Saturday, October 20, 2007

Good times at Tofu High

Greetings my fellow adventurers,

Well today is day 2, and it was a pretty good day, aside from the rain, which thankfully held off until I was to work. The morning routine was a walk to work, accompanied by some fruit. A good ol' apple. And another when I got to work. Break with a banana and some nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds) and lunch peanut butter sandwich on whole grain molassus bread. Which is pretty tasty stuff if I may say so myself.

A word on labeling. I drank my last can of pop today (broke down and got a 7UP - which is now touted as being completely natural btw) and, as Amira informed - there are things like Sodium Benzoate and all sorts of other scary sounding chemicals in those. Not to mention 42g of sugar. In one little can. Freaked me right out.

Also - did you know, that most conventional maple syrups, like the discount brands and even the trusted Aunt Jemima, only contain about 15% real maple syrup. Makes me wonder what the other 85% is.

Other than that - I find my appetite is more under control, and that I require smaller portions of food in order to feel satisfied with my meal. Also, I already feel less fatigued after a meal. For example, beforehand, I'd go to Superstore or McDonalds and get a meal. Eat it, it'd be tasty, but I'd be sluggish all afternoon. So then I'd get a pepsi, but that would just get me jittery. Meanwhile now - I'm eating mostly grains, nuts and fruits for lunch, and I find I'm alert throughout the workday, and I'm not having any issues getting to sleep at night at regularish times (around 11-12). I also have less compulsion to snack, and when I do its an apple or some nuts or something along those lines.

In case you can't tell, even though its just day two, I'm feeling extremely pumped about what I've been able to accomplish so far. Family will tell you that this is extremely out of sync with what my eating habits were six months ago, even six days ago.

And if I can figure out how to make tofu better, we'd be in some proper business. I'm sure it comes with experience, like with any cooking. By the end of these three weeks, watch out. I'm thinking tomorrow I might tackle a stuffed pepper. See what I can come up with.

And so, without any more adieu, my dinner (Camera was out, and ran out of batteries, sorry again). It started with sunflower oil, sauteeing garlic, ginger and onion. I then added green pepper, red potato (grown in NS), celery and carrots, along with tofu. Spiced it up with some cayenne and black pepper, garnished with some lemon, added rice and voila. A meal. And it wasn't too bad. I was confused on how to cook tofu, but I think I've got it figured out. At least for now.

Well, that's it for today on the trials and triumphs of a new vegetarian. On an ending plus-note, a coworked brought in McDonald's today and the fry smell had no effect.

Cheers all

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh god, you must have a strong will, if I smelled McDonalds french fries...I think I would cave...one of my favourite foods!!! Keep it up Keck sounds like your doing great!!!

Anonymous said...

Sounds delicious. All I know about tofu is that it takes the flavour of whatever you cook it with.. and you basically just use it as a meat alternative.. like, cut it up and use it in sauce with some pasta. Mm!