Vegan Challenge - Day Eight

• Weight: N/A
• Meals:
• Breakfast: Overnight Oatmeal (1/2 cup oats, 1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla soy milk, 1 tsp agave nectar, and 1 Tbsp chia seeds; 235 Cal)
• Lunch: Seaweed Salad and 2 Thai style spring rolls (~250 Cal)
• Dinner: Vegan Alfredo with Asparagus (see recipe below; ~475 Cal, depending on how much sauce you use, we ended up only using about 2/3 of the sauce)
• Snacks:
• Cherries (4 oz, yields, 65 Cal)
• Peanut Butter (1 Tbsp, 95 Cal)
• Vegan Oatmeal Cookie Dough with walnuts and craisins (165 Cal, assuming 20 cookies make the whole batch)
• Drinks:
• Coffee with Stevia and few Tbsp of unsweetened vanilla soy (~10 Cal)
• 16 oz Tazo Zen Green Tea (0 Cal)
• 1 can of Diet Dr. Pepper (0 Cal)
• 24 oz water + Peach Mango Mio (0 Cal)
• Multivitamin: Yes (bought more, finally)
• Exercise(s):
• Pilates (50 min)
• Zumba (60 min)
• Thoughts:
• The weekend was harder than I anticipated, although I was able to keep to a vegetarian diet.  I just couldn't justify paying $25 for the buffet to only eat a salad... but I was at least still good about not eating any chicken, pork, or beef!  I also was good about only eating one meal with dairy, not all three meals.  Thank goodness I already prefer my Mexican food without meat!  I can easily go without cheese and/or sour cream on my burrito, especially when there's guacamole in there!  Anyhow, that's just a side note since I didn't post all weekend.  The Vegan Alfredo was good.  I didn't care for the smoked paprika in there, I would just do regular next time (it had an overwhelming hot dog flavor which I attribute to the smoked paprika but may have been the nutritional yeast, not sure yet).  For lunch, I had saved a nice can of Progresso Vegetarian Vegetable soup at work in case of an emergency, but on second inspection of the ingredients, the noodles had eggs in them!  So I ran to the store and got a few things from the sushi-deli.  The seaweed salad was yummy and so were the rolls.  I would have liked avocado in them, though!  They had lettuce, cellophane noodles, and tofu wrapped inside rice paper and were served with a peanut dipping sauce.  Pretty delish, for a last minute decision!  I'll be making my next lunch salad series after the farmer's market tomorrow.  I bought myself a can of (acceptable) soup for tomorrow.  When we got back from Reno, we wanted cookies, so made a batch of Vegan Oatmeal Cookies.  They were good baked, but better raw.  And since there's no eggs in the mix, we decided to just plop a cookie sized lump of batter on a tiny plate for dessert! Yum!

 Vegan Alfredo with Asparagus

Makes 2 Servings (560 Cal per serving)

• 1 Cup Unsweetened Soymilk
• 1/3 Cup Raw, Unsalted Cashews
• 1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
• 3 Tbsp Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
• 2 Tbsp Earth Balance Margarine
• 1 Tbsp Tahini
• 1 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
• 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
• 1/2 tsp Paprika (smoked is awesome)
• 1 Pinch Nutmeg
• 4 Cloves of Garlic, rough chopped or pressed
• Black pepper, to taste
• 10 Leaves Fresh Basil, torn
• Cooking Spray
• 1 Bunch Asparagus, cut on a diagonal into 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 Onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
• 3 oz Whole Wheat Pasta (Spaghetti or Fettuccine)

1. Cook pasta al dente according to package directions.
2. While the pasta is cooking, add the first 12 ingredients (up to the Basil) to a blender and blend until smooth.
3. Sauté the onion in a large skillet sprayed with cooking spray over medium heat for 3 minutes.  Add asparagus and sauté for another 7 minutes. Throw the garlic in for the last 30 seconds to 1 minute.
4. Drain the pasta and return it to the hot empty panalong with the asparagus mixture.  Pour the sauce over, place on medium heat, and stir until heated through. Serve with lots of fresh cracked black pepper and the torn basil.