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The Kitchen Recessionista

So, here we are, in a recession. Let's eat!

21-Day Vegan Kickstart Review!

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Now, first things first: This was not my first foray into the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s 21-Day Vegan Kickstart. No, I first gave it a try a few years ago, adhering quite faithfully to the meal plan for all three weeks of the process, and then a year or so ago I gave it another try, adhering less faithfully to the plan. My results in terms of energy and weight loss, as you might imagine, followed closely to the level of faithfulness I kept.

So last December, as I sat in the throes of cocktail party after cocktail party and sweet after sweet, consuming heavy meals all over creation to boot, I knew that come January, something had to change. My weight had crept up, my energy levels had plummeted, and I was just feeling this sense of malaise, completely sans verve.

And as you know, I do enjoy some verve in my life.

So in anticipation of the first full week of January – January 6, to be exact – I decided to launch another trip down Vegan Kickstart Lane. I was pleased to see that in the ensuing years from my last adventure with the program, PCRM had developed a slick, user-friendly app for the process, tracking the recipe plans day by day – and ­to my surprise and delight, the recipes had changed, too, giving me entirely new meals to cook as the month went on!

Now, before I get into the play-by-play, a note. As you can see from these pages (and perhaps my Instagram if you follow me over there), I’ve been vegetarian for about 20 years and have no problem mowing my weight in plant-based cuisine. But as you might ALSO have seen from these pages … it’s not always the lightest, most health-friendly fare. A runner and triathlete, I do skew heavily toward carbs, and often that means simple carbs like white pastas and white rice. And I do love a sweet. And a French fry. It’s like I’ve said all along – “vegetarian” doesn’t always mean “healthy.” And over the holidays, my diet had skewed waaaaaay toward the unhealthy foods.

It was definitely time to get things back under control. And so, on Jan. 6, I set out.

I won’t go into the daily recipes piece by piece – you can download the app for that, or scope them out on the Vegan Kickstart website – but I will highlight a few here as we go, just so you can get a feel for what to expect.

The first couple of days on the program, as I recalled from last time around, rang my bell. I was in deep mourning for the potato chips I enjoyed eating alongside my sandwich for lunch each days, to say nothing of the dark-chocolate-covered almond butter patties I enjoyed as a midafternoon snack. And I missed the simple white pasta I’d come to appreciate for dinner nearly every evening. But all that longing went away when I realized something.

Friends, I had ENERGY. For the first time in months, I was bouncing off the walls.

I’ve been waking up before my alarms. Jumping out of bed to tackle 6 a.m. bike workouts. Mentally more “with it” at work than I’ve been in quite awhile. Just plain old ENERGETIC. And in a better mood, to boot!

I remembered this from the last go-round, as well – this sudden burst of energy from just plain old eating well. Gone were the simple sugars and mock meats, and in vogue instead were our friends complex carbohydrates, legumes, fresh fruits and vegetables. Sort of amazing how just a few days at the outset changed everything in my life so quickly!

But it did. 

And remember those cravings for potato chips and chocolate treats? They were gone within just a few short days. In fact, several days after beginning the Kickstart, I decided to order takeout – what could it hurt? Friends, I really wanted to relish it, but I couldn’t. It suddenly tasted too salty, too … overdone. I knew then that things were changing for the better.

The other thing I love about the Kickstart plan is just how dang easy it is to get dinner on the table at night. Each recipe seems like it might be complicated until you get going, and then you realize it takes mere minutes to finish. The ten-minute veggie stirfry, for example? It’s as advertised. Pita pizzas? Easy-peasy. Chickpeas with gravy blew me away with its complex flavors and ease of preparation, and vegetable lo mein gave me the Asian twist I’d been missing. To say nothing of the hummus sandwiches I enjoyed at lunch. Or the apples I chomped on in place of chips.

“But what about the weight loss?” you might be asking. And let’s not get vain about it – I asked too before I got started. I don’t mind telling you that by the end of the Kickstart I was down 5 pounds from the beginning of the year – that’s a little more than a pound a week. Definitely not chump change, and as a triathlete, that loss will come in handy on the race course.

And speaking of the race course: More energy and a cleaner diet means I’m running my engine on better fuel, which is already paying dividends in my training. I had my first triathlon of the season over the weekend, and I felt so dang good I just can’t even tell you. And I was “taking it easy” on this race because I ran a 7-miler the day before! If you’re involved in any sort of athletic pursuits, the Vegan Kickstart will certainly help you get to the next level.

So. What did I think of the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart? Well, in short, it cleaned the slate for me. It got my new year off on the right foot and has put my training and daily life in a better standing. And after the 21 days were over, I didn’t go back to eating my potato chips and chocolates. In fact I haven’t had a single one of either. The habits the Kickstart instilled have stuck, and I’m definitely the better for it. You can be, too!

:) 

Vegan Kickstart, Day 21.

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chickpea-patties

I made it!

I sailed through this three-week vegan kickstart experiment with flying colors (if I so say so myself), and I feel like I’m better off for having done it. I’ll be writing a few posts to cover the various aspects of the kickstart and my takeaways during the next week or two, but here are some quick-and-dirty stats:

  • Over the course of three weeks I’ve lost about five pounds without feeling like I’ve deprived myself.
  • I shaved five minutes off my personal best for the Rock and Roll Half-Marathon in DC (and felt great all the way through the race).
  • I have a TON of energy – more than I’ve had in quite awhile.
  • I feel like I’m putting my money where my mouth is (so to speak) in terms of environmental sustainability.
  • Speaking of money, I’ve found that eating clean, whole foods doesn’t cost any more than my usual grocery bill.

… all in all, not a bad three weeks!

Now, I did have one pre-planned slip-up. One of my recipes – for vegetarian sausage cheese balls – was recently accepted into a magazine (!), so I did have to make said cheese balls once during these three weeks for recipe-testing. But other than that, I stayed completely vegan throughout the process – and will be tacking on one more day to my kickstart tomorrow to make up for my slip-up! I feel that is fair.

Tonight, LeeLee and I sat down to what was supposed to be a cookout but ended up being another cook-in because of the wet weather. We enjoyed chickpea patties – which tasted great but were a bit soggy (so I’m glad we didn’t try to cook them on the grill!) – along with some braised Brussels sprouts and pearled couscous. Not to mention some great beer from Right Proper Brewing down the road in DC!

What’s next for me, post-kickstart? It’s really too early to tell. But I’ve got to say, I feel great on a dairy-free diet, and my workout stats have really seen a positive upswing as a result. I feel great and have so much energy, I can barely contain myself. How can I argue with that? The kickstart has taught me so much – I’m looking forward to whatever comes next. Kickstart Round 2, perhaps? Who knows!

:)

Vegan Kickstart, Day 18.

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This week’s been a doozy at work (and at home – lots of side projects to tackle and shelter cats to pet!), so I’ve been a bit absent on the blog this week. But my vegan kickstart has remained fully intact in the face of such hectic times! We’ve had fajitas:

fajitas

And aloo gobi:

vegan-aloo-gobi

And vegetable lo mein:

vegan-lo-mein

And tofu-scramble nachos:

vegan-scrambled-tofu-nachos

And, finally, for tonight’s St. Patrick’s Day meal we enjoyed a recipe from a 1970 copy of Vegetarian Times (!) that has held up just perfectly over the years – Irish stew with mashed potatoes.

vegan-irish-stew

Now, I’ll give you a secret on the mashed potatoes.  I didn’t drain as much water off as I should’ve, and added a bit too much almond milk. But as it happened, I had some instant mashed potato flakes in the cabinet for an unrelated recipe, so I simply added a quarter-cup or so to the fresh potatoes, mashed to combine, and voila! Perfectly firm potatoes once more. I love a good household solution!

At any rate, I’d say this vegan kickstart is moving along quite nicely. I’ll be sort of sorry when the 21 days are up — but excited to continue experimenting with new recipes well after these three weeks!

:)

Vegan Kickstart, Day 9.

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kickstart-pita-pizzas

I’m telling you what, the hits just keep coming on this 21-Day Vegan Kickstart! Tonight, after a glorious evening at the shelter, I arrived home and surveyed the scene and knew just what to make: Pita pizzas!

Now, y’all know we’re no stranger to pizzas (or pitas) around here, in many of its various forms. But until surveying this meal plan, I never thought about combining the two notions into one uber-pizza-pita monstrosity! Now that we’re safely on the other side of the experiment, I can say with certainty that it’s a wonderful plan indeed.

The written recipe leaves a lot of room for creativity, so I spooned a hearty helping of roasted red pepper hummus across two pitas and then topped each one with kalamata olives, diced bell pepper, and mushrooms. Then I baked the whole shebang at 350 for about 10 minutes, during which time I whipped up a quick salad of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, leftover bell pepper, mushrooms, and tortilla strips.

Filled with the spirit of the moment, I even made my own creamy lemon dressing! Just eyeball out several tablespoons of vegan mayo and mix with equal parts lemon juice and olive oil. Then toss with some salt and pepper and enjoy.

It wasn’t long until our pizzas were ready! And we were more than ready to dig in. The outcome was divine! We adored the mixture of flavors, from the tang of the hummus to the crunch of the bell peppers – and the olives and mushrooms (and chopped parsley, added at the end) finished the dish very nicely. Paired with a hearty salad, it was an incredibly filling and healthy meal that will keep us full all night!

:)

Vegan Kickstart, Day 8.

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penne-al-forno

Well! We’re one week into the kickstart here at Chez Recessionista, and things are going just swimmingly. Over the weekend we dined out once (Indian!) and got takeout with friends once (Thai!), and while at home feasted to our heart’s content on all kinds of vegan goodies, from chai pancakes to tofu scramble to tempeh BLTs. I couldn’t be more pleased with how the past week has gone on the kickstart and am excited to settle into Week 2!

Tonight we hit the ground running with a huge pan of penne al forno. LeeLee and I both love pasta, and this whole-wheat version hit the spot in a hurry! Whereas my usual baked penne contains a hearty layer of cheese (vegan or regular), this contained neither, and we didn’t miss it a bit. What’s more, we filled ourselves up on all the veggies this dish contained – from zucchini to celery to carrots to onion! We each went back for seconds, but neither of us felt overly full or gluttonous after the fact – a wonderful victory indeed.

And like so many of the other recipes we’ve tried out during this meal plan, the penne al forno took no time at all to prepare! I prepared and cooked all the vegetables while the pasta boiled, so that when the pasta was ready, so was everything else and into the lasagna pan it all went. Just a few minutes later, we were ready to eat!

This Vegan Kickstart has been quite a learning experience so far, and I’m only a third of the way through it. I can’t wait to see what other habits I pick up! So far, so good.

:)