Abundance Diet, Day 15

I forgot to even mention in yesterday's weekend wrap-up post that I'm more than halfway through with my 28-day Abundance Diet challenge. January 31st is my last day, and I'm getting closer. Not that I'm really longing for it to be over though. I'm actually really loving this whole foods-based, white sugar-free, gluten-free, low-oil diet.

Typically, when I do these similar cleanses every year, I spend the last couple weeks counting down the days until I can have a cupcake. And don't get me wrong, I am pretty excited about that. But I'm also still looking forward to trying more of Somer McCowan's Abundance Diet recipes for the next two weeks. Her meals are so flavorful and hearty and creative that I don't even miss my old junk food-heavy diet.

Today started with a 4-mile run around 9 a.m. I was off work for Martin Luther King Day, so I got to sleep in a bit. After my run, I had this Apple Pie Green Smoothie — apples, banana, dates, spinach, flax, cinnamon, and Vega One French Vanilla protein powder. So naturally sweet and tasted like apple pie!

Since I was off work, I got started early with my food prep for tomorrow. That's the only downside to following the meal plan included in the book — LOTS of meal prep and cooking. It could be much easier if you choose to just make a full recipe of each dish and eat leftovers for four days. But I'm following the meal plan and halving each recipe to only make two servings so I get more variety throughout the month. And that means more cooking. But I enjoy it most of the time. Today, it was nice since I had all the time in the world. After I got some of tomorrow's meals started, I dug into the lunch for today that I'd prepared the night before. First, there was Asian Cabbage Salad with Wasabi Chickaeas & Oranges.

Isn't it so pretty? This super colorful slaw is made with green and purple cabbage, orange segments, cilantro, and a mixture of roasted wasabi chickpeas and edamame. The recipe suggests edamame as an alternative to chickpeas, but I used both since I had some edamame in the freezer that needed using. The dressing is a creamy sesame sauce. 

For the rest of my lunch, I had this Cheesy Smoky Spicy Black Bean Soup. It's LOADED with nooch, and it gets its spiciness from cayenne and its smokiness from smoked paprika. It was supposed to also have Anaheim pepper, which might have upped the spicy factor, but I couldn't find those around here so I left it out. It's served with Somer's homemade Cashew Sour Cream. I'm a huge fan of black bean soup, and this one did not disappoint.

I ate lunch pretty late in the day — around 3 p.m. — so it was enough to fuel me through my 5:30 p.m. hula-hoop class. After class, I snacked on some more Hot Spinach & Artichoke Dip with veggies. You may remember this from my day one post. Somer's plan repeats the snacks after two weeks, so my snacks this week will be the same ones I ate the first week. Luckily, I made enough spinach dip the first week to freeze several individual portions.

Dinner was another repeat too. Two of the meals on the plan repeat later in the month, just because the main dishes section of the book didn't have enough meals to allow for them not repeating a couple. But this one — the Cheesy Cauliflower Potato Bake — is the only one I'm repeating because I have dining out plans on both nights the other meal is supposed to repeat next week. I don't mind eating this again though because it's my second favorite dinner on the plan so far (the first fave was that cauliflower crust pizza!).

This is a super-simple casserole of chopped potatoes and cauliflower with a cheesy cashew sauce. You can't go wrong with potatoes and cheese. And roasted cauliflower!

Abundance Diet, Days 12-14

It's been a lovely, relaxing weekend on the Abundance Diet with lots of yoga, some meditation, running, some eating out, and most importantly, dessert! Oh, and a little red wine because antioxidants.

On Friday morning, I went for a nice 4-mile run, and then I had the same meals I ate on Tuesday. The Abundance Diet meal plan in Somer McCowan's cookbook employs the "eat-on-repeat" technique, meaning you repeat an entire day's meals every three days in one week's time. On Friday, that meant another chia-peach smoothie (with Vega One protein powder this time!), lentil taco salad, chipotle corn chowder, oil-free hummus, and cauliflower crust pizza (my fave meal on the diet so far!).

The Abundance Diet allows for healthy desserts on Saturdays and Sundays, but I'm often going to be eating my desserts on Fridays and Saturdays since those are the real weekend nights to me. On Friday night, I whipped up this yummy bowl of Cherry Garcia Soft Serve to enjoy while rewatching The Labyrinth for the millionth time. This is just made from frozen bananas, frozen cherries, and carob chips. So healthy and delicious!

On Saturday, I mostly repeated the meals from Wednesday, except on weekends on the Abundance Diet, your breakfast is a solid food meal rather than a green smoothie. And my Saturday morning breakfast was ridiculously beautiful and delicious. Check out these Neopolitan Overnight Oats!

The bottom layer is chocolate steel cut overnight oats with chia seeds and date paste. That's topped with a layer of banana soft serve. And then there's a layer of vanilla steel cut overnight oats with chia seeds. And that's all topped with cherry-banana soft serve. It was basically dessert for breakfast, and it was the best thing ever. By the way, the recipe calls for strawberries for the top layer, but I'd already purchased a bag of frozen cherries for Friday night's ice cream, so it made more sense to use those.

I'll typically have my second weekend dessert on Saturday nights, but since this is a three-day weekend (due to MLK Day on Monday), I saved my second dessert for Sunday night. We watched an old Jane Fonda movie at my friend Andy's house late Saturday night, and I snacked on some of the gluten-free cheesy crackers from the cookbook.

Sunday morning started with one of my favorite breakfast foods — pudla!!! I often make these savory Indian chickpea flour pancakes for weekday breakfasts, but it's been awhile. Somer's Vegetable Pudla is an oil-free version chock full of spinach, parsley, onion, and tomato. So good! I ate this in my PJs while watching Lost (I'm FINALLY almost done!).

My Goddess Provisions box arrived on Friday, and while I typically devote an entire post to it, this month, I'm just wrapping it into this one since I have so many cleanse posts to share this month. It played a big role in my weekend fun! There were Still bath salts by Being (with pink salt, ylang ylang, and geranium), a vanilla-amber oil fragrance inspired by the goddess Pavarti from The Goddess Line, the most amazing lip tint by Concrete Minerals, a tangerine quartz point for releasing that which doesn't serve us, and Meditation chocolate by Yes Cacao.

My Abundance Diet cleanse is supposed to be white sugar-free. But I made small exception for the Gaba Baba chocolate bar (it has evaporated cane juice). It's loaded with GABA, kava, blue lotus, and turmeric to help ease us into a meditative state. So I ate a few squares on Sunday morning before my yoga session. It helped me relax and get into the right mindset. And it was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

I typically go out to brunch at Imagine Vegan Cafe every Sunday, but the brunch bitches were all tied up this weekend. So, after yoga, I went solo to grab some lunch at 2 Vegan Sistas, a high-raw cafe in Bartlett. I love this place and don't get out there often enough. I had the Raw Pizza and the Baked Sweet Potato Fries. The pizza is on a dehydrated corn-based crust, and it has cashew cheese and loads of veggies. And their handmade, baked sweet potato fries never disappoint.

After lunch, I stopped by my friend Melissa's housewarming party. And it was there that I had my first sip of booze in two weeks. I didn't want this cleanse to be totally alcohol-free because I don't like feeling deprived, but I did tell myself that, if I drank anything this month, it'd have to be red wine (since it has some great health benefits!). I only had one glass, but it was delicious. 

After the party, I went home and had some more leftovers — the cowboy pasta — for dinner. And then I whipped up these Happiness in a Cookie Bite balls from Somer's book.

These have rolled oats, nut butter (I made some with almond and some with peanut), coconut, carob chips, flax, and maple syrup. I tasted the batter, and it was yummy. But I haven't had a chance to sit down and eat them yet. After I finish this post, I'll watch one more episode of Lost and enjoy my balls (ha!). And then I'll probably take a nice long bath with my new Still bath salts from the Goddess box and hit the sack. I'm off work for MLK Day tomorrow, but I have a full day of new cleanse meals ready to go. I'll see y'all then!

Eating Out on the Abundance Diet!

Let's back up to last May. Sheridan, Drew, & I were in Austin for Vida Vegan Con, and we'd just found a place at the back of a very long line to get into Capital City Bakery, the all-vegan bakery run by the amazing Kristen Davenport. Capital City was having a special anniversary event, and most all of the VVC-goers were in line to get in the door for vegan cupcakes, cookies, and kolaches.

We ended up chatting with the guy behind us in line while we waited. He was super nice, and we just had the best conversation going. So good, in fact, that we barely noticed that we'd been in line for an hour by the time we made it into the door. Well, that guy was none other than Ted from Wok Wild Side. By the time we had cupcakes in hand, we'd become fast friends with Ted, and now we all follow each other on Instagram, and we're Facebook friends.

Ted, who lives in California, was in the Memphis area this week for work. So he shot me a Facebook message about meeting up for dinner. Yay! Vegan blogger meet-ups are best. I love how the vegan community is so connected, and we all have friends all over the country. Ted and I met for dinner tonight at Fuel Cafe.

Ted is an awesome chef (not his day job, but something he does for fun) and a master of cooking ANYTHING in a hotel room. This dude is seriously creative. 

As you may have been reading over the past couple weeks, I've been following Somer McCowan's Abundance Diet meal plan from her cookbook. It's a 28-day plan free of processed food, white sugar, and gluten. And it's also very low-oil. As you can imagine, it's a little difficult to dine out and stay within those parameters, especially the oil and sugar part. But most of Fuel Cafe's vegan options are pretty veg-heavy, so it was at least easy to avoid processed food.

I went with the Tofu Dragon Bowl — tofu, brown rice, red cabbage, kale, carrots, cashews, and teriyaki sauce.

The tofu was definitely fried, and the teriyaki sauce probably contained a little sugar. But overall, I think I did pretty well. There's kale in there and brown rice and raw cashews, all stuff I've been eating throughout this cleanse. It was delicious, and it was nice to have a slightly indulgent treat after a week and a half of eating low-oil meals.  

I've decided that I'll probably eat out every Thursday night on the cleanse (at various cleanse-safe places) and brunch every Sunday (probably at Imagine Vegan Cafe, as usual). That will allow me to treat myself a little more, and it also helps me get in the mindset of making healthier choices when dining out. That's really where I need the most help. I eat pretty well at home all year round, but I do tend to go a little crazy with fries and too much bread and desserts in restaurants. I'd like to reign that in a little this year and save really indulgent restaurant meals for special occasions.

Alright, well, I'll be back Sunday night with my weekend round-up. There are more healthy desserts and fun breakfasts planned for this weekend!

Abundance Diet, Day 10

Double digits, yo!! I'm finally in the days with two numbers on my 28-day Abundance Diet meal plan. For the month of January, I'm following the plan (and recipes) in Somer McCowan's The Abundance Diet cookbook as a way to get my eating habits back on track. This means no processed food, no white sugar, no gluten, and very limited red wine (that's my own rule ... I think Somer recommends no alcohol in the book, but that's taking things too far. Ha!).

This morning, I had a couple peanut butter-stuffed dates around 6 a.m., and then I headed outside for a 4-mile run. I listened to my David Bowie playlist, and it was just perfect. Along the way, I noticed someone had stenciled "Make Your Own Path" and "Don't Forget to Be Awesome" on the sidewalk near Rhodes College. Those inspirational messages were just what I needed right then.

When I got home, I had my usual weekday green smoothie. This was Somer's Blueberry Vanilla Green Smoothie. It's pretty much the exact same recipe as the Chocolate-Covered Blues Green Smoothie that I had on Monday morning but minus the cocoa powder. Kale, spinach, blueberries, banana, and almond-cashew milk. And I added some Manitoba Harvest Hemp Pro70 vanilla protein powder. I'm really loving Hemp Pro70 powder these days.

I had a lot of meetings at work this morning, so I didn't get to eat my first lunch until 12:30! I've been having my first lunch, which is a salad on Somer's diet, around 11 each day. So I was famished by 12:30. But this small bowl of Cream of Broccoli Soup hit the spot. I know I said yesterday's corn chowder was my fave soup so far, but now I have a new fave. LOVE this broccoli soup. It's so thick and creamy from the cashews and tapioca starch. And ground mustard powder gives it a sort of cheesy kick.

After my soup, I had my much larger second lunch of Hearty Pasta Salad — gluten-free quinoa shells, kidney beans, broccoli, carrots, cucumber, kalamata olives, and Somer's homemade oil-free balsamic vinaigrette. This was, indeed, very hearty. I loved the combo of olives and balsamic dressing, and I was really just happy to be eating pasta.

I had Cardio Hoop Fit class after work. That's where we do squats, crunches, jumping jacks, and other exercises with hula hoops! I'm lucky to have a hula-hoop studio located a block from my house, so I joined for six months to take unlimited classes. Before class, I snacked on these Gluten-Free Cheesy Crackers. I first made these to go with Somer's vegan egg salad last week, but the recipe made a lot. And they're quite tasty on their own. Very noochy!

After class, I had the giant-est, most awesome bowl of Raw Pad Thai! This has zucchini noodles, carrots, broccoli, red bell pepper, purple cabbage, mint, raw cashews, and a homemade oil-free pad thai sauce. It's been awhile since I've had raw pasta, but I really love anything with zucchini noodles. I bought some huge-ass zucchini, so one veggie made so many noodles. And I ate them all.

Today is my friend Shara's birthday, so she had a party at Juicy Jim's this evening. It's a pizza place, but they don't have any vegan options. And they definitely don't have cleanse-friendy options! So I ate my Pad Thai at home before heading over there. I'd planned to have a few glasses of red wine on my cleanse, and I thought I'd have some tonight. But when I got there, I discovered they don't have wine! There's a full bar but no wine. I could've cheated and had a beer. But I decided I'd rather stick to the rules I set. So I did! No booze for me, and I still somehow managed to have a good time!

Tomorrow is a leftovers day, but I will be blogging because I've got a fun blogger meetup planned, and I'll be eating out on the cleanse!

Abundance Diet, Day 9

Every day in January, I'm cooking from Somer McCowan's The Abundance Diet cookbook. I'm following her 28-day meal plan of whole, plant-based meals free of white sugar, gluten, and processed foods. Today was Day 9, and I'm feelin' fine!

No, really. I'm actually feeling great! Somer's healthy meals are hearty, so I've rarely felt hunger on this cleanse, not even really before meal times. That's rare for me because, in real life, when I'm eating more processed foods, I get ferociously hungry about an hour before any scheduled meal time. But not so with the Abundance Diet. That probably has something to do with eating more nutrient-dense foods, and it's also likely related to the fact that the meal plan includes a number of small meals throughout the day rather than three big ones.

Today started with a small glass of Somer's Raw Cashew Horchata — cinnamon-vanilla cashew milk — before my Yoga With Adriene Yoga Camp video. This date-sweetened drink was so creamy and thick. And it only had one tablespoon of cashews per one cup of water! It's amazing how creamy cashews can get in the Vitamix.

After yoga, I had my usual weekday breakfast on the plan — a green smoothie! This one was the Spotted Peach Smoothie, a creamy peach-banana smoothie with kale, spinach, and chia seeds. The seeds were added after blending, so they did that cool thing that chia seeds do in liquid where they expand and get a little chewy, like mini tapioca pearls. Yum!

I didn't add protein powder to my smoothie today since I didn't go running. And that meant it only held me over until about 10:30. That's when I busted out first lunch at my desk — Lentil Taco Salad with Roasted Red Pepper Dressing.

Why, yes, those are tortilla chips on that salad! Such a treat! The recipe called for a few no-oil corn chips to be crumbled atop the taco salad, but I had some Beanfield's bean & rice nacho chips that needed using. And while they're probably a processed food, they're certainly healthier than your average tortilla chip. They're not oil-free, of course, but I've nothing against oil. The "meat" on this salad is made with lentils, and it's seasoned with chili powder and spices. It's served over greens, purple cabbage, carrot, and tomato with a homemade roasted red pepper dressing. There's salsa on top, and the recipe also called for some of Somer's homemade cashew sour cream. But I used it all in recipes last week and didn't feel like making more for a couple tablespoons.

Second lunch was this super-creamy, dreamy Chipotle Corn Chowder. This is definitely my favorite soup from the book so far! It's made creamy with cashews and tapioca powder, and it gets a smoky, spicy kick from chipotle powder.

My snack was more of the Oil-Free Olive Hummus that I made last week with cauliflower, zucchini, and radishes for dipping. No fancy presentation here. Just some Tupperware in the office breakroom.

For a few days now, I've been thinking about how much I miss pizza. It's usually the first thing I start craving while I'm on a cleanse. And it didn't help that Cassi texted me on Sunday saying she wanted pizza and asked if I'd go with her to a pizza place and watch her eat pizza so she'd have some company. Ha! That temptress! Anyway, I resisted, knowing that, although my willpower is strong, I probably couldn't do that without giving in.

But tonight, I got to eat an Abundance Diet-approved pizza! This is the Cheesy Herb & Vegetable Pizza. It's got a crust made with gluten-free flour, spinach, and cauliflower. It's topped with a homemade fire-roasted tomato sauce, homemade cashew mozzarella, mushrooms, red bell pepper, and kalamata olives. I'd never had cauliflower crust before, but I really, really love it.

This was a small six-inch, personal-sized pizza, so I served it with a side salad with Somer's Rich Balsamic Dressing, an oil-free dressing with a touch of sweetness from homemade date paste.

That's it for Day 9. I've got a whole line-up of new meals ready for tomorrow! See y'all then.

Abundance Diet, Day 8

I made it through a whole week of no junk food, no white sugar, no gluten, and no booze! Now I'm entering week two of the 28-day Abundance Diet. Throughout the month of January, I'm following Somer McCowan's meal plan from The Abundance Diet cookbook, so that means no processed food, no bad white stuff, and lots of healthy fruits, veggies, tofu, nuts, and seeds.

It was bitterly cold (20 degrees!) this morning when I woke up to go running, but I threw on some layers, snacked on a couple peanut butter-stuffed dates, and headed outside. It took FOREVER for my body to warm up, but about 20 minutes in, my gloved hands were actually getting hot. After my run, I showered and threw together my daily green smoothie. Today, that was the Chocolate Covered Blues Smoothie with blueberries, banana, spinach, cocoa powder, flax, and a scoop of Manitoba Harvest Hemp Pro70 chocolate protein powder.

I always sit down and read the news on weekday mornings while I eat breakfast, even if that breakfast is actually a drink. And that's when I turned on my computer and saw the news that David Bowie died. Like the rest of the world, I was super sad. I just don't really understand how David Bowie can die. In my mind, he's always been this supernatural creature that was most certainly immortal. Anyway, I've been processing that all day. I've listened to "Modern Love" about a million times.

But back to the food. My first lunch was a Black Bean Veggie Burger Salad. Somer's recipe instructs you to make these awesome black bean patties and serve them atop a green salad with vegan cashew-based ranch dressing. And that ranch is blended with an avocado for extra deliciousness. Loved this meal. And I will definitely be adding that ranch to my regular rotation. It's only 16 calories per tablespoon, and it's so creamy!

Later in the morning, I had the rest of my lunch (or second lunch as I like to call it). It was Abe's Hearty Lentil Soup. It's a recipe developed by Somer's brother Abe, and it's, indeed, a hearty soup. It's delicately spiced with dill and cumin, which adds a layer of flavor that's been missing from my homemade lentil soups in the past.

For my snack, I had Somer's Baked Nacho Cheesy Kale Chips, except I didn't follow the directions and bake them. I dehydrated them in my Excalibur dehydrator. Baked kale chips are nice, but in my experience, they don't retain their crunch after a day or so. With the dehydrator, I was able to make a batch large enough to have for snacks for the rest of the month. And they'll stay crunchy all month. The cheesy flavor comes from a homemade sauce made with red bell pepper, cashews, nooch, garlic, and seasonings. And it tastes very cheesy! And garlicky! 

Finally, for dinner, I had this Cowboy Special One-Pot Pasta. Such a hearty and satisfying meal. I'm so impressed by the portion sizes on this meal plan. One serving of this brown rice penne with white beans, tomatoes, zucchini, and herbs was so filling! And since the dry pasta cooks with everything else in the same pot, it developed this creamy sauce that's just divine. Really loved this dinner. I'd been craving pasta for a few days, and this hit the spot.

Abundance Diet, Days 4-7

I'm back! And I'm still on this 28-day Abundance Diet, using recipes from Somer McCowan's The Abundance Diet cookbook. It's a whole foods-based, gluten-free, sugar-free plan that's perfect for my annual January cleanse.

I'm following the meal plan included in the book, and as I mentioned in my last post on Wednesday night, the plan includes leftovers. So on Thursday, Day 4, I pretty much ate the same stuff I ate on Monday — tropical colada green smoothie, falafel salad with quinoa tabbouleh, quinoa minestrone, spinach & artichoke dip, and tofu & veggie stir-fry.

But I did try one new thing from the book on Thursday. I had the Ultra Green Juice right upon waking, before doing my morning yoga. I changed a few things based on the produce that I had in my fridge, but this had pear, celery, cucumber, bok choy, spinach, parsley, lemon, and lime. Really yummy and such a lovely shade of green! Tasted even better in my awesome Memphis Grizzlies Choose 901 glass.

On Friday, I had leftovers of what I ate on Tuesday — razzleberry lemonade green smoothie, Greek chopped chickpea salad, white bean & kale stew, oil-free hummus, and Mexican casserole. But on Friday night, I had my first dessert on the cleanse! Somer's plan includes two desserts a week, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. But I'd rather have my desserts on Fridays and Saturdays because those are the nights I consider to be the real weekend nights, and they're the nights that, when I'm not cleansing, I'm usually imbibing. So having dessert on those nights make not having a glass of wine or beer more tolerable (note: I will be having some wine throughout the cleanse, but I'm saving that for special occasions). 

Anyway, about that dessert. On Friday night, I made Somer's super-yummy No Bake, No Stovetop Cookie Bites. These are like the raw version of Mississippi Mud Cookies. They're made with a base of cashews, dates, and cocoa powder, and they're flecked with carob chips (Somer's recipe calls for dark chocolate chips, but I didn't have any all-natural, cleanse-friendly ones. Plus, I love carob!). I'll definitely be making these again after the cleanse. They'd be perfect pre-workout snacks. By the way, Somer has published the recipe online here. You need to make these!

Weekends on the Abundance Diet call for solid breakfasts! Every weekday, I've been drinking green smoothies, which are awesome because I love smoothies. But sometimes, I like to chew in the mornings. And I finally got to do that on Saturday morning with this Florentine Tofu Scramble, made with fire-roasted tomatoes, spinach, and scallions. I ate two servings! So good.

The rest of Saturday's meals were the same as Wednesday's meals — vegan egg salad, laksa with rice noodles and tofu, cucumber tzatzki with steamed veggies, and cauliflower & potato bake. But I did get another dessert on Saturday night. This Applesauce Snack Cake cured the cake craving that's been brewing these last couple days. This is an oil-free, sugar-free, gluten-free cake, so it wasn't quite the same as one of Cassi's buttercream-topped Pink Diva cupcakes. But it was still warm and fluffy and cake-y. It was date-sweetened (yes!) and stevia-sweetened (which is a flavor I'm still not used to in baked goods). For some reason, I love stevia in tea and smoothies, but it's not my favorite thing in baked sweets. 

By the way, I don't think I've mentioned yet that my co-worker Susan is doing this cleanse too! So I was able to halve the dessert recipes and split them with her. Teamwork! I definitely need help eating them since the desserts don't repeat as leftovers on the cleanse.

Sunday morning meant another solid breakfast — Chocolate Buttermilk Pancakes! These were also gluten-free, sugar-free, and oil-free, but I couldn't tell as much with these. In fact, I could barely tell they were gluten-free. Maybe the thin-ness makes a difference in the concentration of that gluten-free flour taste? Whatever it was, these were delicious. I used maple syrup to sweeten, and I served these with bananas.

I still plan to eat out a few times throughout the month, while I'm on my cleanse. But when I do, I want to do my best to stay within the parameters of the cleanse. Every Sunday, my friends and I brunch at Imagine Vegan Cafe, so I kept that plan going today. We usually meet around 11:30. The pancakes held me over until about 11, and then I was hungry again. Just in time for brunch.

Imagine's menu is heavy on plant meats and indulgent fried stuff, which is typically what I order there. But there are a few menu items that are on the healthier side. So I opted for a couple of those — Vegetable Soup.

And a Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Not oil-free of course! But that's fine with me. I'm not really sticking to the oil-free/low-oil thing as part of my cleanse. It just so happens that the recipes in the book are low-oil or oil-free. But I'm fine with having oil throughout the month. The soup, which was loaded with garlic, really hit the spot on this cold January day.

The rest of Sunday was another repeat of Thursday and Monday's meals. But tomorrow, there's a whole new line-up of food! Can't wait!