February Food Challenge - Week 2

by Rachel

This week was great! We did have dinner out twice, and had some alcohol, but it was all in good fun, and we made a concerted effort to keep it GF and vegan.

Paul has lost 13 pounds since Day 1 - he's doing great getting rid of the extra pounds that came on during his sciatic nerve injury. I haven't lost any weight - but I'm not trying to lose weight. My body really likes where it's at, apparently.

The yay! of the week was the Sesame Peanut Noodles, recipe from Whole Foods. We don't often have cold noodle salad, but we all really enjoyed this - even our 7-year old! Also, the hummus tacos, and the curry tofu tacos - WOW!

The meh... of the week was Paul's order at Native Foods - he got the Bangkok Curry Bowl. When he orders curry, he is expecting a bowl that is almost soupy with curry sauce - it was more like a salad dressing on the rice.

Tuesday AFTERNOON I realized I totally missed the farmer's market on campus - so I skipped out on farmer's market finds this week. But, our friends Vanessa and Shacky gave us a big bag of avocados and they took forever to ripen, but it was worth the wait!

Sunday afternoon we drove up to Julian to see the snow - and we found Menghini Winery. Of course we had to do tasters, and every single wine was outstanding! We went home with a few bottles, and had a chance to play in the snow while we were out there - win!

I also made homemade almond milk and coconut milk this week, spurred on by Yum Universe's awesome post about making homemade milks

almond milk (3c water, 2 dates, 1c almond meal, 1tsp vanilla extract)

coconut milk (3c water, 1c unsweetened shredded coconut, 2 dates)

I used the leftover almond meal to try and make almond crackers - that needs some work lol. I used the leftover coconut as-is - just put it in a container and spoon some into oatmeal, or smoothies, or anything sweet that I'm eating.

straight almond paste - need to use an actual recipe next time

Week 2 Food Journal (Rachel) - February 8-14

Day 8

Breakfast - smoothie - banana, cherries, cocoa powder, water, chia seeds - add protein powder

Snack 1 - tea w/ soymilk, 2 blood oranges

Lunch - leftovers - Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Snack 2 - oskri apricot almond bar

Dinner - out with friends at Native Foods - Sesame Kale Macro Bowl, fries, Vegan Vine Red Wine, New Planet gluten-free beer

Late night snack - Our Daily Red red wine and tortilla chips (ack - mistake)

Day 9

Breakfast - oatmeal - oats, hemp seeds, banana, almond butter, applesauce, and coffee w/ almond milk

Snack 1 - banana, 1/2 coconut creme pie larabar, 2 dates stuff with walnuts for running fuel during morning run

Lunch - baby shower madness! - veggies, fruit, hummus, and some potato chips (sooo many things that I could have had! didn't want to have to write it on this blog so didn't eat it lol)

Dinner - tortilla chips with avocado and salsa, 1/2 cup Panera black bean soup (our son bought it for us so how could we say no?)

Day 10

Breakfast - Big Bowl of Oatmeal - 1c oats, flax, chia, raisins, almonds, blueberries, banana

Snack 1 - tea w/ almondmilk

Lunch - hummus tacos - corn tortillas, hummus, cucumbers, red onion, lettuce, tomato, kalamata olives

Snack 2 - wine / hard cider tastings in Julian!

Dinner - Peas and Thank You Chili Fries Pie with WF cashew sour cream

Dessert - nectarine apple crumble and Julian Cherry Bomb hard cider

Day 11

Breakfast - smoothie - banana, mixed berries, water, chia, hemp - add protein powder

Snack 1 - coffee w/ homemade! almond milk

Lunch - leftovers - chili w/ cashew cream

Snack 2 - Gorilla Munch and cashews

Dinner - Post-Punk Kitchen curry tofu tacos, Menghini Syrah

Day 12

Breakfast - Big Bowl of Oatmeal - 1c oats, walnuts, hemp seeds, applesauce, cinnamon, raspberries

Snack 1 - mango, 2 blood oranges

Lunch - leftovers - curry tofu tacos, add mixed froz veg and salsa

Snack 2 - banana, apple

Dinner - YU French Green Lentil Butternut Squash Soup

Dessert - Chocolate pudding (ish) - coconut milk, cocoa powder, peanut butter, agave, topped with walnuts

Day 13

Breakfast - smoothie - mango, banana, chia - add protein powder

Snack 1 - soy latte, oskri dark chocolate fig bar, grapes

Lunch - leftovers - lentil soup

Snack 2 - almonds, cashews, raisins

Dinner - leftovers - lentil soup (still yum!)

Dessert - Chocolate pudding (ish) again

Day 14

Breakfast - oatmeal - oats, almonds, hemp, raisins, raspberries

Lunch - Roots @ UCSD - Sunflower Fields, Sweet Passage (they must have removed the wheat because it's now listed as a GF item), cup of chili, and a strawberry canteloupe chia chiller drink (homemade, but along the lines of Mama Chia)

Snack 1 - mango, orange

Dinner - WF Sesame Peanut Noodles - used rice noodles, curried tofu

Dessert - popcorn w/ Earth Balance and salt

February Food Challenge - Week 1
February is our Food Challenge Month
Health Starts Here 28-Day Challenge
Yum Universe 30-Day Plant Powerful Challenge