back pages: Plant-based Diet Days 13 & 14: The Weekend

The weekend was full of cheats, but even with cheating, cutting back on just meat alone (and most oils and dairy) seems to have a really big impact on my weight loss. I am also probably getting healthier just cutting back on red meat (which I ate a lot of) and oil.

I don't know why I keep posting photos of my food because I don't even think they look all that appetizing, but here's some of what I had all weekend.

Saturday Breakfast: "Sausage" breakfast tacos
I used Gimmelean breakfast sausage that is oil-free. Cooked it up with some onions and ate it with a green chile corn tortilla, Cholula hot sauce and scallions. What this taco needed was some roasted potatoes.

The fake sausage was not as bad as I thought it would be because it still had a lot of the "sausage" flavor which I was craving, so it satisfied.

Saturday Dinner: Garlic Mashed with gravy, steamed green beans and grilled corn

I have trying to perfect gravy. This time, sauteed the onions in white wine and veggie broth, put a lot of soy sauce, only a little bit of wheat flour and a corn starch slurry (corn starch with a little bit of water) to thicken up the gravy. I let that simmer and reduce for a long time. The flavor was intense because of the soy sauce so at little goes a long way. Also, to make things easier for me, I microwaved the green beans (which were frozen) and the fresh corn. I then placed the corn on the stove to get the burned parts, which I like.

Sunday Dinner: Mushroom Cacciatore

I used a Rachel Ray recipe which I modified a little and the dish turned out fantastic. I have made enough cacciatore for a family of 10 so I guess I will have cacciatore for breakfast lunch and dinner... for an entire month.

*Modifications: Instead of using a red chile, I used red pepper flakes and I used red peppers instead of cubanelle peppers and I added about two or three tbs. of tomato paste. I also did not use any oil. The portabella mushrooms holds a lot of liquid they release when cooked down. I did not need oil to saute or brown them. Quick tip, do not salt the mushrooms until they've been browned because the salt draws out the liquid and it takes the browning process a lot longer.