Author: Lindsay Ingalls

Execution=Fail, Taste=Win

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Last night I got home from work and decided that I really needed a little yoga in my life since It has been so long since I have done it.  I decided to start with Rodney Yee AM Yoga because it really has the right poses to get me ready for a more intense yoga.  After that I did Beginner Yoga For Abs again with Rodney Yee.  I felt that yesterday since I hadn’t practiced in so long that it was time to go back to the basics since my body is just not feeling as flexible as it once was.

After a wonderful yoga session I felt great and ready to make some dinner before my first meeting with my health counselor.

When I got home from work a package was waiting on my door step from Lodge Cast Iron Cookware.  Inside was a 12″ cast iron pan and the best part is that it comes already seasoned so I don’t have to take the time to do it myself, and that meant I could make dinner in it!

For dinner I had planned to take my carrots, kohlrabi and celeriac and make root veggie pancakes with some sauteed garlic chard. Thins were going well, I shredded up the carrots, kohlrabi and celeriac mixed them with a little water, garlic powder, salt, pepper, nutritional yeast and chickpea flour.  I heated up my pan with a little oil and scooped out the root veggie mix for pancakes.  After about 4 minutes they had browned and I thought they were ready to flip, however these little guys didn’t want to flip for me and just crumbled every where.  At this point my garlic chard was all done and I was in recovery mode.  How was I going to make this all work for me without wasting any food?

I turned the oven on to 450F and I added all of the root veggies and the garlic chard to the cast iron pan and mixed them together eventually pressing it all down into an even layer.  I decided that the mixture needed a little crunch so I topped it with a sprinkle of panko bread crumbs, chili powder and garlic gold.  I then baked it for 10 minutes.  Here was the test to see if this dish turned out to be something yummy or would it be a fail?

Topped with a little hot sauce and this was honestly the best thing I have eaten in a long time! The execution may have failed but in the end I created something delicious! Unfortunately I don’t have an exact recipe for you this time but don’t worry I will be recreating this VERY soon and will post a recipe for you.

Q: Have you ever made something that just didn’t turn out how you expected but were able to turn it into something great?

Ch-Ch-Changes

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As you may have noticed Cooking For a Vegan Lover is taking on a number of changes; the appearance and features are slowing being updated and are in stage one of this process.  However the most notable change that has occurred is the name change to Cook. Vegan. Lover.

My blog started out as a blog to document my experiences in the kitchen cooking for my vegan lover, my now husband. When we started dating I was a vegetarian and had been for many years.  I did practice a vegan diet for a few months in high school but was not responsible or healthy in my approach so I went back to a vegetarian diet.  When my husband and I got together I was in University still and money was tight; we also lived in New Brunswick where vegan options were limited so I cooked we cooked everything at home.  This is where the name Cooking For a Vegan Lover came from- I cooked for my vegan lover.  After about 2 months of dating I noticed how little I ate dairy, eggs, honey and products that included these as ingredients and finally decided a month later that I would take on a vegan diet myself.

For the next two years – can you believe I have been blogging since 2006?- I wrote mainly about what I cooked so Cooking For  a Vegan Lover was still fitting.  In the last 6 months my blog has evolved into a site that features vegan and eco friendly products, lifestyle posts, recipe post and more recently nutrition & wellness posts.  The last addition to this blog is a result of my decision to go back to school to become a certified holistic health counselor. With all these changes it only seemed appropriate to update the blog title to Cook. Vegan. Lover., however for now the URL will stay http://cookingforaveganlover.com for now (I hope to be able to change this in the future as well). After reading this post the husband has created a domain for http://cookveganlover.com but don’t worry http://cookingforaveganlover.com still works!

Cook. Vegan. Lover. embodies what this blog is all about:

Cook: recipes, experiences in the kitchen, what I am eating

Vegan: products, lifestyle, travel, tips

Lover: this one isn’t just about my Hubz although he is included but it also is about loving life, yourself, and others. To love others you have to love yourself and part of this is being healthy, so this is where the healthy lifestyle and wellness comes in.

As part of my blog transformation I took a poll to see what readers would like to see more of.  The top three items were: recipes, tips for health & well being, and summary of my days. I am in the process of incorporating more of this into my blog.  The transformation in process and I hope to be into a more consistent routine by July.  You can look forward to seeing more post throughout the day, new recipes and frequent nutrition and health posts.  I will still have posts that include products, lifestyle and travel as well.

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog and for all your feed back on what you’d like to see more of. Please stay tuned for more improvements over the next few months.


Rootin For The Curry

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This afternoon was spent with my nose in the books while sipping on an extra large earl grey iced tea at my second home- the coffee shop.  I am in my third week of my health counseling program and I am loving it. I had my first meeting with my health counselor last night and it went really well, a little awkward but it was fine. I one session a month so hopefully next months session with be even better!

By 4pm I was feeling hungry and I knew that if I went home and ate an early dinner that I wouldn’t be as motivated to workout so the hubby and I decided to have a light pre-workout snack.  I picked up some roasted Brussels sprouts and a corn salad for us to share.

After our 40 minute commute home (I can’t wait for them to be over) my tummy had settled and I was ready to take on Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred.  I knew going into it I was guaranteed to get my ass kicked especially since I challenged myself to level 3, but I was pumped and ready to go.

Just as I predicted my ass was handed to me but it felt great! I can’t even imagine doing the P90X or Insanity workouts if this video challenges me- however I am interested in trying the P90X.  After my workout I took my jelly legs to the kitchen to heat up the curry I made this morning and serve it up with the brown rice that I put in the rice cooker while I did my workout.

Rootin’ Veggie Curry

Ingredients

  • 1T olive oil
  • 1 small celeriac, peeled and diced
  • 2 kohlrabi, peeled and diced
  • 3 carrots, peeled and diced
  • 1 large onion, diced
  • 1T tomato paste
  • 1t chili powder
  • 2t curry powder
  • 2t cumin powder
  • 1/2t paprika
  • 1/2t salt
  • 1/4t pepper
  • 1/4t tumeric
  • pinch of cayenne
  • 1 cup red lentils
  • 4 cups vegetable broth

Directions:

In a large pot over medium-high heat the oil and then add the onions and saute for 5-7 minutes until they begin to get slightly browned, but not burnt. Stir in the celeriac, kohlrabi and carrots as well as the tomato paste and add the spices.  Stir together until everything is evenly coated and then add the vegetable broth and lentils.  Bring the curry to a boil and then cover and turn down to low and allow to simmer for 30 minutes.  Check the vegetables and seasoning.  Serve with brown rice or naan.

After dinner we watched a little Modern Family and enjoyed a bowl of strawberry banana ice cream it was delicious!

  • 2.5 frozen bananas
  • 5 strawberries
  • 1 cup chocolate almond milk

Blend to soft serve and top with chocolate flakes.

Q: what is your favorite dessert?

hi ho hi ho it’s off to work I go

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This morning hubby and I headed out to the farmers market but were pretty unsuccessful; we came home with some ruby chard and onions, oh well.  We did however enjoy a steamed red bean bun and a steamed vegetable dumpling with happy hot sauce.

I unfortunately will be spending most of my day working at a country music concert for work – which I am not overly thrilled about doing but oh well it’s part of the job.  After I am done though we are meeting up with our friends for a drink which gives me something to look forward to.  Since we will be basically gone the entire afternoon/evening we are packing up some dinner to save money and eat healthier. Plus we went out to Sarducci’s for dinner last night and had the most delicious dinner which I did not photograph because it was a camera/cellphone/computer/TV free evening.

So for lunch I made some delicious tofurky veggie bagel sandwiches and served up with falafel chips, salsa and a banana. I whipped out a few new gadgets that Microplane USA sent me to help in getting my veggies ready for the sandwich.

I used the straight blade peeler for my carrot and then I used the shredder face of the box grater to well….shred it. I also used the slicer face of the box grater to make thin slices of cucumber for the sandwich.  I thought the peeler did a great job and it was easy and comfortable to hold.  I also loved this box grater because it has a really great handle on the top (which I didn’t get a good shot of) but it makes it so much easier to hold than other ones that I have used.  I thought that the shredder face worked really well but I think I’ll stick to my mandolin for slicing.

As I said above our lunch also includes some falafel chips from Flamous Brands which are honestly my new favorite thing and I need to make some hummus to go with these chips. These  chips are vegan, gluten free, organic and non-GMO.  They are also super tasty and come in regular and spicy- of course loving the spice hubz and I opened the spicy first and they are delicious.

Q: Do you have days/nights/mornings when you turn off all your electronics? If you have never tried this or think that you can’t live without your phone I recommend that you give it a chance even for an hour or two.  It is really freeing and gives you time to just relax and slow down.

Lots of Moving Going On

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My husband and I are in the middle of chaos right now because we are moving at the end of June and we have a million things going on this and next month.  We have wonderful friends from Toronto visiting next weekend and then the following weekend we are headed to Acadia for our anniversary camping trip.  June is then filled with graduation parties and a necessary huge yard sale. This is causing some imbalances in my life right now but I am looking forward to moving into our brand new apartment overlooking Lake Champlain.  It will be a very positive (and necessary) change for both my husband and myself.

I have discussed self care in previous post and this is another key to taking care of yourself- living where you feel comfortable.  A home should not be a hotel and nowadays it seems that people are constantly on the move and the majority of time spent at home is to shower and sleep. I would like to challenge you to take 1 or 2 days a month and spend the entire day at home and see how it makes you feel; do you feel comfortable? do you enjoy spending time at home?

If you don’t feel comfortable or enjoy being home try and recognize what is making you feel that way.  Maybe it’s because your house is not as clean as you would like it or maybe it’s because the people above you won’t stop playing their fiddles at all hours of the day.  If there are things that are making you not want to be home consider making changes to create a place where you do feel comfortable. This may mean hiring someone to clean your house because frankly between work, events and fitness classes you just don’t have time or motivation to go home and clean your house.  If hiring someone is not in your budget consider enlisting a friend to help you get things in order so your home is in a state that is manageable.

If your living situation is not ideal for other reasons such as you are living with people that surround you with negative energy or in an apartment where you can’t get comfortable because the person above you won’t stop having fiddle sessions that include the stomping of feet then I encourage you to seek a new living arrangement.  If you are in a lease that you can’t get out of make the best of your situation and surround yourself with positive things while looking for a new place to move.

This is the general layout for our new apartment which I can't wait to move into!

For us it has been a combination of the state of our house and how it has turned into a hotel since we commute and it’s hard to keep up on household chores, as well as the fact that we live in a shared house where we are unable to be comfortable because of all that incessant fiddling going on above us.

This new apartment will bring a lot of positive changes to our lives:

  • NO MORE COMMUTING! That is one of the biggest ones because right now my husband and I commute 80 miles a day and since my hours are different than my husbands I spend half my day hanging out in the coffee shop next to his work waiting to go to work and then waiting for him to get out.
  • I can get back to my yoga practice –  I have started to lose touch with my yoga practice due to all the chaos that has filled our lives right now and the fact that I am never home and am unable to attend classes right now.
  • We will have a new space and live in an area that we know that we will be happier. How can you not look forward to living in an apartment with a view of the lake and a 2 minute walk from the bike path?  We can finally spend our evenings relaxing after work, not feeling rushed to fix meals and finally have a home not a giant hotel room. Also we will now live in the same area as our friends so I plan on having tons of dinner parties…..as soon as we get a new dining room table….but that’s another story.

Now that we are moving we are trying to get rid of the clutter before we move but have also come to the realization that we are going to have to do some shopping. We need:

  • A washer and dryer
  • A vacuum (we have hardwood floors in our current place)
  • Items for a second bathroom
  • Curtains
  • Blinds
  • 2 Bar Stools for the island in our new kitchen
  • A dining room table
  • A bedroom set
  • A new desk

A lot of items right! We won’t be getting all of these items at once but hopefully over the next year.  Q: where do you like to buy your furniture, house decorating items and any suggestions of a w/d or vacuum?

Also in more blog related news Cook.Vegan.Lover. is in the works of getting a face lift and will hopefully be ready by the end of the weekend or early next week.  So keep your eyes peeled!

Giveaway: Eco Friendly Lunch Box

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Yesterday my post featured my new eco friendly lunch box from Easy Lunch Boxes. I have been using these lunch containers all week and I love them.  The three compartments make it easy for me to pack a great healthy lunch in one container.  I also love that these containers are eco friendly, BPA free and contain no phthalates, lead, vinyl, or PVC.  They are also dishwasher and microwave safe.

Now it is your chance to win your own Easy Lunch Boxes container set and lunch box.  The winner of this giveaway can choose from black, dark red, olive, aqua, or purple for their lunch box.  This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian Residence ONLY. Please keep reading to see how you can enter to win.

The Winner is Bianca:

To enter:  All entries must be submitted by May 16, 2010 at 5pm. For each entry you MUST leave a SEPARATE comment for the entry to qualify. This giveaway is CLOSED.

  1. Visit the Easy Lunch Boxes website and let me know why you want to win this giveaway.
  2. Follow Easy Lunch Boxes on Twitter
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  4. Follow me on Twitter.
  5. Tweet about this giveaway “I want to win @cookveganlover @EasyLunchBoxes Giveaway http://wp.me/pFVWo-K2”
  6. Become a fan of Cook.Vegan.Lover. on Facebook.
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