Happy Herbivore Meal Plan: Curried Red Lentil Soup

Happy Herbivore Meal Plan Curried Red Lentil Soup

I used some orange lentils I had in the pantry (which turned very yellow). This is a good soup and easy to make. Just a lot of chopping of onion and carrot. Can be a little spicy, so you might want to reduce some of the spices depending on your tastes. Generous portion size is still low-cal.

Review

Me: Very good.

Happy Herbivore Meal Plan: Kale Waldorf Salad

 Kale Waldorf Salad, Happy Herbivore Meal Plan

This Kale Waldorf Salad is very easy to make, and very filling. I chopped baby kale (from Costco) with my ulu knife (which I learned about from Chef AJ*). Lucky me got to pick apples off my backyard tree and make this sweet and tangy and nearly fat-free salad. There are some walnuts in the salad and dressing, but no added oil. Lots of nice crunch and tang.

Reviews:
Me: Loved it!

* See Hale to the Kale post.

Happy Herbivore Meal Plan: Oatmeal

This was supposed to be Cinnamon Banana Oatmeal, but I was out of banana. Luckily it's fig season at my house and the fig tree is having a really good year. I loved toasting the oatmeal first. It made the oatmeal stay kind of light and flaky versus mushy. I don't like mushy oatmeal!  I made a double or triple amount so I didn't have to make oatmeal two mornings in a row. I added a little non-dairy creamer and a very tiny drizzle of agave. Maybe I can wean myself off the agave. But I was a good girl and left off the vegan margarine I normally would have added.

Reviews:
Me: Loved it.

Trying the Happy Herbivore Meal Plan again...

 My weight has just been inching up and up and it's hit another number that scares me! (170 lbs.) The "Vegan-Modified Paleo" was not working for me...sooo hard to get protein and I just didn't feel good. I lost about 5 pounds, but gained it right back.

Last week I added back in exercise...made it to the pool three times! Yeah! And gained 2 pounds! Ha!

This week I will keep up the physical end as well as watch the calorie intake and see if I can gain some ground. Or should I say lose it? Gain ground, not weight! Lose weight, gain ground!

So, I am going to give Lindsay Nixon's Happy Herbivore Meal Plan another try, maybe even trying to stick with it until the New Year and see if the pounds "melt off." I've yet to have pounds melt off me and I'd like to see what that feels like! Also in the mix soon is a CPAP machine. Hoping that helps with energy levels and all that.

I was pretty good yesterday (and so far this morning) and have followed the plan and made some food ahead so I won't get caught with my hand in the cookie jar. Or the Halloween Candy jar...

What pushed me over the line to try this again was Linsday's email about her plan. She herself had lost some weight, but was gaining it back. Once she started following her own meal plans strictly, she lost 15 pounds in a couple of months. There's no magic to it, and this isn't an endorsement, but we all know that if someone lays out a plan for us, it's easier to stick to. She also includes all recipes, and a shopping list. So, here I go.

Of course I won't be listing every single item or her recipes (unless I change them drastically) since this is her business and you should buy her plan if you want to follow it. I will list only what she already lists on her site about the plan (before purchasing), which is usually the names of the dishes. What you'll get from me is a photo (mine), comments and maybe some suggestions on changes or remarks on how I changed it for my diet or likes.

New meal plans are released every Wednesday...

Current release date: October 9, 2013

Individual Plan Highlights

Kale Waldorf Salad (NEW!)
Curried Red Lentil Soup (NEW!)
Farro, Apple & Pecan Salad (NEW!)
Quick Carrot Curry Soup (NEW!)
Cinnamon-Apple Oatmeal
Cauliflower Risotto
Lentil Chili
Chipotle Cakes
Blueberry Parfait
Adobo Tostados

Family Plan Highlights

Kale Waldorf Salad (NEW!)
Curried Red Lentil Soup (NEW!)
Farro, Apple & Pecan Salad (NEW!)
Garlic & Kale Soup
Asian Bowl
Easy Spinach Wrap
Toasted Oatmeal
Southwest Burgers
Vegetable Pinwheels
Breakfast Roll-Up

The Happy Herbivore Meal Plan–Easy Enchilada Bake

This is pretty good, although I would double the enchilada sauce. The entire recipe seems to make more than 4 servings in reality. It's great with a dollop of vegan sour cream on top. With eating a smaller serving, I think you would balance out the calories of the added sour cream and the extra sauce. (I used the Happy Herbivore Enchilada Sauce on page 260 and reduced the chili powder a little.)

Changes I made: I added the corn into the enchilada layers. I cooked half in the microwave and half in the toaster oven. I used more olives than called for.

Changes I would make in the future: Double the sauce–it seems a little dry. Add the sauce in each layer. Use whole black beans instead of refried. Whole beans would be easier to add to each layer. Maybe throw in a little Daiya cheese in each layer, watching out for total calorie count.

Reviews
The Man and Me: Liked it. Thought it was a little dry.
The Girl: Tried it, but said the sauce "Tasted funny."

The Happy Herbivore Meal Plan-Pineapple Teriyaki Chickpea

This may look familiar to you since it is very similar to Lindsay's "Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki" featured a couple of posts earlier.

This is a simpler version with fewer ingredients. You can use bottled teriyaki sauce or make your own (many recipes on the internet). Two changes I made: 1. I used cooked millet in place of the quinoa. 2. I put most of my pineapple IN with the garbanzo beans when I sauteed them in the sauce.

I like this as did The Man. The Girl doesn't like garbanzo beans any more so I didn't try. I LOVE millet now, which I made in my rice cooker after dry-toasting in a skillet.

We also had this for lunch cold on a bed of romaine lettuce. Great way to add greens to this!

The Happy Herbivore Meal Plan-Crisps

I'm taking a little side-trip here to report on The Happy Herbivore's 7-day Meal Plan items. I'm not doing them in order, since I am trying to use up food I already have before shopping again or making things I know (think?) The Girl might actually eat. As with all the recipes on this site, I make reference to what I might have changed, but I won't be posting the actual recipe. If Lindsay has it on her site, I will link it. I'll refer to these as "MP" for meal plan.

One of the breakfast recipes is Pineapple Crisp, but since I have a lovely bag of frozen mixed berries, I made a Mixed Berry Crisp the first day and an Apricot Crisp the next. Couldn't get The Girl to eat either of these, but everyone else in the family liked them. For those not dieting, the crisps are excellent topped with either ice cream coconut cream. I also had mine with a dollop of plain unsweetened soy yogurt, which I think is still within the spirit of "low-cal."

 

When I followed her instructions for mixing the crisp ingredients with agave, I got a bit of a hardened lump, but when I accidentally forgot to use agave and used sugar instead, the crisp was much crispier. I simply substituted frozen mixed berries (after thawing in the micro) and then fresh apricots in my two versions.

The Happy Herbivore webpage lists a similar recipe, but with added sugar. Blueberry Crisp.