Soup and Sandwich Goes Vegan

Vegan, Light, Easy to make gluten-free

This is my favorite lunch on my vegan days-- a veggie wrap with curried red lentil soup. It's quick, easy, and SO GOOD. (Side note: a great trick for eating healthy foods is to plate it the way they would at a restaurant. You feel like you're having a treat.)

Here's how I make the wrap: 1 96% Fat Free Whole Wheat Mission Tortilla (they make the tortillas with vegetable shortening, no animal by-products) or a gluten-free tortilla, 1.5 T hummus (my favorite is Tribe 40 Spice), about 3 torn-up leaves of romaine lettuce, 1/2 C julienned carrots, 6 slices of cucumber. I spread the hummus on the tortilla, place the lettuce all over the hummus, arrange the carrots and cucumbers on one side, sprinkle with black pepper, roll, and slice. I love it because it has tons of flavor, plenty of fiber (so important) and vitamins, whole grains, and great texture. Today I ate half of a wrap with my soup and grapes and was satisfied. I'll have to remember that.

I buy Pacific Naturals Curried Red Lentil Soup at WinCo as often as I can. It's smooth, I can't get enough of curry, it's $2.18 a carton (about 4 servings), annnnd it's only 140 calories. Drooling yet?

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45 Pounds Down

Until recent years I haven't been a veggie fan. I hated them. I would pick out the most common vegetables out of everything. I thought lettuce tasted like dirt, I didn't like textures, etc. Tim has helped me get over a lot of my hang-ups with them, thank goodness for that man.

Over the last few years I have seen people I love suffer from a variety of health problems, most of them related to poor diet. My dad is having a quadruple bypass in a few weeks because three of the major arteries to his heart are 100% blocked. If I had donuts and chocolate milk for breakfast I would be on the road to the same problems. My mom has been struggling with Type 2 Diabetes, care to guess how you control it?

I decided that I need to treat myself better and set an example for my kids. After research, watching several documentaries, doing a 7-day raw vegan cleanse (another post for another day), and talking to some wonderful and knowledgeable friends, I put an eating plan in place. Since having my second child, Emmy, 5 months ago, I have lost 45 pounds. I am now 10 pounds lighter than I was when I got pregnant with her. I still have a journey ahead of me, another 30 until I reach my goal weight, but it gets easier every day.

Since my friends have been asking what my "secrets" are, I have decided to share them with anyone who cares to read them here.

Here's the low-down of what I am doing: 2 days a week I eat vegan, 2 days a week I eat vegetarian, 1 day a week I include lean meat, and I take weekends off (within reason). Eating mostly vegetarian has helped me not only lose weight, but feel SO MUCH BETTER. And I want my friends to, too! Don't get me wrong, I still love eating meat. I have two beautiful steaks in my freezer that I intend to cook on a free day. I just don't eat it nearly as often, and I like it that way. In this blog I will include the recipes that people have been asking for (and those they haven't), where to get things that I'm eating, and the occasional update on my weight loss progress.

I haven't been perfect with my diet, I'll readily admit it. Full disclosure: I have eaten about half of a smaller Ziploc bag of homemade caramel corn and a frosted sugar cookie today. And I LIKED it. But I vow to make my next choice a better one, and I will.

Healthy Holidays!

Love,

Mary