Seraphina

So the "Mac and Cheeze" that I was all excited for last night turned out to be a filthy bowl of lies. It tasted like squash baby food. Super gross, not cheesy or creamy, and definitely not a vegan version of my favorite food. I'll never get that hour of my life back. I ended up using the leftover coconut milk to make tembleque. It's chilling in the fridge right now. If you've never had it, I highly recommend it. It's a traditional Puerto Rican food and it's a pretty fast & easy dairy-free dessert. Tembleque for One 3/4 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk (I used lite, but if you like it creamier, use the regular stuff) 1 tsp agave or maple syrup pinch of salt 1 tsp cornstarch (double this if you like super firm pudding) In medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine all the ingredients. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and is smooth and thick, about 5 minutes. Pour into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until cold and firm, at least 3 hours, or up to 48 hours I'll be real, I never cover it and I never wait that long. I usually give it an hour or two. If you're going the super firm route, you can put it into a mold and make pretty fancy pudding. I ain't got time for that. I put lots of cinnamon on mine because that's how I like it. Some folks wait until it's ready to eat before dumping cinnamon on it. I don't, lol. If you really like coconut, coconut flakes are another good topping. This is also a lower sugar version of it than the traditional. I find it's plenty sweet and delicious this way. Here's mine chilling in the fridge. It's a pretty white pudding since I used agave (maple syrup will give it a bit of color). Also, more cinnamon than sense because I love that shit.

YAS PEANUT BUTTER IS LIFE. This recipe is interesting... so the combo of the Asian & Mexican flavors works okay? My brain has a hard time figuring out what that would taste like, so I'll definitely have to try it It does seem a lot faster & easier than the one I posted, for sure. Thanks for sharing!

I totally bought myself a Funko Pop! figure of Linda Belcher from Bob's Burgers when I got home Thanks! I'm hoping switching it up will work! Ugh, yeah, sometimes I want to move my office. I have definitely had that cascading effect like a few weeks ago I ate half a dozen cookies. But I have an amazing view of Red Rocks and the Rocky Mountains out of my window... I've found it helps me to focus on keeping my eyes up, like I'm literally above looking down at that table of shit. lol Hngh, David Bowieeee <3 Thank you! I think you're awesome too. I'm glad you like the thread! I'm hoping it takes off and we can amass a collection of awesome vegan recipes.

Ufff, good to know. I'm sorry it turned out to be garbage. I use this spread in my bullet journal to keep track of where I'm at and I update it each month. Ignore my awful drawings, lol

I'm not going to lie, at one point in the day I got really close to the table and almost opened them. It took everything I had not to open that stupid container ._. Trading recipes would be amazing! I've been kicking around making a recipe book post here on the forums, so I just did with the recipe I made tonight! Feel free to post recipes: Drawing on the Power of Plants. Also putting it in my signature, because advertising

I'm trying a couple of new vegan recipes each week and I'd love to get some recipe ideas from other people as well. I plan to post pictures of what the food actually looks like (vs the curated blog photos) next time. Being terrible at introductions, generally, I'm just going to dive in with the dish I made tonight: Peanut Tofu Buddha Bowl prep 20 mins cook 15 mins total 35 mins yield 4 bowls Ingredients Tofu Bowl 2 cups cooked brown rice 1 cups shredded carrots 2 cups spinach leaves 2 cups broccoli florets 2 teaspoons olive oil or additional sesame oil, divided 1 cup chickpeas (drained and rinsed, if using canned) salt/pepper 16 oz extra firm tofu, pressed and drained Peanut sauce 1-2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce 1/4 cup 100% pure maple syrup 2 teaspoons chili garlic sauce 1/4 cup creamy or crunchy peanut butter Instructions Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cube tofu and place in a single layer on a non-stick baking sheet and cook for 25 minutes. If you aren't using a non-stick baking sheet, lightly spray with cooking spray. Remove from oven and place in a shallow bowl. Whisk together the ingredients for the sauce (sesame oil, soy sauce, maple syrup, chili garlic sauce, peanut butter) until creamy and smooth. Add 1/2 of the sauce to the tofu bowl and let marinate while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Toss the broccoli with 1 teaspoon sesame or olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes until just tender. Heat remaining olive or sesame oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add tofu, in batches, along with the marinating sauce until crispy and golden browned, about 3-4 minutes. To assemble, divide the brown rice among 4 bowls, top each bowl with 1/4 cup shredded carrots, 1/2 cup spinach leaves, 1/4th broccoli, 1/4 cup chickpeas and a few pieces of tofu. Drizzle with remaining peanut sauce. I got the recipe from this blog. Comments Oh.my.wow. This is the most delicious thing that I've made in a while. The "20 minutes" of prep time wasn't quite accurate for me... It took 30 minutes to cook the rice and press the tofu. I don't think the cook time is accurate either since roasting in the oven takes 20-25 minutes. I was in and out of the kitchen in an hour when it was all said and done. You can definitely prep the tofu and rice ahead of time to save time, though. I followed the recipe pretty closely but not faithfully. I didn't put chickpeas in, and I used white rice instead of brown. I also didn't marinate the tofu while the broccoli was roasting because I roasted them at the same time. When I portioned out a bowl, I looked at it and thought, "There's no way this is enough food." By the time I got to the end, I was full. Like I had to power through to finish the last couple bites. I didn't get hungry afterwards either, so it kept me full. So it definitely made 4 bowls for me, which I am very happy with. Did I mention it tastes amazing? Because it does.

Hi, I'm late to the party, but I did bring a space toilet. Taken while in China. FEELING THE LOVE

Nightly meditation it is! How perfect that I have been failing at meditation for my own challenge and this week's tessomancy involves incorporating meditation... Did someone say Bad Wolf?

LOL I don't think I could eat a whole kilo of sauerkraut but I'm glad you are here to teach us this. Ugh, I feel you on the snacks. I live for snacks. I have to do IF to keep me from snacking at night. It definitely helps, and I snack less overall too.

Y'all. I made that Tofu Peanut Bowl, and it's seriously one of the best things I've made in a while. I was in and out of the kitchen in an hour and made 4 meals out of it. I'm like this guy at the Celine Dion concert rn I'm super excited to make the vegan macaroni and cheese tomorrow. I'm not really surprised though. I knew that I liked these foods. I just rode the low carb/Paleo train for so long that I kept myself away from healthy foods that I truly enjoy. That train is not for me, and I don't think I'll ever even try to go back to it at this point. One week into low carb and I'm dragging my ass everywhere and feeling like shit, every time, as my body adjusts. It's not sustainable for me at all. One week into plant-based foods, on the other hand, and I feel amazing. I have substantially more energy.

End of Week 2/Beginning of Week 3 Check-In Main quest - No sweets or dairy at home or work Sugar withdrawal is substantially better. I'm starting to feel a lot better physically and mentally. I think this is also due in part to me adopting a more plant-based way of eating lately as well (battle log has some details on that). Still nothing at home, and not tempted there at all. I've been eating fresh fruit 1x a day and dried fruit (without added sugar) 1x a day and I think that has helped substantially. Today at work the cookie lady (hired henchman of the sugar demons, Hansel and Gretel's witch, actually a nice human but omg please stop bringing this shit to work) really went all-out. She made, I shit you not, pie and cake cookies. Apple pie, cherry pie (my personal fave), and German chocolate cake in cookie form. It was hard to ignore it, especially because I am a stone's throw away from where they sit (and I also cannot avoid seeing them every time I leave my cube) and got to hear people gushing about how good they are all.day.long. But I didn't give in, and I felt powerful as hell doing that. Secondary quest - Exercise 2x per week and daily walking My ankle's starting to get better. I took it easy all last week and went on my first 20 minute walk in a while today. It felt so good to walk again. It's a little grindy/sore now but I'll take it easy for the rest of the night. Hoping to keep up with at least walking every day for the rest of the challenge. I may not push beyond that until I feel like it's actually better. Secondary quest - Meditate for 5 minutes each day Have sucked at this over the last week, majorly. I get up in the morning and immediately start moving. I have deliberately not done it because I don't want to. I feel like that's worse than forgetting, even. I'm openly defying my own plans, lol. I still think meditation will be hugely valuable to my mental health if I can make a habit of it, so I'm thinking that I will try nightly meditation. If I'm already winding down for the night, I'll be much more likely to keep up with it.

YAS BOOTY GAINS!

Great work! You're making me want to get that app, it looks super cool... I've been doing a Walk to Mordor since last year (manually adding up the miles) and I'm almost done! It's super motivating.

That looks really fun! I love short but intense hiking.

So... my goal has been met in a roundabout way and I passed Transfiguration. I ended up working from home all week because I was overwhelmed with school stuff and wanted to save some cash, so I didn't have my water bottle. May be TMI but I just used my pee to judge how I was doing I did well, lol.

Congrats on hitting your step goal! I think it's good you're thinking about planning positive food changes for the near future.

Decided to stay home today. Doing some work from home, but not at the level of intensity it's been all week. I think it will do me a lot of good mentally and physically to rest up a little today. I've pushed really hard this week and met my deadlines, so the upcoming week should be a lot easier. I'll be back to my usual level of busy instead of insanity mode, haha. I just finished meal-planning for next week! After not meal planning since, uh, last semester, I decided laying it out would be the best thing for me to do now that I have time. Also, I have not been feeling meat lately. I don't eat much to begin with: I was a vegetarian for too long at a young age and can no longer tolerate beef, and I don't like pork. So this is really not a big deal or a big change, just more of me trying to listen to my body. Since I axed dairy as well I've been looking at vegan recipes and I'm trying two new ones this week (they're in red). Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 12 Breakfast burritos Tofu Peanut Bowl Tofu Peanut Bowl Mac n Cheeze Mac n Cheeze Breakfast burritos Supergreens Pasta 4 Tofu Peanut Bowl Salad Convenience Meal On Campus Salad Convenience meal Breakfast burritos 7 Convenience meal Lentil Pasta Mac n Cheeze* Snack (tend not to be as hungry) Lentil Pasta Mac n Cheeze Tofu Peanut Bowl* The stuff in red is the inflexible stuff, aka, days I have to cook or do those things.... everything else is flexible! The "convenience meals" are frozen meals... at the moment I have a couple Amy's bowls and vegan pad thai from Saffron Road. I don't want to do more than 3 convenience meals a week though since I'm trying to make as much at home as I can. I still need the flexibility though, so I'm not ready to axe frozen meals yet. I do 16:8 IF too... that's what the times are on the left.

I didn't even realize they were different... lol

Yea, I'm just weird and don't like leftovers enough to eat batch cooking all day every day. I usually do like 1 meal a week. I do some dance videos on YouTube! They're really fun. I really liked ROMWOD when I tried it out too! I don't think I would pay for a program... I used some videos on YouTube.

Checking in since my school work is finally slowing down... Main quest - No sweets or dairy at home or work: Sugar withdrawal has been bad. I'm moody, my brain is foggy, and I'm getting headaches pretty often. I've been eating a couple servings of fruit each day to help mitigate it, and it definitely helps. No sweets or dairy in my house or at work is going well so far, though! I ignored the cookies at work on Monday like they were my ex-boyfriend. Secondary quest - Exercise 2x per week and daily walking: Kind of like last challenge, this challenge has been a, "What workout?" sort of affair. My ankle sucks, and it really bothers me. It swells every night and hurts all day, just from everyday walking. I'm breaking in new boots, so every time it snows (which has been 3 times during this challenge thus far), I've gotten bad blistering on my heels and the bottom of my feet. Secondary quest - Meditate for 5 minutes each day: I've meditated 2/3 days so far, but only did 5 minutes 1/3 of the time. I'm not very patient or relaxed. Still working on this one. I need so much chill, especially right now while my school shit is nuts. I wanna be this guy: But really I'm more like this So in short, I'm kind of sucking at everything but the main challenge. Edit: And I lost 2 pounds this week, so that's cool.

Preparedness before breaks in routine/vacation is a fantastic idea. Definitely going to work that into my goals somewhere, as I travel several times a year and every time it derails me. I gain like 5 pounds a week when I travel, it's awful.

I finally got a moment to sit and read through your challenge [emoji854] I agree with the folks who said your dance was super graceful! Also, I'm totally envious of both your food menus and your checkboxes! Probably because I've been so strapped for time my posts have been super short and sporadic and I've been eating nothing but noodles and tears, lol. P.S. You inspire me [emoji846] someday when I finish graduate school and have a life again, I want to take dance. Sent from my E6603 using Tapatalk

Quick update, since I weighed in. Lost 2 pounds, so that's cool. I wish I had more time to read the forums but I am so swamped with school and work stuff this week. Luckily I think it will slow down by the weekend. I'm already tired tomorrow

This is good to know... I feel like I get sinus infections/colds that turn into bronchitis because of stress... I tend to kick them just fine if I'm not under stress. I'm a former smoker though, so idk how much that factors in...

Uff, that does sound terrible. I rarely experiment with protein stuff because it's so rare that I actually like any of it. Maybe nuts next time? lol