Shoes are on the Way!

I am SO excited!  I went to my WW meeting on Tuesday night and hit my short term goal of losing 45 pounds!  That means I get to order my vegan Saucony shoes that I have been wanting for awhile.  My next goal is 50 pounds and I am thinking of downloading a cd that I have been wanting. 

I Love My Crockpot!

   

I have started to use my crockpot a lot lately.  It is so convenient on days when I get home from work and then have a Weight Watchers meeting or something else I have to go to.  It's so nice to just have dinner ready when I get home.  However, before recently, I have never really used the crockpot that much.  I don't really like a pot of beans as dinner.  Sometimes it's nice, but most of the time I am craving something with more "substance."  I posted a crockpot recipe back in January for Spinach Tofu in a Peanut Coconut Sauce that is amazing and so easy!  Now I have been finding new recipes that don't have beans or beans are not the "main feature" of the recipe.  Last week I tried a pot pie recipe from this cookbook:

I was not crazy about this particular pot pie recipe, but with some tweeking and adjustments, I think it could be really good.  I also marked a lot of pages in this cookbook to try later.  I also love browsing the Fat Free Vegan crockpot recipes.  Do you have any tried and true crockpot recipes?  I would love to know! 

Here are some more veg*n crockpot sites that I have not tried yet:

The Saavy Vegetarian

VegWeb Crockpot Recipes

About.com Veg Crockpot recipes

Working Out in the Winter

Working out during the winter is always a bit of a challenge.  I hate working out in gyms but often it's too cold or gross to get outside.  So.....what usually happens is that my working out slacks a lot during the cold months.  However, for Christmas I got the Nintendo Wii Fit Plus and then got the Wii Active a few weeks ago.  I really like both of them but for different reasons.  The Active is definitely more of an intense workout leaving me feeling very sore for a few days following. 

 The Wii Fit Plus has a lot of fun games and I LOVE the yoga.  It has been such a saving grace this winter having these programs to supplement my workouts.

  I still try to get out as much as possible to take these guys out for walks, but sometimes winter weather keeps me from being able to do that.  

2 Muffin Recipes

Both of these muffin recipes were adapted from the Fat Free Vegan website.  I have modified both of these recipes.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins 


Pre heat oven to 375 degrees

-2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour
-1/4 cup of agave nectar (you can use sugar but I prefer agave nectar-if you use sugar, use about 1/2 cup)
-1 TBSP baking powder
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1/4 tsp nutmeg
-1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice (optional)
-1 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree
-1/4 cup of raisins (you can use more if you like, I am just trying to keep the calories lower)
-1/2 cup of water

Mix dry ingredients.

Then add the pumpkin, agave, water and raisins and mix well.

Put mix into a sprayed muffin pan.  Bake 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove and let stand for 5 minutes.

According to my calculations, you can have 2 muffins for 3 points on WW.


Blueberry Muffins 


Set oven to 375 degrees

-3/4 cup soymilk
-1/2 cup applesauce
-1/4 cup water
-1 tsp vanilla
-2 cups whole wheat pastry flour on white whole wheat flour
-1/4 cup + 2 TBSP agave nectar (or 1/2 cup sugar)
-3 tsps baking powder
-1 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp cinnamon
-1 cup blueberries

Mix dry ingredients and then add wet ingredients to the dry mixture.  Put batter in a muffin pan.  This recipe can make either 12 big muffins or around 18 smaller muffins depending on what you want.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let sit for 5 minutes.

For 12 muffins, 2 muffins = 3 pts for WW.

The pumpkin muffin recipe is definitely my favorite, but I hope you enjoy both!  :)

Skinny Bitch

I just finished reading Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin a couple of days ago.  I liked the book a lot.  It's definitely a different approach to veganism!  I think I liked this book so much because it reaches out to a different demographic that might not otherwise read about factory farms and other types of cruelty to animals.  It also touches on not believing everything you see on packaging and labels (Chapter 9-Have No Faith).  I know that Food Revolution by John Robbins went into much greater detail about factory farms, the horror of dairy and just veganism in general, but there's something about an "easier" vegan book that's definitely appealing to me.  I think my favorite quote from the book had to be this:

"So before you say, 'I could never give up meat,' realize that nearly every single vegetarian on the planet said those same words.  Then shut the fuck up, look at an inspirational picture of a skinny bitch, and clean out your freezer."

This quote made me laugh so hard.  So many other parts of this book made me laugh out loud too.  So many articles and books about veganism hurt my heart when I read about all of cruelty, this book was just a refreshing mix of serious and funny.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is curious about veganism, already a vegan or just interested in other important things such as the government's role in our food.