A Nutritarian Six-Week Holiday Challenge

I'm very excited! Today is day 1 of Dr. Fuhrman's Six-Week Holiday Challenge! I'm all signed up and ready to be faithful to the Eat to Live Program. It runs from November 20th to December 31st. You can join up to and including December 4th. It involves signing up to become a member, which is free for 6 weeks. Then you'll be charged $14.95 per month to continue, but you can cancel any time via e-mail. It's a $45 value because the first 6 weeks are usually $44.95. This free membership also includes Dr. Fuhrman's Vook (internet browser) version of his newly revised edition of Eat to Live. It's pretty cool and includes video clips. I already own it, and can tell you it's great! It put me on the path to really consider what I was putting into by body. Next thing you know I'm a full fledged vegan!

And why wouldn't I be excited about the challenge?! This means I don't have to gain a pound this Christmas and can maintain my 10lb weight loss. Imagine?!

This is just what I needed. I admit I was getting lured away by vegan baking recipes. They often call for a lot of sugar and oil. I've got to get back to eating a super clean wholesome unprocessed plant-based diet! Only then will I get that slim and healthy bod I'm working towards!

If you're not family with Dr. Fuhrman, here's a great introduction to Eat to Live. He also mentions the mistake many vegans make. Watch and find out!

Another reason why I've stopped eating meat

Here in Canada, our Thanksgiving holiday is long gone. Christmas is coming, and turkey is our traditional celebratory meal, but at what price?

Turkeys rescued from slaughter houses
Yesterday, Alicia Silverstone, a fellow vegan, posted the YouTube video at the bottom of this post at her blog, The Kind Life.


I initially cut meat out of my diet for it's health benefits and to avoid disease down the road. I suppose it was inevitable as I traveled the vegan road that I would come to find out just how cruel the meat industry is. Surely God never intended for animals to be treated inhumanely so we could eat them!


How naive I used to be, having visions of the beef I ate coming from a cow that used to live out in a pasture. Not that I ever thought that. The sad thing is that I never thought about it at all.


Some may scoff under the assumption that some animals are stupid and clueless and therefore subject to any kind of treatment we wish to inflict upon them.

If you have a pet, consider this:

"Many people think of turkeys as little more than holiday centerpieces, but turkeys are social, playful birds who enjoy the company of others. They relish having their feathers stroked and like to chirp, cluck, and gobble along to their favorite tunes. Anyone who spends time with them on farm sanctuaries quickly learns that turkeys are as varied in personality as dogs and cats." - Peta.org

The video is hard to watch, but the last half is hopeful because of the work of Farm Sanctuary. Please consider being brave and watching this video, or the one below it. It was never supposed to come to this.


If you'd like a more sanitized version, and I don't blame you if you do, this is a sweet video (for the most part):

Robin Robertson's "Comfort Loaf" = pure bliss

(take a peek inside here)
This arrived in the mail the other day. It's my very first vegan cookbook purchase, Robin Robertson's Vegan on the Cheap. I'm tickled to have it! Someone in one of my healthy eating email groups mentioned one of it's recipes with much fondness: Comfort Loaf. Curious, I did some googling and came to find out that it is one popular cookbook among the meat and dairy free! You can check out Robin's blog here.

Along with this one I also ordered Robin's Vegan Planet. I had to spend a little more to get free shipping after all!

Having the beloved Comfort Loaf recipe now at my disposal, I went right to work. I've only been a vegan for 2 weeks and yet I already had on hand everything the recipe called for, except for pinto beans. I subbed red kidney beans for those. Other than that I followed the recipe to a T.

My naturally non-stick skillet. Using it also includes an upper body workout what with the heaviness of it! Bonus!

Uncooked it looks like it couldn't end up being anything but very tasty!
How'd we like it?

It's amazing. I mean knock your socks off amazing. I want to eat slabs and slabs of it until I'm ill. Seriously, it makes me feel happy. Comfort loaf indeed. Jon wants me to make it EVERY week. He says its the best not-meatloaf he's ever had. Heck I never even had meatloaf this good! We didn't even put anything on it, no gravy, no ketchup, no nothin', it's that good. We can't stop talking about it.

Wanna see it?

Here it is below. It's not the loaf's fault, it was my stupid icky sticky loaf pan that I did grease. I turned the loaf pan upsidedown to gently let it slip out so it could cool. All of the edges stuck to the sticky layer of stuff on my non-stick loaf pan and the innards vacated onto the cooling rack. I don't blame the thing, I would have jumped out too. You see I used to use it to cook potatoes in oil in the oven (hello clogged arteries). The thing is going into the garbage. Shoulda used parchment paper. Jon said he's going to buy me a glass one. I've grown to love glass bakeware.

Totally my fault it looks like this. Old loaf pan is being replaced with a glass one a.s.a.p! No matter what it looks like, it was delicious!
Needless to say, I'm extremely happy to have this cookbook in my collection. Cheap and super tasty meals for the whole family? What more could I ask for!

Very Yummy Salad Dressing Recipe

Not much to write, and nothing to show you, except this link below which will lead you to a recipe for a very yummy and easy vinaigrette. I combined everything using my electric hand mixer which really blended things very well. Hours after making it the oil and vinegar etc. hadn't separated much. Check it out!

Better Than Bottled Balsamic Vinaigrette

Lilibeth's Easy Vegan Cornbread Stuffing

by the time I thought of taking a photo, there wasn't much left!
Lilibeth's Easy Vegan Cornbread Stuffing

What a great taste cornbread gives stuffing! I had no idea!

1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup celery (including inner leaves), finely chopped
1 Tbsp oil
2 half-inch thick slices whole wheat bread*
1/2 a square pan of Dr. Neal Barnard's Cornbread (or other vegan cornbread)
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp. dried sage
1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp. ground thyme
1/4 tsp. granulated onion
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 cup hot vegan chicken broth (I used a vegan bouillion cube in water)

*I used homemade bread machine bread

Preheat oven 200 for lightly toasting the bread.

Measure all herbs and salt into a small bowl. Toss with your hand to blend together. Set aside.

Prepare your broth and set aside.

Cut off crust from whole wheat bread. Cut each slice into 4 long sections. Slice cornbread in similar fashion. You basically want them to be ready to lightly dry in the oven and it helps to have them cut up somewhat.

Spread on cookie sheet. I actually used one of those pizza pans with holes in it. "Toast" them until moderately dry, but not to the point where it actually becomes toasted. The cornbread may need 5 or 10 minutes extra.

Turn oven up to 350.

Cut these into little 1/2" cubes. This should give you a little more than 4 cups. Place in large mixing bowl. Toss with the herb mixture.

Saute the onions and celery in the oil until onions are transparent. Add to bread mixture and mix well.

Adding the broth: I ended up using about 3/4 cup. I pour some in, blend, and continue this until it seems moist but not too moist. Mix everything together well. I let this mixture sit for over an hour for the bread to soak up the flavours, but this was only due to the fact that I had it all ready too early for supper! The cornbread kind of "dissolved" into everything, but this gave the whole things a wonderful cornbread'ish taste!

Place all in a greased, or better yet a parchment paper lined 8x8 square pan. Bake 25 minutes covered, and 10 min. or so covered. You want it to start to look golden on top. You can bake it longer if you prefer a drier stuffing.

Kitchen Workouts for Busy People!

Lately I find it so hard to fit in time for a good workout. It dawned on me the other day that I could fit in some exercise right in my kitchen. I gotta say, it really suits my life right now! No more guilt and frustration.

I have a set of foam covered dumbbells that I keep around the corner in the dining room. I don't always need them, as there are lots of exercises that simply use your body weight. Squats, lunges, pushups on the counter, leg lifts, glute lifts, etc. I also have a mat laid out in my sitting room for the stuff I need to do on the floor. No matter what I do though, I feel like I'm sneaking in a workout in between living my life and that's what I love!

Here are a couple of great videos to get you started:



This momma is 6 months preggo...what a woman!

Lilibeth's Low Fat Vegan Chocolate Cake

Mmmmmm, vegan chocolate cake! No eggs, no dairy, no vegan margarine. Whole wheat flour even makes an appearance.

I chose to use both unsweetened applesauce and mashed banana in my recipe. It may seem odd to utilize 2 different types of pureed fruit, but the applesauce subs in for some of the oil, and the banana is a substitute for eggs and helps with moistness. Cornstarch has been used as an egg substitute also, a bit of insurance if you will!


It calls for half the sugar of most recipes and is sweetened by the fruit which provides extra nutrition. Also, using a good portion of fruity sweetness allows for increasing the amount of cocoa! Always a plus!


Lilibeth's Low Fat Vegan Chocolate Cake

Like many cakes, they taste better after 24 hours. Make this a day ahead if you can.

DRY INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup white flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
4 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder

WET INGREDIENTS
1 ripe banana
2 Tbsp. almond or rice milk
3 Tbsp. oil (I use canola)....I may add an extra tsp. next time
1/2 cup organic cane sugar (or white sugar)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Grease or line with parchment paper an 8x8 square pan.

Blend dry ingredients together. Tip: I often sift the cocoa if it has any lumps.

Mash banana, leaving the least amount of chunks possible, and put into large bowl. Add 2 Tbsp. almond milk. Using hand mixer, blend these together well. Add oil, sugar, applesauce, and vanilla extract. Blend these together with mixer.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and gently blend the two together by hand just until combined.

If you have kids, make sure you let them lick the beaters, spoon and bowl clean! It's one of the bonuses of vegan baking!
Pour into pan and spread evenly. Mine was done in 20 minutes, so check it to see if a toothpick comes out clean then. I also covered it with foil midway through.

Let cool, cut into bars, eat....unless you just can't eat cake without frosting. I've included a bonus Vegan Chocolate Frosting recipe below.

frosting was an afterthought and since the cake was already cut up, it stayed in the bowl to be used at will.
Lilibeth's Vegan Chocolate Frosting

I asked my hubby to taste test this on a piece of chocolate cake but he was already quite stuffed from our supper. He did stick a finger in the bowl to give it a little taste. He suddenly had room for more cake and scrambled to get himself a piece to slather some icing onto. He said the icing is amazing, and it's one of the best I've ever tasted.

Yeild: 1 cup (let's try to be modest, but double if you have to!)

1/4 cup oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa
3/4 cups icing sugar
2 Tbsp almond, rice, or hemp milk (plus a little more if needed)

Measure out the oil, vanilla extract, and cocoa into a bowl. Mix with a hand mixer until well blended. Add icing sugar and blend. It will end up being crumbly. Add almond milk and whip. You'll probably need more, just keep adding by the teaspoonful. You don't want it too thick or it'll make a mess of the cake when you try to spread it.

If you want to test it out first, or you eat some unfrosted cake and decide to indulge in adding frosting, here are the quantities for a half batch:

2 Tbsp cup oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp cocoa
6 Tbsp icing sugar
1 Tbsp almond, rice, or hemp milk (plus a little more if needed)