Anti-Headache Diet Days 4 and 5 October 5, 2012

I think I am starting to get the hang of this and have spent the past couple days almost completely headache free, and what little headache I did get was very minor in comparison with the migraines I have been getting. Which happened just in time for my insurance to finally approve my having “just twelve pills a month” of the new migraine meds my doctor wants me to take if I feel a migraine coming on. I really hope to not have anywhere near twelve migraines a month with all the diet changes I am working on.

Speaking of diet, what fun things did I eat the last couple days? Not much, really, but here are a couple photos of my lunches from yesterday and today.

Brown rice pasta with tomato sauce and veggies.

That dish is brown rice pasta with tomato sauce, red peppers, mushrooms and carrots. It was OK, the brown rice pasta got mushy when I reheated it and I didn’t cook the peppers long enough, but it had substance at least.

Garden vegetable soup

This is a bowl of the garden vegetable soup I picked up at Whole Foods. It was packed with veggies, and the ingredient label said it had soy in it, but I think it was a very little bit, and it was from soybeans, not soy protein isolate.

So, even if my meals aren’t exciting, at least this diet seems to be working.

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Anti-Headache Diet Days 2 and 3 October 3, 2012

The anti-headache diet sucks. There is no other way to put it. It sucks to end up in enough pain that it is necessary to do a detox/elimination diet, and it sucks to not be able to eat any of my favorite foods. The second day was rough, I wasn’t eating enough because I didn’t feel good through most of the day, and didn’t feel like eating. By the end of the day I was starving, and needed to eat, and decided I wanted Indian food.

I made the decision that I would fudge the rules a bit on the list of foods I can and can’t have, and ordered a dish with chickpeas (I am not supposed to have legumes) and ate the white rice that came with my order, instead of making the brown rice that is allowed. The rest of the ingredients are on the allowed list, so over all I didn’t do too terrible with the cheating. I ended up with aloo chole, aloo gobi, okra masala, and rice. The aloo chole quickly disappeared, so the picture below is part of the leftovers that I had tonight.

Lessons so far from being on this diet include the fact that I must eat more, and that following the list of allowed foods to the letter may not be the best idea for me. It is still a work in progress, but I do know that my diet is in much better shape today than it was a week ago.

Spaghetti Squash “Pasta” October 1, 2012

Welcome to Vegan Mofo 2012! It is that time of the year, where vegan bloggers all over the world commit to blogging about vegan food at least 20 times during the month of October. I had planned on showing you my daily creations, and showing that being vegan isn’t that hard.

Now, I still don’t think that being vegan is hard, but my migraine headaches made a vengeful return two weeks ago, so I have decided to make October the month I get well, and get pain free. This means that I am following Dr. Fuhrman’s “anti-headache plan” from his book, Eat to Live. This means that my food may not be very interesting for the next couple weeks when I am basically limited to brown rice, green salads, steamed greens, unsalted tomato sauce, limited servings of starchy veggies, oatmeal, and fruit  (grapes, pears, melon and apples).

So, my dinner tonight was a half of a baked spaghetti squash and a half a cup of unsalted tomato sauce. Basically, you microwave the squash for a minute to “pre-heat”, then cut it in half. Take out all of the seeds and membranes and place it flesh side down on a pan with about a half cup of water in it, and bake it for 20-25 minutes (your oven may behave better than mine and it will take less time). You are looking for it to be fork tender, that is when it is done. Take a fork and scrape the flesh out, it will come out in strips that look like noodles. Pour tomato sauce over it, and serve.

Spaghetti squash and tomato sauce.

September Vegan Food Swap Reveal September 30, 2012

It is that time again, time to reveal the fun items I received in this month’s food swap. I can’t believe this is the 6th time I have done this, it has been such fun. If you want to join us, there is one more swap in 2012 before we take a hiatus for the holidays, just head on over to the registration page and sign on up!

This month I sent a box to April at Beyond the Small Gate that included fancy peanut butter, candy, and veggie chips.

My box came from Amberly at The Good Life and boy did she do good. She is from Portland, OR and she went with a “made in Oregon” theme. I received NW Kale Chips, blueberry jam, Portland Ketchup Company ketchup, and chocolate coconut peanut butter. I have tried the kale chips and love them. I opened the peanut butter almost immediately, and put it on toast. I have to say, I was expecting it to taste more like chocolate, but tasting like peanut butter isn’t a bad thing at all. I haven’t tried the jam or ketchup yet, but I am sure they will be wonderful.

September Swap Box Contents

Head over to The Verdant Life to see what the other people who participated in the swap received.

Vegan Things I Ate While in Boston September 4, 2012

I went to grad school in Boston, and hadn’t been back since 2009 when I graduated. Since several of my friends still live there and Boston is one of my favorite places in the world, and I scored a great deal on airfare, it was a perfect time to go back this past June. Now, when I was in grad school I wasn’t vegan yet, or even vegetarian (except for in the dining hall, the veg option was often the least disgusting thing on the menu) so I had all new culinary territory to cover. I didn’t take pictures of everything I had, since I had a few cheese free pizzas and large salads, but here are a few pictures of the more notable things I ate.

On the plane on the way to Boston I read the Veg News article on vegan ice cream (can’t find a link right now, but it is in the August 2012 issue on page 63) and discovered that JP Licks had non-dairy options. So, the first order of business was to drag my friend, T, to the Harvard Square location for sorbet. It was really good, and the woman behind the counter decided to charge me for only one topping instead of two because she said I really didn’t have that much fruit, which was nice of her. From the looks of their website, they have even better vegan options right now (soy chai, yum!) so if you are near by, go and tell me how it is!

Berry sorbet with fresh fruit toppings

After our ice cream lunch, T and I wandered around Harvard Square for a while, then took the train back across to continue wandering around Downtown Crossing and the Boston Common. At the Common we came across one of the Clover Food Lab food trucks and decided to have a snack.

I had a chickpea fritter, rosemary french fries and some kind of lemonade (I really should write these posts in a more timely manner, then I would remember the flavor). The chickpea fritter was very flavorful and super filling, I was almost full before I even reached the chickpea part, the pita was so full of vegetables and tahini sauce. The fries were crispy and since they were tossed with fresh rosemary as we watched, the flavors were still present and the fries were still piping hot.

One handed shot of the lemonade.

Rosemary french fries and iced tea, held by my very patient friend (hanging out with a food blogger can be a bit exhausting to those not used to documenting everything they eat).

Chickpea fritter

I had Clover Food Lab again a couple days later at the South Station location with another friend and it was just as delicious, even though they were out of tahini sauce the second time.

The next day, another friend from grad school came in to Boston from New Hampshire for the day, and we wandered the city, shopping and taking pictures and catching up on the last three years of our lives. The morning started with a quick stop at a cafe called The South End Buttery in, you guessed it, the South End near my friend’s apartment for breakfast. The menu wasn’t terribly vegan friendly, but I had them modify a berry smoothie for me, taking the yogurt out and using soy milk instead.

Slightly blurry berry smoothie

We ended up having lunch at the relatively new Wagamama in the Prudential Center in downtown Boston.  Wagamama had several vegan options on the menu, and several more items that could be made vegan. I started with the yasai gyoza (vegetable dumplings) and my friends had the summer rolls.

Yasai Gyoza

Summer rolls

For my main dish I had the moyashi soba, which was basically a doctored ramen, but much better, if that makes any sense. I don’t remember what my friends had for their main, but they weren’t vegan, so no pictures.

Moyashi soba

The next day I went to the North End for yoga, and lunch. I love the North End, there are so many great little Italian restaurants and I walked up Hanover street reading menus until I found a place with no crowd and a vegan sounding pasta dish on their menu. I don’t remember the name of the place, but they made me a heap of pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil. It was so simple, but perfect, especially with the glass of Sam’s summer that I accompanied it with. This might have been my favorite meal, most likely due to the ambience, and the sunny window I was sitting in (remember, this was June and this Seattle girl hadn’t seen proper sun in months).

Pasta with tomatoes and basil

Overall I was pleased with my choices, but wish I had tried a few other places, but I couldn’t try everything. To see what is on my list for next time, read the posts about vegan eats in Boston by Vegan Miam, and Helen from Vegtastic.

Vegan Food Swap Reveal- August 2012 August 31, 2012

I participated once again in the Vegan Food Swap that Cat at The Verdant Life has been hosting for the last 5 months. This month I was matched with Kara, who doesn’t have a blog. I told her that I liked decaf teas, dark chocolate and interesting spices.

Little did I know that Kara is quite the tea aficionado and had several kinds in her collection to share with me. I need to get a diffuser so that I can use the loose tea leaves. She also sent me a bar of one of my favorite chocolates from Trader Joe’s, some veggie quinoa mix, a can of chili, a curry from Trader Joe’s, some veggie bouillon and some black bean soup mix. She also included scans of three of her favorite recipes for me to try. I am excited to have some new recipes to make and some new kinds of tea to keep me warm in my freezing cold office in the upcoming chilly months.

August Swap Box Goodies

Recipes for vegetable kebabs, stuffed tomatoes and vegetable curry

Kara did a great job, don’t you think she should start a blog too?

I sent a box to Rachel, who also doesn’t have a blog. My box to her was full of my favorite items found in one of my favorite local grocery stores. I included a bean mix, candy bars, veggie chips, and chai tea among other finds. I didn’t take a picture of any of it though, my month was a bit busy with a lot of traveling to my parent’s house for family events so I simply forgot to document the box I sent in all the hustle.

Do you want to join us for the September swap? Head on over to the registration page at The Verdant Life to sign up.

 

 

 

Vegan Food Swap Reveal July 2012 July 30, 2012

I did the food swap hosted by Cat at The Verdant Life again this month. This time more non-bloggers participated, and I was assigned a non-blogger named Anne to send a box to. Since she lives more than 100 miles away from a Trader Joe’s I decided to send her a box full of my current favorite treats from TJs. I bought cookie butter, seaweed snacks, sea salt chocolate covered almonds and more. I forgot to take a picture though, so you will just have to imagine the goodness.

I was sent a box by another non-blogger named Tiana. She sent me a box full of some goodies from Trader Joe’s as well, including the seaweed snacks I had sent to Anne, funny enough.

She included some vegan cookies from Trader Joe’s I had never seen before, some pomegranate jelly, the aforementioned seaweed snacks, a roasted brown rice green tea that sounds interesting, a bag of cinnamon and agave sweet potato tortilla chips that sound amazing. The last item was a bag of peanut butter filled pretzels that I opened about ten seconds after opening the package. They were the perfect snack to eat while watching world class athletes complete at the Olympics.

If you want to participate in the swap next month sign up here, if you are in the United States. If you are in Canada, sign up here. If you are somewhere else in the world, start your own swap! Don’t worry if you aren’t a blogger, you can always guest post on Cat’s blog, or on the blog of the blogger you are paired with.

Thanks Tiana, I love the treats!