Friends!
I apologize for my absence these past few weeks. To be honest, the month of February has been wonderfully busy, from our long-awaited vacation to Key West to a weekend trip to Richmond to see my beloved Widespread Panic, from a quick trip home to see my family to a couple of big projects at work. It’s all been great fun, but a busy month all in all. I appreciate you hanging with me during the quiet times! I suppose after several years of blogging pretty much nonstop, it was time for a bit of a mental break anyway. For us all! Hee.
But I’m back today with a new project I’m about to embark on: The 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, hosted by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (or PCRM). To be frank, since the holidays I’ve let my diet get pretty lax (and the vacation, weekend trip, and visit home did not help me get back on track!), and it was well past time to set things right again. Something focusing on clean eating is just the ticket to ring my bell.
Though the kickstart technically begins tomorrow, I couldn’t help but get started today, it being Monday and whatnot! It just seemed right. So yesterday afternoon I decided to set myself up for success by making several days’ worth of meals at once so LeeLee and I would have no excuse not to jump right into the program! Over the course of an hour, I whipped up a week’s worth of oatmeal with green apples, curried lentil stew, and several zucchini sandwiches (well, the components – the sandwiches are made fresh to order right at lunchtime so as not to get soggy). I enjoyed all of the above for breakfast and lunch today, and will do so again tomorrow with great joy and fanfare!
Tonight, upon getting home from work I made fettuccine with asparagus and peas as well as a side of roasted chickpeas. I’d worried that this was going to be a ton of work and take a great deal of time, but imagine my surprise when dinner was served not 25 minutes after I got started! And man, was it filling and tasty. If I do say so.
You can find all of Week 1’s recipes here, and I followed tonight’s menu to the letter. The results were amazing. Despite using no oil or butter, the fettuccine was fresh and flavorful, and the asparagus and peas (and parsley) added such a wonderful texture to the dish. I did add some black pepper to the final product and found it to really enhance the vegetables.
And the chickpeas! I’d never imagined in a million years that a blend of maple syrup, tamari, and balsamic would be good over garbanzos, but there they were together, a lovely little family of flavors. We mowed down a good helping apiece and still have tons left for tomorrow.
I think it’s safe to say that Day 1 of the kickstart is a success! And I’m looking forward to Day 2 already.
:)