POWer Pate

Unprocessed, p. 87

POW= Peas, Onion, Walnuts. This is a very simple dish to make. I processed it first in my food processor then put some in the VitaMix to make a smoother pate consistency. I liked it with a dash of salt and a squirt of lemon and served in lettuce wraps. It is very sweet and the pea flavor is very bright. I made a half recipe and this is more than enough for a couple of meals for me or for serving as a dip at a party. I'd really like to know the fat and protein info on this.

Lovely color for a St. Patrick's Day Party!

Did the DD eat it? Hasn't tried it.

DH: Liked it. Thought it was guacamole before I told him what was in it.

Would I make this again? Yes! Very tasty.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Forks

Chocolate Covered Cherry Smoothie

 Unprocessed, p. 93

I didn't have the cacao (I used cocoa), chocolate nibs, prepared chocolate flavored almond milk or the Cherry Butter, but I did use frozen cherries and a fresh banana. I added a wee bit of vanilla and was totally lazy and used agave instead of dates for sweetener, but I went easy on it. I made almond milk fresh from un-soaked almonds and filtered it a couple times to get the skins and bigger chunks out.

I cut the recipe in half and that was perfect for one person–it made a larger glass than shown. And I ate nothing else for that meal.

I like this and would make it again. I'm planning on eating from "Unprocessed" all this week, so there will be several posts and pictures.

Did the DD eat it? I didn't serve it to her, but she has had smoothies like this in the past. My guess is yes.

Would I make this again? Yes, I like this smoothie.

Rating: Salad: 4 out of 5 Forks

Update on the Project 3/12

I stopped working on this blog sometime last summer. Just fell away from it. In August I attended the first-ever Vida Vegan Bloggers Conference in Portland and spent a week in Vegan Heaven. (Vegan corn dogs. Three vegan bakeries. Vegan donuts. Vegan pizza with "cheese.") Portland wasn't just vegan-friendly. It was a vegan orgy.

And I gained 10 pounds, up to about 169 lbs. (Maybe I saw 170, I dunno, I'm in denial.)

And THEN, I went to Raleigh, NC for a business conference and met up with two new vegan buddies from the Bloggers conference who showed me MORE vegan restaurants and MORE lovely high calorie vegan food. (Vegan chocolate cake, a vegan "chicken-fried steak" big enough to feed a vegan Paul Bunyan, and to top it off, a sinfully rich vegan "Sopapilla" which is essentially a fried cheesecake.)

Oh gawd.

After I got back, I joked I needed a Raw Cleanse.

And then I did one! Three weeks of raw food, three (or more) times a day! Almost all my meals are recorded here on this blog for that time period. It was OK, but I have to admit I think my photographs look better than most of the food tasted. But it DID adjust my taste-buds and I lost a little weight. Not a lot of weight, which was discouraging. But it was a solid 5 pounds that stayed off.

Then, I found out I needed surgery. (Long story short: they found a cyst on an ovary and the only way to make sure it was nothing was by taking it out. It was a benign type, it was removed, along with my ovaries. I was pretty much done with menopause anyway.) Surgery was supposed to be in mid-December, but it got changed to early January.

This puts me to today, in the beginning of March, 2012, ready for a change.

I'm about 98% recovered from the surgery, am moving around and feeling like getting back to my daily work (organizing) as well as this blog and cooking and photographing from the books. And now I really need to get my strength back since abdominal surgery knocks you off your feet for weeks and your core muscles come back very slowly.

My sisters are coming for a visit in May, and we could all stand to lose some weight, so we have thrown down a challenge to one another to make it happen by mid-May. I'm trying for 2 pounds a week, which would be 20 pounds and put me around 145. I'd be happy with 10, but let's aim high!