar as much as possible from food is that this is what flavours our meals. These are the tastes that we crave and if we take those away, the food needs flavour from somewhere else. Instead, the body will often crave spicy. I was needing something spicy and fragrant so decided to make a coconut curry soup with a can of light coconut milk that I had in the pantry. That was mixed with some chicken stock (yes, the soup isn't vegan, I had no vegetable stock on hand), a ton of curry powder, cumin, coriander, turmeric for colour, a dash of cinnamon, some chopped basil, baby corn, chopped green cabbage, sliced carrots, all into a pot and on to simmer. The fun part about not using a recipe is that anything goes. Trust your intuition and sense of smell. I smell every ingredient before adding it to the next, to see if they compliment each other. It seems to work. As a side, I roasted some carrots, Brussel sprouts (one of my favs!) and then added in cherry tomatoes at the end. It's very enjoyable to have a hearty meal that fills you up, sticks to your ribs, yet doesn't include meat or extra fat.
coconut curried soup with roasted veg |
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