Day 2!

I prepared adequately for today and the next few days with a trip yesterday afternoon to Sprouts (formerly Sunflower) Farmers Market. This supermarket (they call themselves a farmers market, but really it is a health nut's dream grocery store) is a wonderful place with an abundance of fresh produce, affordable Organic produce and tons of reasonably priced healthy items that many neighborhood supermarkets overprice with a convenience charge. I made quinoa tacos for dinner. I couldn't find a recipe that I was satisfied with so I made up my own and they were amazing!

 1 cup cooked Quinoa
 1 cup soaked walnuts
 1 onion
 5 cloves garlic
 3 hot peppers (less depending on spice level desired)
 1 can Rotel tomatoes
 2.5 TBS Sunflower Taco / Fajita seasoning
 1 TBS safflower oil or olive oil, grapeseed oil, etc.
 2 key limes

Served with:
Corn tortillas or any vegan friendly tortillas of your choosing
Fresh pico de gallo (1 Bunch cilantro leaves, 3 Roma tomatoes, 4 jalepenos, 1 onion, 2 key limes juiced)
shredded lettuce
Sour cream and cheese (for other members of the household who innocently walked into this)

I measured out 1 cup of dry quinoa and cooked that with 2 cups water for 25-30 min. Make sure you rinse the quinoa first!!! This turned out to be about 4 cups cooked quinoa which was entirely too much as I really only needed about 1 cup cooked because I decided for texture I wanted to use one cup of walnuts as well, soak walnuts for an hour in water then grind down in the food processer til they look meaty!! :)  I had a lot of left over cooked quinoa, about 3 cups worth! But this wasn't really a problem, a learning curve yes, but indeed a blessing because I made a nice fruit salad with raspberries, apples and oranges for breakfast this morning, using some of the left over protein packed super grain. But back to these amazing tacos.  I sauteed  in about 1 TBS of safflower oil : 5 cloves garlic (minced), 1 medium sized diced yellow onion, 2 chopped jalepenos and 1 serano, I added to this one can of Rotel tomatoes, about 2.5 tbs of a salt-free taco seasoning blend and then the processed walnuts and let this cook down for a few minutes before folding in the cup of cooked quinoa finishing with the juice of 2 key limes and some fresh cilantro. And it was done! Super easy. I served on corn or flour (lardless) tortillas with fresh pico de gallo I made and some shredded lettuce with a squirt of lime and it tasted amazing I really didn't miss the meat! My boyfriend David also loved them, he added some colby jack cheese and sour cream but said he'd eat these over ground beef tacos any day! Which made me feel really great about this and is why I decided to share the recipe. 

Lunch today was the leftover tacos from last night (just as delicious).

Tonight is the only night this week David and I have off together. We really enjoy grilling out so instead of the usual jalapeno burgers, sirloin steak or cedar plank salmon, this evening we will be grilling up some Tofurky Beer Brats paired with homemade (baked) french fries and a couple beers... It's shaping up to be a perfect night! 

Plant Based Diet

I'm inspired to try out a plant based diet. I'm going to give it a whirl for 2 weeks and see where it leads. I know I'm going to need to document the positives as well as the challenges for this to be a success. I figured the infancy of my blog would be the best way to keep on online journal of my quest.
So today is day one and I've decided to make a vegetable stock in my crock pot so that my family and I may enjoy delicious, animal protein free soup! In addition I think I'm going to try out quinoa tacos and a multitude of  the vegan recipes I've looked longingly upon but my carnivorous soul has been too pompous to try.
I'm entering this way of eating for a number of reasons: I am currently recovering from a cold and am hoping this will aid my immune system by reducing inflammation.  I have been feeling very sluggish and tired lately like my body is screaming for help!  School is starting in a week and I feel this will give me a head start with a clear head. Also I recently watched the documentary Forks over Knives and I can't stop thinking about it!

The spirit of the uniform

It's my 6th day in a row and there is an unidentifiable substance on my apron that I just don't have time to wash, I put on my low cut black shirt and short skirt and finally the sassy fishnet tights and 2 inch non-skide-sqe heals that uniform I wear to work each day. Apparently this look is a refreshing contrast for our guests err half our guests to what the male waiters wear and I wish I could say they wear a banana hammock and a little bow tie. But how I envy the male waiters in their standard black pants, white oxford shirt and black tie. See I'm serving steaks here, not providing lap dances and peep shows. For anyone who has ever been a server in any kind of restaurant knows the slippery back of the house conditions and that extremely fast paced, sense of urgency necessary to ensure and provide the guest with everything they need for our 20% pay off. This uniform, it adds another element... an entire new dimension to the job!