Lost over half a pound & Vegan 'meatballs'

Nathalie's Vegan 'meatballs'

Don't these look yummy? :-)

I made those last week, as a trial run of a recipe I made from scratch.

I really had a good laugh at my husband. These vegan 'meatballs' looked so real and so good, he waltz into the kitchen, saw the bowl on the kitchen counter and said "Yum! Meatballs!" ... then he grabbed one quickly and popped it into his mouth................

And then reality hit him like a ton of bricks!

These were not what he would call 'real' meatballs, they were a first draft of my home made Vegan 'meatbals'! Oh dear!!!!

You should have seen his face LOL

I'm still laughing a week later. It was priceless.

He will eat anything, he's really easy to please (love you honey!) but when he sees what looks like real meatballs, they have to be 'real' LOL so he had quite the shock there for a second.

I need to work out my ratio of ingredients a bit, but they were pretty good for a first attempt at home made 'soy-free' vegan 'meatballs' :)

Once I have perfected the recipe to where I like it, I'll let you know...

And, I've lost another 0.6 lbs this past week, so that makes a total loss so far of 6.2 lbs, and I ate as much as I wanted, did not  feel deprived at all... I'll take it!

Enjoy the Super Bowl everybody!

I made it to the FRONT PAGE of Etsy!!!

*** I'm doing a "Happy Dance"!!! ***

I was hoping that one day.... one day....... I would see one of my items make the Etsy.com front page...

And today is the day! :-)

Sorry for being so excited, but it's my first time.... Happy Dance!

Here's a picture of the Front Page. Admin did a search for the keyword 'Fire' and they certainly had a lot of patience to check through over 500 pages of results, because my listing for the Fire Pure Textured Copper Bangles (trio of bangles) was sure burried deep!

Thanks Etsy Admin! Much appreciated :-)

I feel so very good... Thank you Sis!

Islamorada, Florida Keys - Photo taken by my late sister. It was her favorite place to go on mini-vacations in Florida.

Before my very best friend of 15 years (aka my 'sister') tragically passed away in a car accident last October in Miami, I had promissed her that I would take good care of my health. That this was the most important thing of all.

We had made plans, and I am acting on them, both for her and for me.

I am working every single day to honor that promise I had made to her, and to honor my body and myself.

I have been following a mix of vegetarian and vegan diet for 24 days now, and I feel so good.

I have been exercising more regularly every week, and I feel so good.

I meditate every single night before bed-time to re-focus myself and take the time to reconnect with every part of my body, and speak to my Sister, and I feel so good.

No, I don't get everything done on my list of other chores, but you know what, I do get everything done to take BETTER care of me - something I had not been doing for the past few years.

Thank you Sis for holding me to my promise, for being my angel and watching over me.

You've been gone almost 3 months now, and I wish you were here, but I know that by taking good care of me, your memory will live on even longer.

This message is for everybody who so kindly follows my blog:

Take the time to take care of you.

Take the time to stop and smell the roses.

Take the time to enjoy life.

Take the time to just 'be' in the moment.

Peace,

Nathalie

FABULOUS Soy Free RECIPES!!!!!

Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!!!!!

Yeah, so you've all been wondering where I've been for the past few days?

I've been in a blisseful 'foodie' zone in my kitchen, going through recipes after recipes and (Oh my God! Did I say this already?.....) - these cookbooks are "FANTABULOUS" and TOTALLY SOY FREE!!!!!!! :-)))))

Ok, so I received my Amazon order ultra quick (as usual - I really love how fast they ship, it's impeccable service, especially with their Free Shipping when you buy for a certain $ amount) and I've been devouring with my eyes and my stomach all sorts of goodies from this first book here:

For my US friends - You can read about it here & purchase it on Amazon.com
(also read the many reviewer comments - it's a top notch recipe book):

The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen


And for my Canadian friends , you can purchase it here on Amazon.ca:

Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen

Truly, you do not have to be Vegan or Vegetarian to use the recipes in this book.

These are 300 (yup!!! 300!!!) 'authentic' Mediterranean recipes (which, by nature, often do not include meats to begin with).

They can make wonderful side dishes or main dishes, or both (I'm the only vegetarian/vegan in the family, the rest can have my main course as their side dish) - it's up to you, and if like me you are craving 'authentic' Mediterranean cuisine, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU!

I can't share the recipes I've tried on my blog for obvious copyright reasons, but the ones I've tried so far have been a huge hit with my family (and me!)...

I cook a lot, and I've read every single recipe in the book (that's where I've been...) and these recipes are easy to make, really well explained, with ingredients that are sold at any supermarket (there's no weird or hard to find ingredients in there - I hate nothing more than buying a cookbook and find out that you need to get this and that 'weird' ingredient, etc.... this is not the case here - it's all basic common fresh ingredients), and a good number of the recipes can be whipped up quickly - In fact, there is a chapter at the end that lists various recipes from the book to pull together some quick menus for each season (some recipes can be made for less money if the veggies are in season, etc).

This is TRULY the best 'authentic' cookbook I've seen on the market. And I've seen many in my life. I currently own well over 50 cookbooks in English, as well as some in French and German.

I love how everything is laid out and explained in this book. There's LOADS OF COOKING TIPS & TRICKS and I've learned a few new tricks just by reading this book, while I was browsing through each recipe.

I am so happy I bought it - grab it while you can - it's on sale!!!

You can't go wrong with the current sale price of US$11.99 (CAD $14.60) for 300 fantastic tasty recipes!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next book that I ordered and received is this mouth-watering "Vice Cream" book. It's totally SOY-FREE and SINFUL (what a combo, huh?) :-)

There are 70 recipes in this book. I'm sure you'll find a few to your liking:

For my US friends - You can read about it here & purchase it on Amazon.com:

Vice Cream: Over 70 Sinfully Delicious Dairy-Free Delights


And for my Canadian friends, you can purchase it here on Amazon.ca:

Vice Cream

As the author Jeff Rogers says, so many people are Lactose intolerant, and so many people choose not to eat milk products for various reasons, and well, soy and rice 'ice creams' often leave you with a yearning for something better and sometimes with a bad after-taste.

I'm allergic to soy, and lactose intolerant, so the recipes in this book are definitely something I am looking forward to try!

The author wanted to develop some scrumptious rich Vegan Friendly Soy Free deserts (and really, again, anyone can eat these - as long as you do not have any NUTS allergies), and although I haven't tried the recipes yet (I have to buy an ice cream maker attachement for our kitchenaid robot to make these recipes), the very basic ingredients, very minimalist approach (3 to 4 natural ingredients per 'vice cream' recipe) is worth buying an ice cream maker if you do not have one yet - do your research to buy a machine that will work for you.

It's not difficult with a little preparation, and to me, it's worth it to end up with rich tasteful deserts that are totally VEGAN and totally SOY-FREE, a nice little special treat to share with your family and friends.

Enjoy!

Book: The Whole Soy Story - Something to consider

Yesterday I briefly touched on Soy Sludge (Soy Lecithin), and I wanted to talk about Soy, in general a bit more today.

Over the years, I've become terribly allergic to soy, we're talking full-blown allergic reaction here...and if you are not currently allergic to soy, it doesn't mean that you will never be.

Soy is one of the TOP 8 Food Allergens in the entire world. This is not something to be brushed aside.

And because it is used in so many commercial products (even products where you think you'd never dream of finding soy), it doesn't help matters either, because as a population, we end up consumming WAY TOO MUCH of it.

Remember: Eat everything in moderation. As Tamara and my other Vegan and Vegetarian friends have commented, there's lots of ways to get your protein without having to rely (so heavily) on soy.

Over-consumption of soy can be extremely detrimental to your health.

Even if you are not vegetarian or vegan, do you know how much soy there are in commercial products and how much you're consumming on a daily basis?

All of those "Weight Loss". "Diet", "Lean" and "Weight Control" products (everything from Instant Oatmeal to chocolate drizzled 100 calories snacks, to all the Diet Frozen Entrées, etc) are loaded with soy!

Why? It's simple:

1) It helps these companies drastically REDUCE the number of calories in their products, so more people who 'watch their weight' or 'watch what they eat' will buy them.

2) It helps these companies reduce the fat content/calories from fat in their products, thus again, resulting in an overall lower caloric content, and so people buy them to 'stay on plan'.

3) It makes people who are dieting think that they can have their cake and eat it too.

4) It reduces production costs, and it helps to keep the overall protein content of the product at a high enough level.

Like I said, everything in MODERATION is key... but when it's in almost every single product, then that can become a serious problem, since so many people end-up developping soy-related health problems over time:

"...Epidemiological, clinical and laboratory studies link soy to malnutrition, digestive problems, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders, even heart disease and cancer."

If you haven't read this book yet, I highly recommend it, and it's on sale at a really great price at the moment:

For my US friends - You can read about it here & purchase it on Amazon.com

(also read the many reviewer comments - it's quite informative):

The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food

And for my Canadian friends , you can purchase it here on Amazon.ca,

and it's cheaper than the US Sale price - not a bad deal!!!:

The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food

I'm not saying to stop eating it altogether, but you should be made aware that over time, you can develop some allergies and other serious health complications if you eat too much of it.

The more information we share, the more we have....

Peace :)

President's Choice Couscous - So easy and delish!

President's Choice Memories of Marrakech Couscous...

I don't know if you've ever tried it, but I've been using it for years and I love it. It's so easy and quick (5 min. and it's ready to serve). I find that it's a really nice change from the same old, same old, and it's so versatile.

That's what I ate last night, covered with a load of stir-fried veggies (chunks of onions, mushrooms, yellow peppers, steamed pieces of broccoli leftovers, and some sliced leftover steamed baby carrots).... Delish!

You can add a stir-fry sauce of your choice while cooking your veggies. I just eat my veggies stir-fried with a dash of salt & pepper. Simple and yum!

They say that you can either use vegetable broth or water to cook it. I always use either the Knorr Simply Natural Vegetable broth, or the President's Choice Organic Vegetable Broth in the large 900ml cartons, not the tin can as pictured here for the PC product.

It's certainly always handy to have some on hand :)

Soy SLUDGE - Soy Lecithin... do you know what it is?

Before dinner this evening, I was looking online to see if we actually had commercial "Almond Milk" for sale somewhere in Canada.

I found some.... I've never seen it here in Alberta in the various stores I shop at, but there is a brand, you can buy it online from an Ontario online food store.

The product is called Almond Breeze...

It almost sounds tropical, don't you think :)

But, wait!!!

Once again, when I read the ingredients list, guess what I found:

Soy Lecithin! (see me banging my head against the computer screen).

And that's why, for the past several years now, I have resorted to home cooking from scratch as much as possible, and when I buy a few commercial food products in stores, you bet your life that I'm reading labels from top to bottom.

Do you know exactly what Soy Lecithin is?

I can tell you that it's in the vast majority of commercial food products and that it's real "narsty" stuff :(

The very informative "Soy Lecithin: From Sludge to Profit" article by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN should be a real eye opener... whether you can tolerate soy or not - read it.

Between that SOY SLUDGE filled with pesticides and beetles as a colorant in our food, what's next?

Oh, and I don't wear/don't use makeup either btw... I haven't for several years. (if you don't understand what I mean by this, read the From Sludge to Profit article..... you'll get it).

Just to clarify - Vegan and Vegetarian

I just thought I should clarify a couple of things, since a fair number of new people are starting to read and follow my blog:

If it was up to me, I would definitely be VEGAN. There is absolutely no question about it.

As I just wrote to my friend Roni, I would be vegan to be honest, but I don't see at the moment how I could accomplish this with my silly allergies :(

I wanted to clarify that the reason why I decided to do my "GoVeg" (Go Vegetarian) pledge for January as a Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian is simply because I do not know enough yet how to get certain nutrients that my body needs (considering my allergies) using a Vegan diet.

For the "Lacto" part, I take the skim milk at the moment for the protein and calcium.

I do not eat yogourt.
I do not eat ice cream.

I'm lactose intolerant actually (have been for a few decades, and I still don't do well with Lactaid either).

It's especially bad with yogurt and ice cream made with milk, and I really have to watch how much cheese I eat and I've been eating much more lately and I don't like this either. I know that it's starting to upset my stomach.

I cannot take calcium or vitamins or iron (pills) either, they cause me a lot of stomach upsets.

I've tried many times in the past to help supplement my food intake and it's always the same nasty problems :(

I cannot handle most chemical ingredients in packaged food either, so mom and I do all "home cooked meals" using fresh ingredients, all from scratch. But a lot of our meals have lean meats in them.

I do not eat in restaurants, other than the very odd take out or order in (= a few times a year only) - which we do very seldom, because my stomach can't handle it either, and you never know what ingredients are used. I have too many sensitivities and allergies to risk it. It's a waste of money and I get ill, so it's not worth it.

So, I know that I do and feel better on a meatless and lacto-less diet.

As for the eggs, I really don't usually eat much eggs or egg whites (maybe once a week or once every other week max), but I've had to increase that now to several times a week, because I can only eat so much beans, etc, as I have explained in my previous post - I have a hard time stomaching eating so many eggs, it's a real turn off :(

I definitely feel better in many ways, but I do not like having all this cheese and eggs. I didn't realise until this past week how much I don't really care for those - I just never ate them often enough in the past to realise this.

But in the end, I need to make sure to get enough protein, calcium, iron, etc, in, but it has to come from foods, not 'supplements'...

So, I am looking to eliminate milk, cheese and eggs from my diet entirely, but not being able to take soy or tofu products and no 'supplements', and not having so many beans (all sorts) either.

I am not sure on how to accomplish this and getting my proteins in/make sure to have a balanced nutrition at this point.

It's a work in progress, what can I say!

Over 5 lbs gone forever! Happy Dance!

This morning was my 3rd weigh-in on the Weight Watchers Momentum online program, and I am very pleased to report that this past week, I've lost 1.6 lbs!

So, this takes me to a total lost so far of 5.4 lbs.... gone forever :-)

By the way, I say "gone forever" because I sincerely do not intend for any of these pounds to come back. I want to shed this excess weight once and for all. I'm not dieting, it's a lifestyle improvement and I want to keep a lot of those improvements at the forefront from now on. This is the pledge I made to myself for this year: Taking better care of my health.

Speaking of pledges, my "GoVeg" pledge is still going strong - I'm still eating 100% Lacto-Ovo Vegeterian since January 1st and I know that I will make it to the end of the month.

So far, my main issue is that I am allergic to Soy and Tofu (amongst other foods), and that it's becoming a bit redundant already (after 17 days) to be eating beans, lentils, eggs/egg whites, skim milk, low-fat cheese, whole grains, and some nuts as my main sources of protein and Iron.

I find that in terms of recipes, it seems to always come back to the same few things.

Where in the past I would eat some kind of stew, or roast, or some cut of meat, that most Vegans and Vegetarians can replace with Soy and Tofu products (soy grounds, tofu dogs, etc) to, for example, shape soy meatballs for a spaghetti or a soy meatball sandwich, I have no way of making meatballs other than using squished beans and rice or adding in bread crumbs and making some kind of paste... not bad tasting, but the beans and rice is also what I eat in casseroles, in burger patties, etc... so it seems to always come back to the same 'mixture' all the time.

That's where I'm struggling at the moment, and with the huge increase in eating beans and lentils, etc.... you know that my body is playing a lot of 'music' ... to say it politely LOL.... and I'm not supposed to use products like Beano (and I've tried it a few times in the past without much success, but I'm not supposed to use it anyway because I'm asthmatic and this product should not be used by asthmatics).

So, these are some of the issues I'm dealing with at the moment.

I have a couple of vegetarians and vegan cook books, and I am still finding myself quite limited because I cannot use anything with soy or tofu. Now that I've been looking at this closer for the past few weeks, it's amazing the number of recipes that use soy and tofu... I didn't realise how much until now.

I know that I can replace some of this with seitan, but most commercial stuff has soy sauce etc in it, and at this point, I haven't had time to look for what I need to make my own, etc, and I'm not 'there' yet.

Anyway, that's my little rant for today.

I believe that at the end of this 30 day pledge, I will need to re-introduce a bit of meats into my diet, just for the sake of having a wider variety of things to eat because at this point, it feels way too restrictive for me.

I know I would not feel this way if I could eat soy and tofu products, so instead I've dramatically increased my consumption of cheeses (I try to stick to low-fat, I do not like fat-free and we only have fat-free cream cheese in Canada anyway and that is disgusting), and I have also dramatically increased my consumption of free-range eggs/egg whites, and I'm really getting sick of eating eggs too.

Whereas in the past, I was eating about around 80% of my meals with meat, and 20% vegan or vegetarian meals, I could certainly at least turn this around and do something like 30 to 50% meals with meat, and 50 to 70% vegan or vegetarian meals... that would still be a good improvment on what I was doing in the past.

I definitely recommend eating more vegan and vegetarian meals. I do feel better in many ways because of it. But with my various food allergies, I definitely feel way more restricted, so I believe, for now, that I'm going to have to ease back a bit after the pledge month is over.

My other issue is with the Weight Watchers' plan - nuts and cheeses (unless the cheese is fat free, which I don't have access too, nor have a real desire to eat) count as points, and the same goes for any commercial product (on the 'Core' WW program, most of the things that you do not make yourself from scratch end up counting as points).

So far, I have gone over my 35 flex points every week because of my heavier than normal nuts and cheese consumption, and I'm still losing, but I know that at some point, I won't anymore, and that if I want to follow the plan, I will have to cut back on nuts and cheese, hence losing two of my 'protein' and Iron (nuts) sources :(

But WW Core allows for lean meats (you do not count those points) and soy/tofu products, so if you can eat soy and tofu, it's much easier to stay on plan and not go over the points every single week... darn allergies :(

Thanks for listening to my rant.

It's time to go make a nice Bruschetta & cheese (points) grilled sandwich (using sprouted wheat bread) and a garden salad for my lunch :)

My very first Blog Award!

I am very honoured to have been chosen by Gillian of BrilliantBeads for this award :-)

Thank you very much Gillian!

Here's the story behind this award:

The authors say that blogs who receive this award are exceedingly charming. This blog invests in the PROXIMITY in space, time and relationships. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that even more friendships are propagated.

So, now it's time for me to pass on this award and 'propagate' some friendships!

I'd like to pass this award on to...

Tamara at McFarland Designs

Susmitha at CuteLittlePackage/ArtBySusmitha

and.... last but not least:

Roni at DaisyWares

Keep up the great work ladies... I am so grateful to have you, and all my great blogger friends in my life :-)

It's official, I'm allergic to strawberries :(

Oh how much I loved you... all plump and juicy and sweet... I suspected it, but now it's been confirmed - Fairwell sweet tasty fruit that you are!

Sigh.

I'm really bummed.

I've been suspecting this for a long time, but you see, I have a truckload of allergies (grass, trees including birch trees that grow all over the country, other various pollens, ragweed, various fruits... etc).

I had mainly been eating strawberries in the Spring to early Fall every year, and of course, since I take allergy meds because I have so many allergies that flare up in that same time-frame, I hadn't suspected that the strawberries were making me worst since the meds were toning down the reactions.

But this Fall, I decided to run a test. I totally removed strawberries from my diet up until this week (so a good 3 months), and since it's winter and we've had some deep deep frosty cold weather, I haven't needed to take any allergy meds in a while now (good thing), so this week, I decided to re-introduce strawberries to see what my reaction would be.

Sigh.

I ate some a few nights ago on top of my cereals and milk, and it didn't take too long for my ear canal to start itching (that's because your throat and inner ears start to swell in response to an allergen)... and then my nose started to run, sneezing, allergic rhinitis set in, the whole nine yards.

I gave it a couple of days without touching it again, and last night, I loaded a lot of strawberries on my evening bowl of cereal.

Sure enough, I had another reaction, quite bad actually. I didn't go into anaphalactic shock, this allergy isn't as bad as the one I have to bananas (got my epi pen), but I really had a nasty allergic episode and I took some Benadryl liquid and things calmed down after awhile.

I suspected I was allergic to strawberries for a long time, and I am very much allergic to birch trees, and I have hay fever (both the Spring and Fall kind) and countless other allergies. I get the same reaction that I did to the strawberries from cantaloups, honeydew melons, pears, citrus fruits. It's not a bad to bananas, but bad enough that I really need to stay away from it.

Today I've got a really nasty sinus headache (thanks to the allergic reaction that upsets my head/sinuses to no end). But at least, now I know, and I will keep away from it as of now. It makes me very sad, but I have no choice.

Here's some info about allergies to strawberries.

On another note - I weighed-in this morning for WW and I went up by 0.2 lbs (basically a stand-still). I was expecting a gain because I did eat pizza and chocolate cake on a few occasions this past week (very small portions of cake) for my husband's birthday. I also did not drink all my water every day, and so I'm happy I didn't come out of this with more of a gain.

So, although I feel absolutely miserable and my head wants to explode. I've cooked myself a casserole (kind of a vegan chili, really delicious) and I've been sticking to drinking my water today.

I'm still eating vegetarian, I'm holding strong on my GoVeg pledge that I made on January 1st for the entire month :)

At least I'm not allergic to apples and blueberries (yet!).

Mmmm... Chana Masala :-)

When I used to live in the Caribbean, there was a wonderful small authentic Indian restaurant and we went there on occasion, and they served some really lovely Chana Masala.

I make a bit of a similar 'looking' dish myself from scratch (see my Indian Style Stew), but my own version is more North Americanised in terms of flavors and ingredients.

Anyway, thankfully, President's Choice (Loblaws/Superstore) has a nice line of pretty authentic Indian entrées and other food products, and so last week I grabbed a couple of boxes (frozen entrée) of the President's Choice Chana Masala and, like some of the comments, the flavor is really spot on for authentic Indian Chana Masala flavor. There is too much sauce and not enough chickpeas (the portion showing on the box cover looks more authentic in terms of how it should look, but when you open the box, it's more like chickpeas swiming in a ton of sauce).

None the less, the box contains '2 portions' in the one single bowl, so I heated it up and split the portions and kept some leftover for my lunch today. It's quite delicious and I put it over top of some brown rice to soak up all the lovely sauce (as delicious as naan bread is, I'd have to count my points for that whereas the brown rice is considered Core and I don't have to count it).

For those in Canada or abroad that have access to this PC product, it's really nice to have on standby in the freezer and after a few minutes in the microwave, you find yourself traveling in your mind to exotic India (*wave to my girlfriend Susmitha!*)

I might as well write down what I ate yesterday - Still going Vegeterian and keeping to my pledge!

Breakfast:
Sprouted Bread toasted sandwich (1 Egg and a wee bit of Part-Skim cheese, a bit of ketchup), glass of skim milk.

On a side note: I don't always write down on here what I drink every day, but I basically only drink water, plus a glass or two of skim milk per day, a decaf tea every other night, and the odd diet coke - like when I eat pop corn or pizza.

Lunch:
Leftovers from the night before - Mushroom Onions Whole Wheat Spaghetti.

Dinner:
Brown rice, PC Chana Masala, steamed baby carrots, broccoli and baby corn (the veggies were leftover from another meal)... and I had a very tiny portion of birthday cake (home made on the weekend by mom for my husband's birthday which is today).

Evening snack:
Smart Orville Microwave Pop Corn, a small glass of Diet Coke.

That's it for yesterday!

Tonight we're ordering in pizza for my husband's birthday (his favorite) and I'll get myself a small vegetarian pizza and share it with mom if she wants it, or keep the leftovers for lunch over a few days.

I'm not concerning myself too much with points (although I do enter them all in my WW tracker but I will surely go over) but we basically only order in pizza when it's someone's birthday in the house, and that happens 4 times a year, so I will enjoy it and move on. It's not like we order it every week or something. We don't. I do make some home made ones, which are healthier, but we do like to treat ourselves to 'delivery' for a special occasion here and there, and this is a special occasion :)

Happy Birthday my love!

Day 5 of my 30 GoVeg Pledge

Today I'm starting day No. 5 of my Go Vegetarian for a minimum of 30 days pledge and I gotta say, it's not even a struggle.

Granted, I've been incorporating meals like this in my diet for several years and I enjoy them, so it's not a challenge for me to stick to this so far and it's really helping me stick to my WW Momentum Simply Filling Plan much better :)

Speaking of WW, this is what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast:
A bowl of PC Ancient Grains Cereals topped with wild blueberries, milk and a hint of brown sugar.

Lunch:
A lovely organic corn on the cob (unlike a lot of people, it seems, I prefer to eat my corn on the cob with absolutely nothing on it - i.e. it's not swimming in butter or anything like that. Then you can really taste corn, delicious!).
One of my home made 'Bean Burgers', and a small garden salad with my home made Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar vinaigrette.

Dinner:
A bowl of home made vegetable soup, and for my entrée, Whole Wheat Spaghetti pasta (I love Catelli's Multi-Grain and Whole Wheat Pasta in the brown boxes), topped with fresh mushrooms and onions (that I sautéed in a bit of Olive Oil in a non-stick pan) and to which I added some home made simple tomato sauce. Topped with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese (much tastier than the processed stuff, a little goes a long way).... yummilicious!

Evening snack:
Fresh baby carrots, English cucumber slices, Roasted Garlic Hummus, and a few potato chips.

This is my way to still include (in moderation) a bit of potato chips but without filling up on them like crazy like I used to every night. Filling up on the crunchy baby carrots and cucumber slices dipped in some really flavorful hummus is really satisfying, but I still need that 'potato chip' crunch and flavor from time to time, so having a few as part of my snack is ok. It's a much more healthy way to have them than what I was doing this past year.

Weight Watchers is not a diet, it's focusing on eating healthier, and learning to incorporate the higher calories foods in a much more moderated/natural way.

There's absolutely nothing moderated or natural about eating half a large bag of potato chips every single night... and there's no nutrition in that either. But doing a pretty plate like I did last night, it not only looked and tasted really good, but having it this way, I didn't feel deprived or like I was on a diet, and then I would want to binge on a whole bag of chips at the next turn.

Non-Food Weight Loss Incentive - it works :)

Look at my pretty gel nails --------->

Either I'm fortunate or I'm not, depending on how you look at it, but I have 'experience' at weight loss, from multiple past attempts throughout my life, and if I've learned anything, it's that having some non-food incentives/rewards along the way helps to keep you going.

My mom had some gel nails done earlier in December (both her and I are unfortunately blessed with nails that split and tear very easily), and she loved them so much that when it came time to get hers filled in again, she graciously offered to pay for me to get mine done because she is happy that I decided to put my health first this year.

Anyway, we had them done a couple of days ago and I just snapped this picture quickly in my jewelry lightbox (it's too early and too dark to get any decent light in the house) to show you how they look.

I have to admit that I had given up a long time ago on taking care of my nails and hands with manicures, because working with metal isn't kind on the hands and unless you redo your nailpolish like every other day (which I have no natural inclination to do), your color will chip, look faded, etc.

And you will notice that I did not get my nails 'extended' because I want them to grow naturally in length, and I want to get used to them getting a bit longer as time goes by, otherwise I won't know how to handle some of my files and tools or even keyboard! LOL... I'm so used to my nails being trimmed very short because otherwise they tear and split that I'm going to need a bit of time to get used to this, but so far, so good :)

Now, the incentive part: Since these need to be filled-in/reworked approx. every 3 weeks, mom offered to pay for each subsequent maintenance appointment if I show a weight-loss averaging 1 lb per week in between appointments (so, a minimum of 3lbs lost per 3 week period for example), and if I don't meet that goal, then I gotta pay for the $35 (US$29) appointment myself for that period.

Not a bad little 'wager' of sorts if you ask me ;-)

I'm happy about it - I've never had my nails look this good (and I know that a lot of women's nails look much better than this, but for me, this is honestly a huge improvement).

Hey! If I keep this up, losing the weight and keeping lovely nails, I might actually be able to 'model' the rings I make for sale in my shops' pictures!

I should also write what I ate yesterday, while I'm at it:

Breakfast (more like Brunch - I slept in):

Pan fried (in a wee bit of olive oil, non-stick pan) cooked potatoes (thinly sliced up cooked round potatoes leftoever from another meal), an egg, a piece of sprouted grain toast and a bit of olive oil margarine on it.

Lunch:

Home made refried lentils burrito with all the fixin's (leftover mix I wanted to finish up - love leftovers!)

Dinner:

Sweet potatoes, lots of steamed vegetables (baby carrots, broccoli, mini corn cobs), and one of my 'Bean burger' patties topped with a bit of ketchup, and a few large olives on the side.

I also had a very small (we're talking 3-4 bites with a desert spoon here) piece of home made cake that mom made. DH has to have desert every night with his dinner (talk about a sweet tooth!) and his birthday is Tuesday, so mom made his cake early since she was out of desert for him. So I had a wee piece while it's ultra fresh... and yes, I counted my flex points for it :)

Evening snack:

I had some 'Smart' Orville Pop Corn with some Diet Coke.

And now it's time for this morning's breakfast... have a super day!

4 lbs gone forever :-) My first WW Weigh-in...

Good morning!

It's indeed a very good morning here....

The sun is shining brightly, the sky is blue, the white snow is sparkling like diamonds, and it's Saturday. How I love Saturdays LOL

And, of course, today was actually the day for me to weigh-in and confirm how much weight I lost on my first week back on WW, using the new Momentum 'Simply Filling' (old WW Core revamped a bit) plan.

Drum roll.....

I lost 4 pounds. Right on the dot! How's that for a great start :)

I know that some of it is water weight, but even at that, I've never lost 4 lbs on the first week of ANY plan, AND, most importantly, I made some very healthy food choices and I wasn't hungry at all because I ate as much as I wanted, as long as I kept listening to my body and not overstuff myself... i.e. eating only until I was 'satisfied' and I feel really great.

Yesterday was Day 2 of my Vegetarian pledge and it went really well.

Here's what I had yesterday for food:

Breakfast:
Mushroom omelette (onions, mushrooms, 1 egg + 2 egg whites, 1 Tbsp of salsa, a sprinkle of part-skim shredded cheddar cheese), and a small (end piece) sprouted grains bread topped with a wee bit of Becel Olive Oil Spread.

Lunch:
A large refried Lentils Burrito (home made from scratch), filled with the lentil mix, fresh lettuce, fresh tomatoes, a bit of low fat sour cream and a sprinkle of part-skim shredded cheddar cheese and salsa.

Dinner:
Kidney Beans 'Burger' with bun (the kidney beans patty is home made from scratch, topped with fresh sliced tomatoes and a bit of ketchup and mustard), with a nice garden salad and my home made olive oil & Balsamic vinegar vinaigrette, and a piece of my home made fruit crisp (the President's Choice recipe that I mentionned the other night using Maple Syrup, fresh apples, PC's Ancien Grains cereals -mashed up into medium crumbs- and some quick cooking oatmeal and a bit of veg oil).

I had a tea with mom in the evening using our fabulous little tea pot (perfect for 2 large cups of tea, or 3 small ones) that I bought on Etsy from a VEGAN (bonus!) potter just before the holidays as a little gift for mom and I, because we do love our Earl Grey Decaf Tea so much. You can see our realy cute teapot right here. I fell in love with it when I saw it...


I wasn't hungry in the evening, so I didn't grab an evening snack... we ate our dinner a bit later than usual.

So, onward we move for another week!

It is important to remind ourselves that we are what we eat, and that it benefits our body temendously when we make healthier food choices. It doesn't have to be perfect, but the more we choose better food items for ourselves, the better we will feel.

Have a super day!

First Official Vegetarian Day!

I hope you're all having a terrific first day of this brand spankin' New Year!

Today was my first official day as a Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarian, and I am very excited and happy about the 30-day Pledge to go Veg that I signed up for.
If you've been reading my blog for the past few weeks, you know that I've decided to take much better care of my health and my body this year, and that I also started my Pet Project last month, so I have a few things to update everybody on, and let's start with the pledge first and foremost:

* * * * * * * * * *

Full Petition Text (from the PETA website):

I want to eat better, feel better, and stop supporting cruelty to animals raised for food. In addition to helping animals, I also want to help feed the hungry and fight climate change by choosing vegetarian meals. By signing my name, I pledge to go vegetarian for at least 30 days.

Signed by:

Nathalie Girard

* * * * * * * * * *

So it's official - I had signed the petition a few days ago when I first posted about it, so today I'm posting it here to make it official :)

I think I was unsubconciously ready for this for awhile, but I hadn't taken the time to actually stop and question myself.

I don't know if I should post everything that I eat on here - whether you'd find it interesting or not, but I'd certainly like to share some more recipes and snack ideas. I think that trying out new things is always fun and there's also some interesting products on the market and unless we talk about them, then we might not get to find out about them.
So, today (so far), I've had:

Breakfast:
A bowl of President's Choice Ancient Grains Organic Cereals with frozen wild blueberries (just flash frozen blueberries, no other ingredients), skim milk, and a touch of dark brown sugar.

I HIGHLY recommend the PC Ancient Grains cereals. I've been eating them for several years on and off, and they are delicious and have absolutely no sugars, no chemicals, no soy (!). My mom tried them for the first time today and she really enjoyed them too. She still mixed in a bit of her 'high sugar' Raisin Bran cereals, but she replaced the majority of it with the PC Ancient Grains cereals in her bowl, and I know that this is definitely an improvement for her too. (I'm proud of you mom!)

Lunch:
I made a Whole Wheat Spaghetti 'Fritatta' type of casserole dish. I took the recipe from a new recipe book that mom and I bought yesterday, and the recipe needs a bit of tweaking for me to like it 'better' but it was good and I've made notes and will transform it into my own much tastier recipe. Mom and I still enjoyed it and it was filling too.

I'll post my own improved version of this dish when I make it again. It's definitely quick and easy!

Dinner:
I had home made vegetable soup, a garden salad topped with a bit of my home made Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar vinaigrette (yum!), and since time totally got away on me this afternoon, I had Amy's Kitchen Vegetable Lasagna. It was absolutely DELICIOUS! I had never tried this one before, but it tasted just like if I had made it myself from scratch at home. It is made of all natural organic ingredients, no chemicals of any kind, no MSG (I get migraines from MSG). I heated it up in the oven, and it was absolutely perfect, tasty and filling. Gotta love Amy's kitchen!

And this evening I'll either make myself one of my Mexican Tortilla/Burrito wrap for a snack, or pop some pop-corn, or have some of the Maple Berry Crisp (A PC Ancient Grains, Oats, Maple syrup - organic syrup - and berries or apple) I'm about to start baking now in a few minutes :-)

And of course, I drink my water and enter my food choices on my WW Momentum tracker!

Oh, and this morning I weighed myself because for some reason, I thought it was Saturday already (duh!!!) and I'm down 3 lbs since I started WW up again last Saturday (I know it's mainly water-retention weight, but I do feel better and I'm not kidding you when I say that I ate a TRUCKLOAD of healthy foods. I feel good!)

Happy New Year & January's Pet Project Donation

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I want to wish you all a fantastic 2009, filled with health, love, happiness, wealth, and for all your dreams to come true.

I also wanted to announce the rescue group that I have selected for the month of January, as part of my on-going Pet Project where we are donating 5% of all my monthly sales to a selected local Animal Rescue Group, but as a family/household, we are also personally 'matching' that 5% as well, so that makes 10% in total.

So, this is to officially announce that 5% of January's sales (plus my family's matching amount) will be donated to the Misty Creek Dog Rescue in the province of Alberta - Misty Creek Dog Rescue is a no kill Animal Rescue Organisation - Because of their strict no-kill mandate, dogs may stay at the shelter for years until they are successfully placed with a suitable family. Working closely with foster home volunteers, they have saved over 1300 dogs since 1998.

There are several various animal rescue (including wildlife rescue) organisations in my City and Province and so I select one of these organisations every month to make our donations to.

Working for a more peaceful and loving world, one day at a time.