Both my mother and my husband have reminded me in the past few days that I have a blog. I do?! lol So, it has been a pretty hot summer, especially baking a baby in the middle of it. We've mostly been hibernating indoors, avoiding the heat, humidity and the bugs. My cooking has fallen off the wagon almost completely and I have not been the healthiest of individuals in diet nor exercise. (OK confession over!) We have about 6 weeks or so until baby boy is supposed to arrive. I'm not quite ready for two, but I'm definitely ready to be done! One interesting development from pregnancy has been the 'worsening' of my geographic tongue. It's weird... if you've never heard of it, google pictures. I've had it for awhile, but it's become almost permanent and I'm a bit self-conscious about it, so I looked up the causes. Long story short, I decided to try reducing gluten and sugar in our diets--mainly mine. I will tell you that it is darn near impossible to be gf, sugar free and totally plant based. I know some people do it but I don't think I can be one of them. Especially if I ever want to get a dinner invitation from friends again... because who would want to cook for me!!! :) So, everything in moderation.
I introduced fish back into my diet for extra protein for baby. That helps. And I'm not opposed to using eggs either (if they're from a good source). X already eats them. I hate them, personally. I think they smell and taste gross. I'd much rather use egg substitute like flaxseed when baking anyway because it means we can lick the spatula without worrying about salmonella. However, from what I've read, you can't bake tasty gluten free things with the egg substitute.
So that's about where I'm at diet wise. I've done gf for two days and I have to say that the tongue issue has improved! I did have a pretty serious chocolate cake craving yesterday and so I ended up googling a paleo cake recipe and made it. It was AWESOME and we've pretty much eaten it all already. X and I even ate it for breakfast and I didn't feel guilty about it at all because it's so low in sugar and high in protein. Here's the recipe if you're curious.
I subbed maple syrup for the honey because I didn't have any and it worked just fine. I also used less and it was okay that way.
I also made some delicious rice noodles yesterday that were so easy. Here's what I did:
Boil a pot of water. Add the whole package of rice noodles and cook for 2-3 minutes (don't overcook!). In a separate skillet (large one), sauté two cloves of garlic, minced, in sesame oil. Add the cooked noodles, some tamari (okay, I know it has some gluten in it)--perhaps 2-3T, sprinkle cayenne pepper over it, as well as pepper and salt to taste (if the tamari isn't enough). Stir it up and you're done. I'm already craving it again today.
So perhaps this blog won't be totally vegan after all. Sorry! I'll keep posting recipes as I test them out though!
