Still alive here!

Hello to anyone who still comes by. I haven’t updated in a long time. I got a new job in September and it has almost ran me into the ground with stress and worry. Luckily I found a way out of that role and into another which is a little less stressful and a little less worrisome but always part of the corporate jungle that is insurance and customer service. I’ve had a long time to think about how an office job makes me feel and I keep getting images of me falling sick and having to stay home because of depression or cancer. It scares me because the imagery is of me as a young adult, much like I am now, and I am not ready to battle for my life like that just yet. My income is not worth my life and it made me wonder what exactly would and could fulfill me and allow me to earn a living without faking a living… and I found an educational establishment in my community that offers a 4-year naturopathy program with classes taking place evenings and weekends. This is it. I know this is it. I am meant to teach, to consult, to help, to change… I was put here to make other people’s lives better and brighter. Through my passion for organic and stress-free living and love of healthy food and animals, I will become a naturopath and carry out my purpose on this planet. I will carve out my space.

I’d also like to take the time to show you some vegan food I’ve had recenty:

Zoodles with tomato sauce and Daiya shreds.

Veggie burger with vegan poutine on top (vegan gravy and Daiya shreds)

Homemade lentil meatloaf with mashed potatoes and broccoli rabe.

I have an appointment next week at the institute for a tour and some questions, I look forward to providing an update on it! Peace & love ♡

Celebration!

I’m super swamped with work and other personal duties of mine but I wanted to stop by to announce this wonderful milestone for myself and anybody else who comes across my blog: today, I am celebrating 6 months of a totally meat-free, plant-based lifestyle and I am so proud of myself! If you have just started your journey, keep up the great work! If you are well into your journey, keep paving the way! And if you are simply curious about this lifestyle, you already have the plant-based seedling in your head. Let it blossom and discover what this wonderful veggie-filled world can do for you! Have a great weekend everyone. xo

Some veggie supper ideas!

Oh how I missed this little veggie interweb space of mine! I just started a new position at work and the training is insane, so I’ve been spending a lot of time studying and napping. But I always managed to make time to keep my mealtimes healthy and free of any animal products.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to cook supper. (I usually don’t get the chance to do this during the week as my mom is a homemaker and supper is usually on the table by the time I get home–lucky me!) For 3 evenings I made yummy vegetarian meals that I’m going to share with you in this post!

First, I made a vegan macaroni and cheese! Guys, this recipe is so easy and I can’t believe I never thought of doing this before. I got the base recipe from Jackie at Vegan Yack Attack. She used her mac n’ cheese inside a deep dish pizza *drool* but I just made simple mac n’ cheese. My version has a few more ingredients, but I only added them to add to the cheesy flavour, as my recipe wasn’t being combined with delicious vegan pepperoni and tomato sauce. Here is my modified recipe:

1/2 cup of Daiya shredded cheese (I used cheddar, but use whichever flavour you like)
1/2 cup of raw cashews soaked for at least 30 minutes (mine soaked overnight)
1/2 cup of vegetable broth or water
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp of turmeric (for colour)
a pinch or more of hot sauce (the red colour deepened the colour of my sauce)
salt and pepper to taste
any extras you’d like to add (peas, diced tomatoes or peppers, broccoli or spinach, etc.)

Basically, just blend everything together. I had to add a little more broth to mine as I was using a blender and found it hard to get everything saucy using the exact amounts indicated above. (By the way, this recipe is very flexible and you can easily double all the portions, just adjust the seasoning to your liking.) Once this is done, cook your favourite pasta until it’s perfectly al dente, drain, put it back in the pot and cover everything with your sauce, stirring for 3-5 minutes. You can keep it on the burner on low heat: all you want to do right now is heat your sauce through. When the temperature of the sauce is perfect, start plating and voila: vegan mac n’ cheese!

I had used a whole bag of Daiya cheddar cheese shreds so I ended up with some extra mac n’ cheese sauce. What did I do with the rest? I added some spicy salsa and made some cheesy tortilla chip sauce! But I used it to top a hearty bowl of homemade bean chili. This was a real easy and delicious supper. Just make your favorite chili recipe (anything with a lot of beans and tomatoes will do) and top it with some warm salsa-queso sauce!

Last but not least, the piece de resistance: a roast. Yes, I’m serious. A Field Roast, that is! I won’t elaborate on the controversy surrounding Field Roast in Canada (I’ll save it for another post, hopefully this will all boil over by then) but I can tell you that their products are phenomenal. I try to stay away from processed food, which would include these vegan meats, but every now and then, I find these “meats” bring a little normalcy and old homestyle flavours without the cruelty and gross fat content. They have franks, sausages and a roast! (So cute.) I wanted to test out a typical cold-weather staple: oven roast and veggies. If it came out well, I would use it as my Thanksgiving meal. So here’s what I did:

2 peeled (or not) and cubed medium-sized potatoes
1/5 a chopped onion
2-3 peeled (or not) carrots
1 tbsp of olive or hemp oil
1 tbsp of dried sage, rubbed between your hands (wakes up the flavour!)
pinch of salt and pepper
1/4 to 1/2 cup of vegetable bouillon

Mix it all up well, making sure all your veggies are coated in oil and broth. Put it in an oven-safe dish and don’t do like I did: put the roast on the veggies. I repeat, do NOT put your roast on veggies right away! I did that, and I ended up with a delicious roast and veggies that were 10 minutes away from being fully cooked. (My potatoes were crunchy. Let’s leave it at that.) Put the veggies in your oven around 375*F for 30-45 minutes, or until the potatoes are almost cooked through. Then, place your roast in the middle of everything and let it warm through another 15 or 20 minutes. Depending on how you like your veggies, you can add some extra oil and broth. This is what it should look like:

If you want to make a veggie gravy to go with it, use mushrooms! Chop 2 cups of mushrooms, cook them in a dime of oil. Once everything is cooked down, add a pinch of salt and black pepper, and some dried thyme if you have on hand (this herb goes so well with mushies!) but if you don’t have any, don’t worry. Then, add a 1/2 tbsp of organic corn starch to some cold veggie broth (about 1/4 cup), and add it to your mushrooms, stirring to get it everywhere and warming it up. Soon, the mixture will thicken and you will have a delicious mushroom gravy!

If you try any of these recipes and they go really well (or terribly wrong), let me know! I’d love to see some pictures too! 🙂

When things “click”…

One question I get asked a lot by people is, “How do you feel?” referring to my plant-based diet. It usually takes me a couple of seconds to gather my thoughts and try to put into words the roller coaster I’ve been on over the past four months, and before answering I will usually ask myself how crazy can I sound without this person thinking that I’ve completely lost my marbles…

I originally made the decision to go plant-based out of pure selfishness: I wanted to be healthier and I wanted better control of my diabetes. I never even thought of the impact that plant-based diets had on the environment and on our non-human friends (animals). It was a ‘me, myself and I’ kind of move. Slowly, as I got to learn more about vegetarianism and veganism, I realized the weight of my decision on the world around me. And then things really changed…

At the risk of sounding a little looney, here it goes: everything in my life was different. My dog was the most amazing non-human I ever met, the trees were greener and spiders turned into friendly house guests. I started reading about spirituality and personal vibrations and frequencies. I started doing yoga and meditating. My driving changed. My morning commute to work wasn’t the worst part of my day. I practiced being less reactive and more patient, and trying to understand other people’s reactive and impatient behaviours from their perspective. I smiled at random strangers.

How does all this fit together, you may ask? I’m not too sure. My theory: the simple act of not eating death anymore makes me feel more alive. Aside from the health, the diabetes, the thyroid problems… I feel like I’m supposed to be here. For the first time in my life, I realized what a blessing it was for me to have diabetes. If I were not diagnosed with diabetes, I would probably not have ever considered using food as medicine and becoming so passionate about nutrition. This disease makes me me. It reminds me that every waking moment of my life is a moment where I can improve upon myself, and live a long and healthy life, diabetes and all, with proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle habits. I feel like I was supposed to be like this so that I can contribute whatever knowledge I may have with those around me, and encourage them to also come alive.

Can you see now how this snowballed into a sort of existential epiphany for me? It’s like everything finally made sense. My purpose for being here was made clear and now I have to work with that. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been more open to the signs and clues around me, leading me towards different paths. I’ve never felt more engaged with the world around me. I trust the path that is before me…

And that is the answer I wish I could give people who ask me how I “feel” now that I ditched animal products. Re-reading this, I giggled a little because I really do sound a little New Age-y, but I mean every word. Eating a whole foods, plant-based diet does a body good, inside and out, but if you let it pull at your heart strings a little, and allow it to get into your head, it changes more than just your blood pressure numbers, or your dress size.

So… how do I feel? I feel like a real, living and breathing human being, walking upon a beautiful, vibrant earth. I believe that I am being led towards a life of true purpose and meaning. And with each breath, each day, I become one with this planet. I was meant to be here.

Happy living, my herbivore friends. Thanks for reading and being here.

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I’m still here!

I didn’t even visit my blog to see the last time I posted anything, making me guiltier than I already am. Talk about slacking off. And the blog wasn’t the only one paying for it: I slacked off pretty hard all over the place. No exercise, ate cheese, had alcohol, tested my blood sugars 2 or 3 times a day instead of my usual 6 to 10, ate a lot of processed vegetarian restaurant food and yes, I felt like crap. I got back on the bandwagon over the last week, so my energy levels have gone up, my blood sugars have gone down and I feel better overall. Thank goodness.

I wish I could explain to you what happened, but I don’t know. It’s like someone turned my healthy switch off and I was living for instant gratification. The coffee, the bagels, the sweet processed pastries, the noodles, the salted nuts… all because I was bored, tired, unmotivated. It’s not the first time this happens to me. I find that my healthy bursts come in waves where I’ll be super careful for several months and then, all of a sudden, I’m drinking coffee and alcohol and eating processed crap.

I’m not sure how to stop this. I equate this to yo-yo dieting and I’m 100% sure that it’s not healthy for me. Aside from all this, I recently passed some blood tests and the doctor wants to see me to talk about my cholesterol. Safe to say I wasn’t really surprised (I’ve been a huge cheese-eater my entire life) but I’m most scared that he’s going to try to put me on cholesterol-lowering drugs and I’m going to have to sit there and refuse and convince him that I could lower my cholesterol all alone, using wholesome plant-based nutrition. And then I think to the future and ask myself if my hard work towards lowering my cholesterol will get sabotaged by my tendency to slack off after a certain amount of time…

Anyways, it just feels good to be back and I’m already preparing for my next blog post which should go up sometime this week. I’m on vacation from work all week so this will give some much-needed “me” time and a chance to get my health into gear for the season. Hope you all enjoyed your Labour Day weekend!

Ecuador: Veganized

I had the absolute pleasure of attending a lovely vegan dinner at L’Armoire Du Haut, an awesome vegan cooking school founded by talented vegan chef and dietician Dominique Dupuis, who cooked up a storm yesterday!

We were about 20 guests in Dominique’s loft, mingling and sipping on a delicious colada.

Before the first course was served, we were taught a few things about Ecuadorian culture and cuisine by our lovely host Emmeline. She was wearing traditional Ecuadorian garb for the evening, along with 2 Ecuadorian folk dancers who spoke more about Ecuadorian culture. It was so interesting! (Actually, it got me to search up vacation and adventure packages in Ecuador!)

Ecuadorian cuisine is apparently light on the spicyness but heavy on the salt. (Not a problem for me!) They use a lot of corn, and different areas of the country grow different types of corn. We were told that there is a small shift towards plant-based cuisine taking hold down there, which is great news!

The dishes were made to taste as authentic as possible, but entirely vegan. Dominique traveled to Ecuador in January to experience the culture and bring back some of its cusine and according to Ecuadorians who were at the dinner, the flavours were on point! I wouldn’t know, but it really was delicious and everything was well-balanced, fresh and organic!

I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but I can assure you that the meal was excellent from beginning to end. I don’t even know where that dessert found room to sit in my belly because I was so stuffed!

The picture above shows the menu for the evening and the signature drink, made up of naranjillas (little oranges which actually look more like tomatoes) and oatmeal. Our drink was made with whole organic oats but in Ecuador, it’s cheaper to make this drink with Quaker brand oatmeal, so people actually end up calling this colada “Quaker”.

Below was our first course, which reminded me so much of tamales! These are called humitas, which is corn meal and cheese cooked inside a corn husk. It was so delicious. It actually reminded me of the polenta my grandma makes.

The next course was a delicious mushroom ceviche with heart of palm and home-roasted spicy tortilla chips. The whole thing really had the texture of fish but then the taste revealed it’s vegan yumminess. The tortilla complemented the ceviche so well, with it’s subtle salty spicyness.

Our final savoury dish below was a guatita with rice. This is more like a stew, usually made with tripe, but in this case, Dominique use a soy-based protein which could’ve totally fooled a carnivore into thinking it was thin-cut steak. The stew has a very subtle peanut butter taste but it’s barely noticeable, being that “je ne sais quoi” aspect of the dish. I can’t even describe in words how delicious this course was. I actually mixed the greens, rice and guatita together to make one messy dish and the combination was even better. Total success!

Dominique is pregnant at the moment and due in November so there likely won’t be any other themed dinners till next year, but I’m already looking forward to it. If you’re in Montreal, check out the website to see more info on Dominique’s cooking school. You won’t regret it!

An almost-healthy muffin recipe!

So I promised to share a delicious muffin recipe with you guys, and it looks like I really kept you waiting! Well, I don’t like calling baked goods “healthy” because they tend to be very useless, nutritionally speaking. But these muffins are definitely not unhealthy and here’s why: no refined sugars, no milk, no nuts (but you can add them if you like), no oils or butters, no eggs and no guilt! This recipe was given to me by a very talented chef, MariEve Savaria of Brutalimentation (her blog is in French). I had the honour of being in one of her vegan cooking classes a few weeks ago where I was asked to put these muffins together and I’ve made 4 batches ever since! You’re probably wondering, “How in the world do you get muffins if they’re not made with any typical muffin ingredients?” See for yourself:

Dried fruit & coconut Muffins
Makes 10-12 muffins. Recipe can easily be doubled. Use organic if possible.

Dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cup whole grain flour (wheat, spelt, buckwheat, etc.)
1 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tbsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
pinch of salt
1/3 cup of dried fruit or seeds/nuts of choice (apricots, cranberries, sunflower seeds. This is where you can add or omit any nuts.)

Wet ingredients:
1/2 cup of date paste*
1/4 cup of light coconut milk (the canned type; shake well!)
1/4 cup of apple sauce or pureed bananas
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Don’t forget to sift any flours and powders. If you use buckwheat flour, make sure to add a little more coconut milk than if you would use wheat flour, as buckwheat tends to be a little dry.
In a separate bowl, mix all the wet ingredients except for the apple cider vinegar. Once everything is ready, start pouring your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and add the apple cider vinegar.
Pour your mix into your muffin pan and bake for 15-20 minutes or until you notice the tops become a golden colour.
Take them out, let them cool, and enjoy them!

*The date paste can be made ahead of time and any leftovers can be kept in the fridge for later use. Just grab any amount of dates and equal amounts of hot water, let them sit in a heat-resistant bowl for 10-15 minutes and pass it in a food processor. Voila, date paste!

I usually make a batch of these muffins to bring for breakfast when I get fed up of oatmeal or smoothies. It tastes like a treat! I like to add ground flax and ceylon cinnamon to my muffins to up to nutritional content. I really hope you enjoy these muffins as much as I do, they have become a lifesaver! Let me know how yours come out! Happy baking!

(Unfortunately I don’t have the nutritional breakdown of these muffins but I’ll see if I can create one.)

Oh, Canada!

Just a tiny mid-week post today to check in with you all. Are there any diabetics out there who read my blog? Do you ever have a great blood sugar streak for a few days and then get stuck with a few results that are way off the grid? I just went through something like that. Not the first time in my life, but the first time since going plant-based. I just couldn’t get a grip on my blood sugars! I’m usually anywhere between 5 and 10 (I usually start to feel the effects of hyperglycemia around 11 or 12) but for the past week or so, I just couldn’t bring myself lower than 14. It was awful! I felt tired and run-down a lot, not to mention thirsty and irritable. In my defense, I was battling a little infection and went to New York City on Sunday, but it was only yesterday that my glucose readings were back to normal and I felt like my old self again. Have any of you experienced this? How do you deal with these periods? I try to up my vegetable content during this time but it doesn’t always work. Ah, the trials and tribulations of diabetic living.

On a separate note, it is July 1st, and that means that it is Canada Day! I’d like to wish a fun, safe and vegtastic Canada Day to my fellow Canuck readers! I started my day off with this absolutely delicious smoothie of organic mangoes, frozen bananas, coconut milk, coconut manna, collard greens and ground flax. Absolutely delicious!

For supper, my wonderful mom made some delicious black bean hamburgers with some oven roasted potatoes. I’m very grateful for this beautiful day off and I hope you all have a great week!

Resto review: Résonance cafe

Hey guys! I hope you’re not starving because I’m about to talk about delicious food! I thought it would be cool to let you in on some of Montreal’s veggie-oriented restaurants in case you should ever find yourself in this beautiful city!

My first veggie resto review comes from Résonance cafe. Funny story: I only found out about this restaurant because I was looking for a veggiefied resto in the same area that my dietician works in so that I could leave work, eat, and learn without going to different parts of the city. This place just happened to be on the block past my dietician’s office, so eating here was a no-brainer.

On first glance, you get a little thrown off by the entrance: it’s kind of like the basement of an apartment building so you need to walk down into the place. Actually, if it wasn’t for the bus stop that is right in front of the place, I probably wouldn’t have found it right away. Anyways, once you walk in, you know you found the place: a counter with bowls of fruits and veggies, a black chalkboard with all the different coffees and teas, banquets and tables scattered across the place, and at the very back, a dark stage where live acts perform every night at 9. (Unfortunately I haven’t been there late enough to catch a live performance but I will soon!)

To order, you just walk up to the cashier (usually an extremely kind and friendly staff member) and check out the menu to pick what you want. Standard fare include soups, sandwiches, and “bowls” made up of rice and veggies and spices. My favorite dish is the Black beans on rice, which is topped with a veggie chili and corn relish *drool* and for $1.50 extra you can have slice avocado on top, too. I like this dish so much that if I have an empty tupperware from that day’s lunch, I’ll ask them to fill my tupperware with this beans-on-rice dish and eat it for lunch the next day! For a refreshing drink, the chilled pearl Jasmine tea is delicious. Another dish I’ve had here, but isn’t on the online menu for some reason, is the Channa bowl. It has more of an Indian flavour, and an abundance of yummy veggies and vegan sour cream to top it all off. Check out this goodness:

Here is the beans-on-rice dish with a delicious corn relish on tops (already in my tupperware):

While you eat, you can do some work on a laptop (free Wifi!), read a book (like I always do) or just relax and listen to the music playing, which usually is quite folk-jazzy and very pleasant. The place has never been empty while I was there, even on rainy days, and the artwork on the wall is amazing!

I honestly look forward to eating here because I really enjoy the food, the music, and the staff is just so nice. Check them out if you get the chance!

Resonance cafe
5175-A Avenue du Parc
Montreal, QC
514-894-7543
open from 10:00 a.m. to midnight everyday

My next post will be a delicious muffin recipe which was taught to me at my last cooking class, courtesy of our talented vegan chef. I’ll save the details for the post!

Creating plant-based amazingness

I’m sure I’ve already mentioned that I’m seeing a vegan dietician to help me with my plant-based nutrition transition. But it is so much more than that! Allow me to explain…

When I first started looking up info about diabetes-specific diets (beneficial ones, no diabetes-inducing ones) I stumbled upon a local young woman who was diagnosed with a rare form of diabetes, called MODY (maturity onset diabetes of the young) which she managed to control by diet alone! I found out that she was going to be at a local health and wellness conference and I made sure to be there so that I can meet her and ask her a ton of questions!

The day of the conference, I finally got the chance to speak to her, but she was so busy with signing her book and getting ready for her talk (and I was totally startstruck) that I didn’t manage to ask her everything I wanted to, but she suggested I give a certain dietician a call. This dietician, Anne-Marie Roy was at the same conference, so I took advantage of the situation and went looking for her.

When I finally found her, she was at a kiosk for the Montreal Vegetarian Association answering questions left and right. She was very approachable and explained to me that she ran a clinic called La Clinique Renversante (The Reversal Clinic in English) where she takes on 10 to 15 people who are either curious about living a plant-based lifestyle or who suffer from type II diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol problems, and she takes them on a 12 week journey through the world of vegetarianism and veganism. I made the decision right then and there to be a part of this and said, “Where do I sign up?” and that’s how my journey began and I haven’t looked back since.

The program is simple: we meet once a week for 2 hours and discuss nutrition facts (and fiction), learn plant-based nutrition basics, and we also discuss the ethical and moral dilemmas around food (GMOs, factory farming, etc.) During the 12 weeks, we have 4 cooking classes where we team up with professional and established plant-based Quebecois chefs who show us new and exciting recipes and flavours. So far, we’ve done 3 cooking classes and they just keep getting better and better! Here are some pictures I took along the way:

I look forward to these cooking classes! The food is fresh and organic (in fact, one of the chefs owns a farm and brings in a bunch of her own produce), the recipes are simple and delicious, and the ambiance is just amazing. Many people in the class are longtime vegetarians who are trying to transition to veganism and they still learn something new each time. It’s such a great feeling to work with all these people towards one common goal of health and compassion for ourselves and the planet.

If any of you are Montrealers who would be interested in following this program, click here to visit Anne-Marie’s website and inform yourself. It really is worth every penny, and if you read my last post and saw the progress I’ve made, you’d also agree that there is just no substitution for good nutrition.